Updated 21 October 2026
A backlink is worth buying when the site has a clear topic that fits yours, real and steady organic traffic, recent articles written for people, and pages that Google has indexed. A high Domain Authority or Domain Rating score on its own proves very little.
Below is the 10-point check we use, in the order we use it. Most sites fail in the first five minutes, so you don’t need paid tools to rule out the bad ones.
What makes a backlink “good”
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. A good one does at least one of three things: it sends you visitors, it puts your name in front of the right readers, or it helps search engines trust your site. A bad one does none of these, and some can count against you under Google’s spam policies.
Most links on sale are not good ones. In BuzzStream’s 2026 study of link insertion sellers, 97.5% of the sites it could grade fell into its lowest quality tier. In our own database, only 28,834 of 199,791 publishers, about 1 in 7, pass our quality bar.
Why DA and DR scores mislead
Domain Authority (from Moz) and Domain Rating (from Ahrefs) are scores made by SEO tool companies from their own crawl of the web. They don’t come from Google. They mostly count links pointing at a site, so a seller can raise them by buying or swapping links. A site can have a DR of 60 and almost no readers.
Use these scores to filter a long list, then ignore them and look at the site itself.
The 10-point check
- Does the site have a clear topic? Open the home page. Can you tell in five seconds what it’s about? A site about “business, health, tech, travel, crypto and lifestyle” is usually a site that sells to anyone.
- Does that topic fit your business? A home renovation site linking to a roofer makes sense. A celebrity gossip site linking to an accountant doesn’t. Readers and search engines both notice.
- Does it have real organic traffic? Look up the site’s estimated search traffic in a tool such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Similarweb. Don’t rely on screenshots sent by the seller. Thousands of monthly visits from search is a healthy sign. Near zero means few people will see your link.
- Is the traffic steady or falling? Look at the trend over the last 12 to 24 months, not just today’s number. A sharp drop often means Google has turned against the site.
- Is the traffic from the right country? If your customers are in Texas, a site whose readers are mostly elsewhere does little for you.
- Are the recent posts real articles? Read three of the latest posts. Are they useful, written by named authors, and about the site’s topic? Thin, generic filler with “admin” bylines is a warning sign.
- Is it selling to everyone? Scroll the last 20 posts. If most carry outbound links to unrelated businesses, or casino and loan posts sit next to recipes, skip it.
- Are its pages in Google? Search Google for
site:example.com(with the site’s domain). If few or no pages show, Google may have dropped it. Also check a recent sponsored post: is that page indexed? - How will your link be marked? Ask whether the link will be sponsored, nofollow or unmarked (“dofollow”), and whether the article carries a “sponsored” label. Get it in writing. Our guide on whether buying backlinks is safe explains what each label means for you.
- How long will it stay up, and what if it disappears? Links vanish more often than people expect. An Ahrefs study of about 2 million websites found 66.5% of the links pointing to them over nine years had died. Ask what happens if your post is removed.
Quick scorecard
Use this to compare sites side by side. A site that fails any “must pass” row is out, whatever its price.
| Check | Good sign | Warning sign | Must pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic | One clear subject | Covers everything | Yes |
| Fit | Your customers read it | No link to your field | Yes |
| Organic traffic | Thousands a month | Near zero | Yes |
| Traffic trend | Flat or rising | Halved in 6 to 12 months | Yes |
| Audience country | Matches your market | Mostly elsewhere | Usually |
| Recent posts | Useful, named authors | Thin filler, “admin” | Yes |
| Sponsored share | A few, on-topic | Most posts sell links | Yes |
| Indexed in Google | Many pages show | Few or none | Yes |
| Link label | Stated in writing | Seller won’t say | Yes |
| Replacement policy | Written guarantee | None | Recommended |
Red flags that rule a site out
- Hidden URLs. The seller won’t name the site until you pay. You can’t check what you can’t see.
- A “write for us” page that accepts any topic.
- Network signs. The same design, the same writers and the same mix of topics across several sites offered by one seller. These can be private blog networks (PBNs): groups of sites run mainly to sell links, which is the kind of link scheme Google’s spam policy describes.
- Spikes in links. A chart of referring domains that jumps suddenly and then collapses.
- Ranking promises. Nobody can honestly promise you a ranking from a link.
- A price far below the market. In BuzzStream’s 2026 data, guest posts on sites with under 100 monthly visitors averaged about $229. A $20 “high DR” link is cheap for a reason. See our guest post cost guide for current ranges.
After you buy: check the link itself
Once the post is live, check four things:
- The link points to the right page on your site and works.
- The link carries the label you were promised. In most browsers, right-click the link and choose “Inspect” to see its code.
- The page is indexed in Google. It can take a few weeks.
- The link is still there next month, and the month after. Set a reminder.
Google Search Console’s Links report will also show linking sites over time, though it can lag behind.
How BuyLinks does this for you
Every site in our plans has been through these checks, and each gets a grade: A, B or C, with a written reason. Sites that fail are never used. You can read our full site grading process.
After a link goes live, we check it every month for 12 months. If it disappears or its label changes, we replace it free under our 12-month guarantee. To see what a real plan looks like, with the sites, grades and reasons, open our sample plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Domain Rating for a backlink?
There’s no magic number. DR is a third-party score that’s easy to inflate. A relevant site with steady traffic and a DR of 25 is usually a better buy than an off-topic DR 70 site with no readers. Use DR to filter, not to decide.
How can I check a site’s traffic for free?
Most SEO tools offer a limited free check. Ahrefs, Semrush and Similarweb all show rough traffic estimates without a paid plan. They’re estimates, so compare the trend rather than trusting one number.
Are nofollow or sponsored links worth buying?
They can be, if the site has real readers who match your customers. You get the mention and the visitors. Just know that they aren’t meant to pass ranking credit.
How many backlinks does a small business need?
It depends on your market and on who already ranks. A few good links a month on relevant sites usually beat a large batch of weak ones. Look at the sites that rank for your target searches to see what you’re up against.
Get your free plan
Want a shortlist of sites that already pass these checks for your business? Get your free plan and we’ll show you the sites, their grades and the prices before you spend anything.