Buying Backlinks for SEO? Ask These Seven Questions First

Links from other websites can help people discover your business and help search engines understand the web. Good coverage from a relevant publication, an industry association or a genuine supplier can be valuable. But buying a fixed number of links each month is a different proposition from earning independent editorial references.

There is a real UK market for packaged links. When checked on 4 November 2026, publicly advertised examples ranged from a small monthly package priced by the number of links and third party domain scores to much larger packages with dozens of placements. These listings demonstrate how the product is sold, not whether any particular provider delivers poor work or violates a policy. The useful question is what a business owner can verify before spending.

1. What exactly is the deliverable?

Ask for a sample report containing the full address of the page carrying each link, the page it points to on your site, the surrounding paragraph, the publication date and whether the placement is expected to remain live. “Ten backlinks” could mean ten independent editorial articles, ten directory entries, or ten links across pages of one website. Those are not interchangeable outcomes.

Some publicly advertised UK packages explicitly sell a monthly number of links and specify minimum Domain Rating scores. That is useful transparency about the product being offered, but the score alone cannot establish relevance or commercial value. A link from a genuine local organisation whose readers might need your services may be more useful than a high scoring website with no meaningful connection to your market.

2. Why would that website link to you?

Read the actual article. Does it provide something useful to its audience? Is the link a natural reference to relevant expertise, a useful resource or an identifiable business relationship? Or is your link inserted into a generic article that could have promoted any company? Ask the provider to explain the editorial reason for the placement.

Legitimate offsite work includes public relations, industry partnerships, useful business listings and outreach that earns real editorial interest. The concern is not that the work happens away from your own website. It is when the primary purpose of manufactured links is to manipulate rankings rather than help readers.

3. Is this a paid placement, and how is it labelled?

Google's published spam policies distinguish ordinary advertising and sponsorship from links bought to pass ranking credit. Its guidance says paid or sponsored links should be qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Buying or selling links primarily to manipulate search rankings is listed as link spam. A provider should be willing to explain whether a placement is paid, what link attributes it uses and why the approach is consistent with Google's policies.

A paid article can still have value as advertising or referral traffic. What should not be assumed is that paying for a followed link guarantees an organic ranking benefit. Ask whether you are buying exposure to a real audience or a purported ranking signal, and insist that the distinction is clear.

4. What does the domain score actually prove?

Domain Authority and Domain Rating are third party metrics, not Google ranking scores. They can help compare websites within a tool, but a threshold such as “DR 40+” is not a quality certificate. Inspect the site's subject, authorship, real audience, outbound links, recent articles and whether its pages appear useful independently of selling placements.

Also check whether a package's “traffic” figure is an estimate for the whole domain or measured visits to the particular article. A popular domain does not mean a new article on it will receive readers. Request the source, date and scope of any traffic figure.

5. Are the links likely to survive the contract?

Find out who controls the publishing websites, whether placements can be edited or removed, whether replacements are offered, and what happens when payments stop. Ask whether your company will retain the article and any associated rights. “Permanent” is not a guarantee that an independent publisher will remain online forever.

Keep a copy of the agreed placement list and review it occasionally. If a provider cannot show where work was published, it is difficult to judge either the delivery or the risk.

6. What will you measure beyond the number of links?

Start with the services and locations that matter commercially. Look at relevant Search Console queries and landing pages before and after the work, allowing for normal fluctuations and other changes. Consider genuine referral visits and qualified enquiries where tracking permits. Neither a rising backlink count nor an improved third party authority score proves that the package generated customers.

For a more complete view, our website enquiry tracking test shows how to check the journey from a visit to a real conversation. Our guide to first page ranking guarantees explains why an attractive SEO metric is not the same as a business result.

7. Is this the right next investment?

Before committing to recurring link purchases, check whether your website already explains its services clearly, has accessible and indexable pages, links related pages together and makes it easy to enquire. If the core pages are weak, paying to send more authority or visitors towards them may be a poor priority. Sometimes the best SEO work is on your own website first.

Ask for a written recommendation that compares link activity with other possible improvements. A reputable supplier should be able to say when links are not the most urgent issue, and should not imply that every business needs a monthly backlink quota.

The seven question buyer check

Before signing, ask for: a sample placement report; the editorial reason for each type of link; a clear explanation of paid link attributes; evidence behind authority and traffic metrics; ownership and removal terms; a measurement plan based on useful searches and enquiries; and a reasoned comparison with improvements to your own website. If the answers are vague, do not buy on the strength of the link count alone.

If you would like to review where your current SEO budget is going, see our SEO Growth approach. We focus on relevant search opportunities, practical website improvements and work that can be explained and reviewed. If your site needs a stronger foundation, our website design service may also be relevant.

Sources and further reading

Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google Web Search, particularly the link spam section, accessed 4 November 2026.

Google Search Central, A reminder on qualifying links and our link spam update, published 26 July 2021.

Examples of publicly advertised UK link packages reviewed 4 November 2026: Click Intelligence package information and Bulldog Digital Media package information. These are examples of published package structures, not findings of misconduct.