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How do people identify good backlink and guest post vendors/platforms | PageRank SEO
Posted by on March 17, 2026 at 11:50 pmI received another list of "backlinks for sale" that I normally bin but decided to take a peek at what was on offer these days.
It takes a good few steps to evaluate a good backlink and looking at the data provided – none of it was very useful at all.
Most of it seems to revolve around estimated traffic (arguably the least accurate of the guesstimates by SEO SERP tools) and domain ratings/scores.
Some of them looked really interesting but when I went to dig into whether or not I'd even consider asking – everything fell apart.
A lot of people also say that they've been buying backlinks – and that it hasn't been useful – which I can totally see. Some of the link placements on offer wouldn't get you a signal if you broadcast it in Times Square
Are people who buy links properly educated?
I'm going to go ahead and guess that 50% are not? Is that fair? Too high?
Given that almost every conversation about backlinks still revolves around DA – I wanted to kick start a debate – which I'm sure will garner some great feedback (and some spam, which will be blocked immediately)
What type do you go for?
- Guest Posts/Articles
- Link Placements
What do you look for?
How do you identify good link opportunities?
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1 Reply
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Join some subreddits to exchange links for free. Do yourself a favor and don’t worry about DA and DR build relationships instead
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You’re not wrong. Most “backlink lists” are basically selling metrics, not actual value.
DA/DR + “estimated traffic” is where people get misled. Those are screening metrics at best, not decision criteria. You can find plenty of DR60+ sites that pass zero real signal because they’re just link farms with inflated metrics.
The main disconnect I see is people buying links without thinking about *why Google would care about that link in the first place*.
What actually matters (in practice):
1. Topical relevance
If the site isn’t in your niche (or at least adjacent), the link is weak no matter what the DR says. A DR80 lifestyle site linking to a SaaS landing page is usually worthless.
2. Real traffic (not just estimated)
I’ll check:
– Does the site rank for anything meaningful?
– Are pages actually getting impressions/clicks (Ahrefs/SEMrush is fine directionally, but I’ll sanity check in SERPs)
3. Indexation + crawl behavior
A lot of paid links sit on pages Google barely crawls. If the page doesn’t get indexed or refreshed, the link won’t move anything.
4. Outbound link profile
If every article has 5–10 keyword-rich outbound links to random sites, it’s a link farm. Doesn’t matter how “clean” the site looks.
5. Editorial integrity
Would this link exist without payment? If the answer is obviously no, you’re in risky territory.
6. Placement quality
In-content, contextually relevant links > author bio / footer / random insertions
Guest posts vs link insertions:
– Guest posts can work if the site has real editorial standards
– Link insertions can work if the page already ranks and the link actually fits
– Both are garbage if the site exists to sell links
On your question about education: I’d say most people buying links are optimizing for *metrics they can see*, not *signals Google actually uses*. So yeah, a large percentage are doing it wrong.
The best links I’ve seen still come from:
– legit digital PR
– niche sites with actual audiences
– partnerships / relationships
– content that earns links naturally (rare, but still the strongest)
Buying links can work, but only when you’re basically filtering out 90% of what’s for sale and treating it like media buying, not SEO shortcuts.
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Guest posts vs link insertions doesn’t matter much to me.
Context + relevance > format.
A naturally placed link inside a relevant ranking page beats a “fresh” guest post on a dead blog any day.
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