How we vet backlinks: the 7-point checklist we actually use

Why most link vendors fail this

Cheap link packages are cheap because the vetting is skipped. A DR-only filter is trivial to game: private blog networks (PBNs) can inflate Domain Rating without ever earning a single real visitor. We've inherited enough penalised domains from clients who bought "50 links for $99" to know exactly what that shortcut costs later.

So every prospect a link could be placed on goes through the same 7 checks before an outreach email is ever sent.

The 7 criteria

• DR 30+ / DA 25+: Ahrefs Domain Rating or Moz Domain Authority as a floor, never the whole story.
• Real organic traffic: 1,000+ monthly visitors verified in Ahrefs. High DR with zero traffic is the single clearest PBN signal.
• Niche or geo relevance: topical overlap with your industry, or genuine UAE/Gulf relevance for local link value.
• Do-follow by default: unless you specifically want no-follow diversity, and we never hide a no-follow placement inside your do-follow count.
• Indexed in Google: checked before delivery, and re-checked afterward.
• Clean outbound profile: no gambling, adult, or spam links leaving the same page, which risk guilt-by-association penalties.
• Real editorial site: would a working journalist consider pitching this site? If not, we skip it.

What this costs you

Slower delivery, mostly. A vetted guest post takes 14 to 30 days depending on the publication's editorial calendar, nowhere near as fast as a marketplace checkout. The trade is that every link in your report is still standing (and still helping) a year later, rather than quietly dropped after a Google spam update.

How you see it

Every prospect that passes the 7 checks lands in your live Google Sheet before we reach out: DR, traffic, niche notes, proposed anchor. You approve or decline before a single email goes out. Full detail on the Link Building page.