Red-flag list
Twelve red flags in a backlink seller's pitch
Cautious buyers have good instincts. This list turns them into things you can check in a minute, before any money moves.
How to use the list
Count the flags. One is a question to ask, three is a reason to leave.
Calm questions. Some sellers trip a flag out of sloppiness rather than bad faith. The useful move is to ask for the missing detail and see whether it arrives. A seller who answers plainly and quickly has told you something good, while one who turns vague has told you the opposite, and learning that costs nothing.
Flag, why it matters, what good looks like
| Red flag | Why it matters | A transparent seller instead |
|---|---|---|
| Donor domain is secret until you pay | You cannot judge relevance or quality | Domain listed in the row |
| Only one number shown, usually authority | Authority alone is easy to inflate | Domain Rating, traffic and referring domains together |
| "Guaranteed first page" | No seller controls Google | No promise about positions |
| Same price for every niche | Price should follow authority, traffic and niche | Price scaling with the row |
| Payment before you see any listing | You are buying blind | A basket you can fill and review for free |
| No order status after payment | You must trust and chase | An orders list with statuses |
| Link type left vague | Nofollow, sponsored and dofollow differ | Permanent dofollow stated |
| Huge bundles only | Large commitment on day one | Single links from $1 |
A fair word about cheap sellers
Cheap is not the same as dishonest. Many small publishers price low because their sites are young. Some are sloppy. A few are not what they claim.
Ask, then test.
Our test-order runbook gives you a cheap way to sort one from the other without a leap of faith, and it works for any seller, not just for us.
Four flags that hide in plain sight
Stock screenshots
A screenshot of an old Ahrefs dashboard proves nothing about today. Ask for a domain you can look up yourself in Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz.
"Real traffic" without a number
If the traffic claim has no figure next to it, it is decoration. A row should state organic traffic so you can cross-check it.
Reviews you cannot trace
Praise with no name, date or order is cheap to produce. Prefer evidence you generate yourself, like a test order.
Pressure to buy now
A countdown banner on a link package is a sales tactic. Pay-as-you-go pricing has no deadline.
Low price is not a flag by itself. Price should track the donor's authority, traffic and niche. A cheap link on a small, relevant site can be perfectly reasonable; a cheap link described as premium cannot.
Ask these four questions in writing
Before any money moves, put four questions to the seller. Which exact domain will carry my link? Which metrics did you use to price it? What link attribute will it have? Where can I see the status of my order after I pay?
Four answers, four minutes. Short answers are fine, vague answers are not.
That helps. A marketplace with a visible row, a free basket and an order list answers most of these before you ask. A private reseller working from a spreadsheet has to type them out, and how willingly it does that is data too. Keep the replies; if something goes sideways later, you will be glad to have the original wording.
Where we stand against our own list
We built TrueLinkShop to clear it. Donor domains, metrics and prices are in the rows, the basket is free to fill, and every order appears in the ordered links list.
We cannot hand you a ranking promise and we will not pretend to. Google's December 2022 link spam update and its March 2024 spam policies are reasons for care, so run the test order first and keep the mistakes list open while you do.