Backlink Buying Checklist: 20 Points Before You Pay

Before buying backlinks, confirm 20 points in five blocks: goal and page, budget and timeline, provider, link quality and contract with reporting. If several critical items fail, postpone the purchase. Backlinks speed up pages that already deserve to rank; they do not fix a weak page and do not guarantee a position. The basics are in what backlinks are.

Quick summary

• Buying well starts before the provider: with a page that deserves to rank, a calculated link target and a baseline in Search Console.
• Google treats links bought to influence ranking as a violation, unless they are qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Decide with the risk on the table.
• A good provider explains the method, shows selection criteria, delivers verifiable URLs and does not promise a position.
• Buy a small batch, measure at 30, 60 and 90 days, and only then expand.
• This checklist works for any provider, from any country or sales model.

How to read this guide

If you are a beginner, start with the short five-question version and then go through the 20 points in order. If you already work in SEO, use the 20 points as a due diligence script and go to the "For SEO professionals" callouts and the signals table.

What is the short version of the checklist?

If you only have two minutes, answer these five questions. A "no" to any of them is a reason to pause the purchase.

• Does the page that will receive the link deserve to rank today (it answers the search, is up to date and is indexed)?
• Do you know roughly how many referring domains you are missing compared with the competition?
• Does the provider explain how it obtains links and show the selection criteria for sites?
• Will you receive URLs, anchors and dates to check each link, with a replacement policy in writing?
• Do you accept Google's policy risk and the absence of any guarantee of position?

In plain English: buying backlinks is like buying a used car. You ask for the history, check a sample, look at the invoice and know how much you are willing to spend before you walk into the lot. Whoever buys without that pays the price of enthusiasm.

What are the 20 points to review before paying?

There are 20 points in five blocks. For each one the rule is the same: if you cannot answer with a verifiable fact, you are not ready for that step.

Block 1: goal and target page

1. Goal written in one sentence. For example: "move page X from position 12 to page one for search Y." "Gaining authority" without a defined page is not a goal.
2. The target page deserves to rank. It answers the search intent, is up to date, shows as indexed in Search Console and receives internal links. A link to a weak page is wasted money.
3. Distance calculated. Compare the referring domains of page-one competitors with yours. The method is in how many backlinks do I need.
4. Baseline recorded. Note impressions, clicks and position for the last four to eight weeks in the Search Console Performance report before the first link.

Block 2: budget and expectations

5. A test budget, not a bet. Define a small first batch (one to three links), measure, and only then decide whether to expand.
6. Clear total cost per link. Ask for the final price, what is included (text, publication, report), currency and payment method. Compare with the ranges in how much a backlink costs in Brazil and be wary of very low prices driven by volume.
7. Realistic timeline. Add the provider's delivery, Google's crawl time and the reassessment: weeks to months. See how long it takes for a backlink to work.
8. Policy risk consciously accepted. Understand what Google says and define who in the company decides. The summary is in is buying backlinks safe?.

Block 3: provider

9. It explains how it gets the links. Editorial outreach, direct partnerships, owned sites? Google's guidance for hiring an SEO says to be careful with companies that are secretive and do not explain what they plan to do.
10. Selection criteria in writing. Minimum authority, real organic traffic, related topic, language and country.
11. Verification by sample. It lets you check the traffic and history of a sample, or at least of each link delivered.
12. No private blog network. Ask directly. To understand why this matters, read about PBNs: how they work, risks and alternatives.
13. Zero promise of position or of a timeline to the top. Google states that no one can guarantee first place and advises looking for someone else if there is such a guarantee.

Block 4: link quality

14. Link inside editorial content. In the body of a useful text, not in a footer, sidebar, partners page or comment.
15. Site with real organic traffic, a related topic and the same language. DR alone is the easiest metric to inflate. Follow the guide in how to identify quality backlinks.
16. Anchor plan. Define who chooses the anchor text (the clickable words of the link) and mix brand, URL and partial terms, without repeating the same commercial keyword. Details in anchor text: types, ratios and mistakes.
17. Agreed rel attribute. Know whether the link will go out with sponsored, nofollow or no attribute, and what that changes. The comparison is in dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and UGC.

Block 5: contract and reporting

18. Permanence and replacement in writing. How long the link stays up, what happens if it is removed and how quickly it is replaced. As a benchmark, Contentor offers free replacement for 6 months; any provider should state its own period just as clearly.
19. Report with verifiable data. Source URL, target URL, anchor, publication date and rel attribute for each link. Screenshots alone are not enough.
20. Record and plan B. Keep the list of purchased links and define what you will do if nothing moves in 90 days. Google treats the disavow tool as an advanced feature, to be used with caution and only in specific cases, according to the official disavow links page.

In plain English: a sitewide link is one that appears on every page of a site, like the same poster pinned on every wall. Instead of looking like a specific recommendation, it looks like repeated advertising, which is why it is one of the most questioned formats.

For SEO professionals: add three technical checks to points 14 to 17. First, confirm in the source code that the link is in the rendered HTML and whether there is any rel beyond what was agreed. Second, look at the referring-domains chart of the publishing site: sharp spikes and drops suggest mass selling. Third, see where else that page links (the neighborhood) and whether the site mixes unrelated topics, which is a sign of link selling.

What signals separate a trustworthy provider from a risky one?

The clearest signals are transparency about method, measurable criteria and no promise of rankings. The table shows the contrast on the most critical points, with the rule of thumb that two red flags already justify a hard conversation before paying.

Point	Green flag	Red flag
9. How it gets links	Described process (outreach, partnerships)	"Secret method" or "fully automatic"
10. Selection criteria	Clear numbers and rules	"Only high-authority sites," with no criteria
13. Promise	No guarantee of position	"Top 3 in 30 days"
14. Link position	Body of a relevant text	Footer, sidebar or sitewide
18. Replacement	Period and conditions in writing	"Lifetime guarantee" with no text
19. Report	Verifiable URLs, anchor, date and rel	Only screenshots or a "DR report"

To go deeper from point 9 onward, the post 10 questions to ask your backlink provider before paying gives good and bad answers for each question.

For SEO professionals: Google defines as link spam, among other examples, buying or selling links for ranking and distributing advertorials with links that pass credit or with optimized anchors, according to its spam policy. The same policy says that having paid links is not a violation when they are qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored", which is what the documentation on qualifying links recommends for paid links. The trade-off is yours: qualifying reduces the risk and also the direct ranking effect.

Hypothetical example: a checklist that prevented a rushed purchase

Hypothetical example, with a fictional company. "Alpha Home," an online store for custom kitchens, wants to buy 5 links for its "custom kitchen cabinets" category with a $245 budget.

Going through the checklist, it realizes it fails three points. On point 2, the category has only a few lines of text and does not show as indexed in Search Console. On point 3, page-one competitors have a median of 14 referring domains and Alpha Home has 2. On point 4, it never recorded the page's impressions and position.

Instead of paying, the store improves the category text, adds FAQs and internal links, requests indexing, records the baseline and only then buys a test batch of 2 links, saving the rest of the budget for after the 60-day reading. The checklist did not guarantee a ranking, but it avoided spending on a page that was not ready yet.

When is it better not to buy backlinks?

It is better not to buy when the target page is weak, when you cannot measure the result or when the provider does not answer the checklist questions. It is also wise to wait if the site is very new and does not yet have content to receive the links. In those cases, money goes further on content, internal links and structured data.

Remember that backlinks can also be earned without paying: with useful content, original data and relationships. The post on guest post or paid backlink compares the paths.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I spend on my first batch of backlinks?

The amount depends on your budget, but the rule is to start small: one to three links, on pages that already have impressions. That lets you measure the effect at 30, 60 and 90 days before expanding. Spending everything at once prevents you from knowing what worked and raises the risk of acquisition spikes.

Can you buy backlinks with no risk?

No. Google treats links bought to manipulate ranking as a violation unless they are qualified. The risk decreases with editorial links, real sites, a gradual pace and varied anchors, but it does not disappear. That is why point 8 of the checklist asks for a conscious decision, not a promise that everything will work out.

Do I need a contract to buy backlinks?

Not always a formal contract, but the terms should be in writing: delivery time, link permanence, replacement policy, type of report and what is not promised. It can be the checkout terms or an email exchange. What matters is that you can consult it later.

Should paid links have rel sponsored?

Google asks for rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" on paid links and says that having these links qualified does not violate the policy. The effect is that they should not pass ranking credit. It is up to you to weigh this: part of the value comes from visits and discovery, not only from PageRank.

What should I do after buying the first batch?

Check each URL delivered, record the date, anchor and attribute, and track the page in Search Console. Compare equal periods at 30, 60 and 90 days. If something moves, repeat the method on another page; if nothing changes, diagnose before buying more, following the guide in how long it takes for a backlink to work.

Next step

With the checklist in hand, the next step is to talk to the provider: use the 10 questions to ask before paying. If you want to see how a service focused on Portuguese-language sites answers these points, Contentor publishes its official facts: permanent, contextual links on Brazilian sites, delivery in 7 to 14 business days and, in the standard niche, $49 per link in packages of 1, 3, 5 or 10 links. Compare it with other providers using the same checklist.

Read also:

• How to buy quality backlinks: the complete guide
• Is buying backlinks safe? Risks and best practices
• SEO, AEO and GEO glossary