How to Choose a Link Building Service: The Short Answer
To choose a link building service, decide what you need first, then ask every seller for three things: live sample links you can check yourself, a sample report, and their terms in writing for site approval, replaced links, refunds and cancelling. Walk away from anyone who guarantees rankings, sells hundreds of links for a few dollars, or won't show you where links will go.
The rest of this guide turns that into 12 checks you can run on any seller, the questions to send before you pay, published prices to compare against, and a scorecard to make the final call.
I sell link building myself, at SEO by Subham, and I've built links for clients since 2018. So read this with that in mind. I've written the checks so they work on any seller, including me, and at the end I show how my own service answers each one. If I fail a check, you should know that too.
Decide What You Need Before You Compare Sellers
Most bad link building purchases start with the wrong question. "Who is the best link building service?" has no single answer. "Who is the best fit for this page, this budget and this goal?" usually does. Write down four things before you contact anyone:
- The pages you want to rank. Usually one money page or a few. A seller who never asks which page is a seller who isn't planning.
- The keywords and who ranks for them now. Look at the top five results. Their links tell you roughly what you're up against.
- Your budget per month, and for how long. Links work over months, not days. Three months at a modest budget beats one big month and nothing after.
- The link types that fit. Outreach links and guest posts on niche sites carry the most weight. Foundation links and Web 2.0 blogs are a supporting layer: they add brand signals and variety, but they won't rank a page on their own. If you're unsure what each type does, my guide to what link building is explains them.
Also check your own site first. If the page you want to rank is thin, slow or doesn't match what searchers want, links won't fix it. A good seller will say so before taking your money.
Agency, Freelancer, Marketplace or In-House?
There are six common ways to get links built. None is right for everyone. This is how they compare:
| Option | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Link building agency | Bigger budgets that want a team, strategy and several link types | Minimum contracts, account managers between you and the work, high monthly fees |
| Freelancer or solo specialist | Small and mid budgets that want to talk to the person doing the work | Limited capacity, and quality depends entirely on one person, so check their history |
| Link marketplace | People who know SEO and want to pick sites and prices themselves | You do the vetting. Many listed sites exist mainly to sell links |
| In-house | Companies that need links every month for years | Hiring, training and tool costs, and months before outreach starts paying off |
| Hybrid | Teams that plan in-house and outsource the outreach | Someone still has to check every link that comes back |
| Outreach software (DIY) | People with time who want to run outreach themselves with a tool such as BuzzStream or Respona | The tool only sends and tracks emails. Finding sites, writing pitches and articles still takes hours for every link |
If someone on your team already knows SEO, the hybrid model is often the best value: keep the plan and the final say, and outsource the hours of prospecting and outreach. My guide on how to outsource link building shows how to split that work, with a brief you can copy.
Does it matter if the service is in the USA or overseas?
Less than people think. Where the seller sits matters far less than where the linking sites sit. If your customers are in the US, the sites linking to you should have mostly US readers, whoever finds them. A US agency can sell you poor links and a seller in India can build excellent ones, and the reverse. Judge the process and the delivered links, not the address. What does matter is communication: make sure your time zones overlap enough to get answers within a day.
The 12 Checks Before You Hire a Link Building Agency
These are the things to look for in a link building service. Run them on every seller you're considering. Each one has a good answer and a warning sign. You don't need perfect answers to all 12, but a seller who dodges several of them is one to drop.
1. Will they show you live sample links?
Not screenshots and not a list of big brand logos. Ask for three to five live links built for other clients in the last few months, ideally in a niche close to yours. Client names can stay private; the links themselves can't. Case studies help too, if they show Search Console data rather than a DR chart.
- Good sign: Live URLs you can open and check today.
- Warning sign: "All our work is confidential," with nothing to show at all.
2. How do they choose sites?
DA and DR are third-party scores, easy to inflate, and Google doesn't use them. Ask what else they check: organic traffic and its trend, where that traffic comes from, topic relevance, how many outbound links a page carries, and whether the site's recent posts are indexed. My page on high authority backlinks explains what makes a site worth a link.
- Good sign: Written minimums for traffic and authority, plus relevance and spam checks.
- Warning sign: "DA 50+ guaranteed" and nothing about traffic or relevance.
3. Can you approve sites before your link goes on them?
For guest posts and niche edits, you should see the site and say yes or no before anything is published. For quantity-based monthly packages this is less common, so in that case the report becomes your check.
- Good sign: A shortlist sent to you before placement.
- Warning sign: "Trust us," and you first see the sites in the final report.
4. Is it genuine outreach, or a resold list?
Many sellers resell the same site lists you can buy on any marketplace, with a markup. A list isn't wrong in itself, but you should know what you're paying for. Signs of a resold list: links go live within a day or two, the same domains show up for every client, and the "outreach" never involves a site you couldn't find on a public marketplace.
- Good sign: They explain how they find and contact site owners, and timelines allow for it.
- Warning sign: Dozens of "outreach" links delivered in 48 hours.
5. Who writes the content, and can you see it?
A guest post or outreach link sits inside an article. If that article is thin or spun, the link around it is weak. Ask who writes it, whether it's original, and whether you can read it before it's published.
- Good sign: Original articles written for the publisher's readers, shared with you on request.
- Warning sign: One generic article reused across several sites.
6. Are the links dofollow and indexed?
Ask which links are dofollow, nofollow or sponsored, and how they check that each linking page is indexed. Be clear on one point: Google's spam policies treat paid links meant to pass ranking credit as link spam, and ask that paid or sponsored links carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" (more in the safety section below). So don't treat "dofollow" as a selling point on its own. A good seller tells you what you're paying for (research, writing, outreach or the placement itself) and the risk that comes with it.
- Good sign: They explain the link attributes for each link type, the risk, and how they check indexing.
- Warning sign: "100% dofollow, 100% safe" as the main pitch, or no answer on indexing.
7. How do they plan your links?
A good seller looks at the pages already ranking for your keyword before building anything: how many sites link to them, what kind of sites, and what your page is missing. My guide on how many backlinks you need shows how to run that comparison. The plan then sets the anchor text, the clickable wording of each link. A natural profile is mostly your brand name, your URL and plain phrases, with exact keywords used sparingly, as the anchor text ratios of ranking pages show. My guide to getting backlinks covers why.
- Good sign: A written plan based on your competitors’ links, with an anchor mix that sometimes says no to exact match.
- Warning sign: No plan at all, or every link using your main keyword because you asked for it.
8. What will the report show?
You should be able to check every link yourself. A useful report lists the live URL, the date, the link type, the target page, the anchor and whether the page is indexed.
- Good sign: A sheet you can open during the month, not only at the end.
- Warning sign: A PDF of DA scores and "total links built," with no URLs.
9. Does the pace match how the links are built?
Speed alone proves nothing. What matters is how each link was acquired and whether the site is relevant. Speed is still a useful clue: manual outreach takes time, so dozens of links in a few days usually means automated placements or a resold list.
- Good sign: A timeline that matches the work described.
- Warning sign: "500 backlinks delivered in 7 days."
10. What happens if a link is removed?
Publishers sometimes delete posts or change links. Ask what the seller does when that happens, and for how long the promise lasts. Periods vary. FATJOE, for example, offers a lifetime guarantee, while many sellers publish none, so get yours in writing. It also helps to ask what share of the links they built a year ago are still live. A seller who tracks this can usually answer straight away.
- Good sign: A written replacement or refund policy, with a time period.
- Warning sign: "Links are permanent," with no replacement promise behind it.
11. What are the contract, refund and cancelling terms?
Read these before you pay, not after. Long minimum terms make sense for some agency work, but you should know what you're agreeing to and how to stop.
- Good sign: Clear refund rules and the option to cancel monthly work without a penalty.
- Warning sign: A 6 or 12-month lock-in with no exit, paid upfront.
12. Who will you actually talk to?
At a large agency you may only ever speak to sales staff and an account manager. That can work, but ask who plans your links, who does the outreach and who you message when something looks wrong.
- Good sign: A named person who answers your questions within a working day.
- Warning sign: Fast replies before you pay, slow ones after.
Five Questions That Show Whether a Seller Is Honest
These are the questions clients ask me most often, nearly word for word. How a seller answers them tells you more than any sales page.
| Question | An honest answer | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| "If I start today, will I rank in one month?" | Usually not. In my experience, clear movement takes three to five months for most sites, faster for easy keywords and slower in competitive niches. | "Page one in 30 days, guaranteed." |
| "How many backlinks do I need to rank #1?" | It depends on the pages already ranking. A seller should look at their links and your site before giving any number. | A fixed number for every client, like "you need 500 links." |
| "Why aren't my backlinks indexed?" | Google doesn't index every page, and links on low-quality or brand-new pages often wait or never count. They check each link and replace ones that stay out. | "Indexing doesn't matter," or an extra fee for an "indexer" tool. |
| "It's been a month. When will I rank?" | They show you what has happened so far: links live, pages indexed, impressions starting to move in Search Console, then a realistic timeline. | Vague excuses, or an offer to sell you more links to speed it up. |
| "Should I buy expired domains and 301 them?" | Usually no. Google's spam policies name expired domain abuse: buying old domains mainly to manipulate rankings. Redirecting unrelated domains just for their links has the same aim and the same risk. | "Yes, it's a quick shortcut," followed by a domain to buy. |
A seller who gives you the true answer to the first question is turning down an easy sale. That's usually a good sign about the rest of their work. For what affects the timeline, see my guide on how link building works.
How to Check a Seller's Sample Links in 10 Minutes
Samples only help if you check them. Take one sample link at a time and work through this list. These are the same checks I run before placing a link on any site.
- Open the page. Would a normal reader find this article useful? Is the link inside the text, where it makes sense, or stuck at the bottom?
- Check it's indexed. Search Google for
site:and the page URL, or a full sentence from the article in quotes. This is only a first check. No result doesn't prove the page isn't indexed, or that the link has no value. The site owner can confirm it with URL Inspection in Search Console, so if you're unsure, ask the seller to check with the publisher. - Check the site's traffic trend. Paste the domain into Ahrefs, Semrush or a free traffic checker. A flat or growing line is good. A line that fell off a cliff often means a penalty or an algorithm update hit.
- Count the outbound links. A page with 15 links to unrelated businesses is a link page, not an article.
- Look at the rest of the site. If it covers casinos, loans, pets and plumbing on the same homepage, or has a "sponsored post" price list in the menu, it exists to sell links.
- Check the link itself. Right-click the link, choose Inspect and look for
rel="nofollow"orrel="sponsored". Confirm the anchor text is sensible and the link goes to the right page. - Check recent posts. If the site's newest posts aren't in Google, a new post with your link may never count either.
Three good samples out of three is a strong start. One poor sample is worth asking about. Two or more, and you have your answer.
Red Flags and Link Building Scams to Avoid
Most link building scams aren't outright theft. They're links that are technically delivered and worth nothing, or worse. These are the bad link building techniques and sales tactics to avoid:
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google. A seller can promise work, never positions.
- Huge numbers for tiny prices. "1,000 high DA backlinks for $20" means automated links on sites nobody visits.
- No site names before or after. If you can't see where your links are, you can't check them.
- Private blog networks (PBNs). Networks of sites built only to link out. Ask directly whether any links come from a PBN, and get the answer in writing.
- "Permanent" links with nothing behind them. No one can promise a site they don't own will never change. A written replacement guarantee is fine; a claim that links never disappear isn't.
- Metrics only. Reports full of DA, DR and "link juice," with no traffic, relevance or live URLs.
- Expired domain redirects sold as a shortcut. Covered in the honesty test above.
- Fake urgency. "Only two spots left this month" is a sales tactic, not a reason to buy.
One more thing: a seller's own Domain Rating tells you little about the links they build for clients. New services can do excellent work and old ones can coast. Judge the samples, not the seller's own metrics.
How to Choose on a Small Budget
A complaint that comes up again and again from small business owners in link building forums: good links are expensive, and the cheap ones are mostly rubbish. Both are true. But a small budget can still work if you spend it in the right order.
- Fix the page first. Make sure the page you want to rank is the best answer for its keyword. This costs time, not money.
- Focus on the pages that matter most. Decide where links go by how important the page is to your business, how relevant the linking sites are and how hard the competition is. There's no fixed rule, but a money page sitting on page two is usually the place to start.
- Buy fewer, better links. One relevant outreach link on a site your customers read is worth more than a hundred profile links.
- Keep supporting links in proportion. Add listings and profiles where they serve a purpose, such as a business listing your customers use, never as a substitute for outreach links.
- Give it three months before you judge. Then compare impressions and rankings in Search Console, not DA.
What you should avoid on a small budget is the "500 backlinks" package. It's cheap because it's automated, and it's the one purchase that can set a small site back. If a seller looks affordable and legitimate, run the 12 checks above anyway. Price alone tells you nothing about quality in either direction.
What Does a Link Building Service Cost?
Most providers that publish their prices charge between about $70 and $500 per link, and agency plans that include strategy usually start at a few thousand dollars a month. The price depends on the link type, the site’s quality and how much of the work the seller does. My link building pricing guide compares the published prices of seven providers, checked in October 2026, with the cost per link worked out for each. For guest posts on their own, see my guide to guest post pricing.
Three things to keep in mind when you compare quotes:
- Compare like with like. A $72 placement on a DR10 site and a $375 editorial link are different products.
- Ask what's included. Writing, outreach, the publisher's fee and replacements can each be extra.
- Work out cost per useful link. If five of eight links meet your standards, divide the price by five, not eight.
Questions to Ask a Link Building Agency Before You Pay
Copy these into an email and send the same list to every seller you're comparing. The answers, and how quickly and clearly they come back, make the comparison easy.
- Can you send three to five live links you built in the last three months?
- What minimum traffic, relevance and quality checks does a site need to pass?
- Will I see and approve sites before my link is placed?
- Who writes the content, and can I read it before it's published?
- Which links are dofollow, nofollow or sponsored, and how do you check they're indexed?
- How will you plan my links and anchor text?
- Can I see a sample report?
- Do any links come from private blog networks or sites built only to sell links?
- What happens if a link is removed, and for how long?
- What are your refund and cancelling terms?
- Who plans my links, and who do I contact if something looks wrong?
- Based on my site and keywords, what timeline is realistic?
Link Building Service Reviews: Which Ones to Trust
Reviews help, but every platform has its blind spots.
- Reddit and Quora. Useful for spotting patterns, but read who is posting. Many "best link building services" threads are started or filled by sellers promoting themselves. Look for comments that describe a specific result or problem, not a list of names.
- Trustpilot and Clutch. Better when reviews are detailed and spread over time. 20 five-star reviews posted in the same week are a pattern, not proof.
- Fiverr and other marketplaces. Reviews are tied to completed orders, which makes them harder to fake. Read the low ratings as well as the high ones, and look for buyers who mention reports and results.
- "Top 10" lists. Check who published the list. Many are written by one of the services on it, which often ranks itself first.
The most reliable review is still the one you do yourself: the sample link check above.
What the First Three Months Should Look Like
Once you've chosen, these are the signs the work is on track:
| Period | What you should see |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | A link plan: target pages, anchor mix and link types, agreed before work starts |
| Month 1 | First links live and in the report, each one you can open and check |
| Month 2 | Most links indexed, and impressions starting to move in Search Console |
| Months 3 to 5 | Ranking movement for easier keywords first, then harder ones |
These timings come from my own client work. They're typical, not a promise. If you see no plan in week one and no live links after a month, ask why. If links are live and indexed but rankings haven't moved by month five, the problem may be the page, the competition or the link types, and a good seller will look into it with you rather than simply selling more.
Is Using a Link Building Service Safe?
Google's spam policies list "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam, and Google asks that paid links be marked with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" (Google's guidance). Most link building services, mine included, work in an area where that line isn't always clear: the work you pay for is research, writing and outreach, and the publisher decides what goes on their site. For guest posts and niche edits, part of the price is also the publisher’s fee, which Google would count as a paid link.
In practice, what matters is how links were acquired and what they look like together: links bought to pass ranking credit, irrelevant sites, link networks, the same exact-match anchor everywhere. Volume alone doesn't prove anything. That's why the checks in this guide matter. A trustworthy service tells you about the risk plainly, instead of calling everything 100% safe. Many sellers call their work "white hat link building". The label means little on its own, so check how the links are acquired instead.
What about AI search?
Links still matter for Google rankings, but AI answers seem to weigh brand mentions heavily too. In an Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions correlated more strongly with appearing in AI Overviews (0.664) than backlinks did (0.218). That's a correlation, not proof, but it's a reason to prefer links on relevant sites that also mention your brand by name.
A Scorecard to Compare Link Building Services
Score each seller from 0 to 2 on every check: 0 for no answer or a vague one, 1 for a partial answer, 2 for a clear answer with proof. The total makes a link building company comparison much easier than gut feel.
| Check | What gets 2 points |
|---|---|
| Sample links | Live, recent links that pass your 10-minute check |
| Site standards | Traffic, relevance and spam checks, not DA alone |
| Site approval | You see sites before placement |
| Outreach | A clear process, not a resold list |
| Content | Original articles you can read |
| Link attributes | Dofollow, nofollow or sponsored stated per type, risk explained, indexing checked |
| Link plan | A plan based on competitors’ links, with a natural anchor mix |
| Reporting | Every live URL, date, target and anchor |
| Pace | A timeline that matches the outreach described |
| Replacements | Written policy with a time period |
| Terms | Clear refunds and no-penalty cancelling |
| Contact | A named person who replies within a day |
20 to 24: a strong choice. 14 to 19: ask more questions before you pay. Under 14: keep looking.
How SEO by Subham Answers These Checks
Here's how my own service answers the same checks.
- Sample links: my sample report lists links built for this site, so every one is live and checkable. Client links stay private unless the client agrees, so I can’t send you live links from other clients’ campaigns. That’s a partial answer to check 1, and you should weigh it.
- Who you deal with: me. I work alone, so the person you message on WhatsApp plans your links, vets every site and checks every article.
- Site standards: outreach links on niche-relevant sites with DR 15+ and 1,000+ monthly organic visits. Guest posts need DA/DR 25+ and 5,000+ visits, mostly from the US and UK.
- Site approval: you approve every guest post site before writing starts, choose the placement for niche edits, and see the broken link opportunity list before outreach. Monthly plans are quantity-based, so there the daily report is your check.
- Reporting: a shared Google Sheet updated daily, and a full Excel report at the end of the month listing every live link. You can see a sample report (PDF) before you buy. Client websites stay private.
- Link types: guest posts and outreach links are dofollow. Because they're dofollow, they carry the risk explained in the safety section. I keep it low by using only relevant sites with organic traffic and natural anchors. Foundation links and Web 2.0 blogs are a mix of dofollow and nofollow.
- Removed links: a 12-month guarantee on guest post links (a replacement or a full refund if the publisher removes one), and six months of cover on niche edits.
- Terms: a full refund within 3 to 4 days if you're not satisfied and ask within 7 days of delivery, and monthly plans can be cancelled anytime, with no contract.
- What I won't do: guarantee rankings, or take casino, CBD or adult sites.
One thing to know: SEO by Subham as a website is new in 2026, so judge me by the links I deliver and my 840+ Fiverr reviews since 2018, not by this site's own metrics. You can see client results on my homepage and a guest post case study with Search Console data. If that fits what you need, here are my manual link building services and plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers to the questions people ask most about choosing a link building service.
How do I choose a link building agency?
Shortlist two or three agencies that work in your niche and budget, send each the same list of questions, check their sample links yourself and score them on the same points. Choose the one whose links pass your checks, not the one with the biggest promises.
What are the best link building services?
There's no single best one. Large agencies suit big budgets and full campaigns, marketplaces suit people who want to vet sites themselves, and solo specialists suit smaller budgets that want direct contact. The best service for you is the one that fits your budget and passes the checks in this guide.
Is it worth hiring a link building service?
It's worth it when your pages are already strong and the main thing holding them back is authority, and when you don't have the hours to find sites and pitch owners yourself. It isn't worth it if the page you want to rank is thin or doesn't match search intent.
Which link building marketplace is the best?
The best marketplace is one that shows each site's traffic, outbound links and price before you buy, and removes poor sites over time. Even then, you do the vetting, so check every site yourself before ordering.
Can I do link building myself instead?
Yes, if you have the time. Methods that don't involve paying for placements, such as digital PR, resource pages and broken link building all work, but expect several hours of research and outreach for each good link. Many businesses do some themselves and outsource the rest.
What types of links should a link building service offer?
Most good campaigns focus on relevant editorial links: outreach links, guest posts on niche sites and digital PR. Niche edits and broken link building are useful extras. Foundation links such as profiles and citations work as a supporting layer around them. Be wary of a service that sells only one cheap link type in bulk.
What happens to my links if I stop paying?
Usually, links already placed stay live, because you paid for their creation, not rent. Some marketplaces and rented-link schemes remove links when payments stop, so ask about this before you start.
Should a link building service know my niche?
It helps, especially in technical or regulated niches, because they already know which sites your audience reads. More important is that they ask about your niche and find sites in it, rather than placing every client on the same general sites.
How many link building services should I compare?
Two or three is enough. Send them the same questions, check their samples and compare the answers side by side. More than that usually means more sales calls rather than a better decision.
Will a link building service also work for my competitors?
Often, yes. Most sellers don’t offer exclusivity, and that isn’t a problem in itself. Ask two things: whether they would place a direct competitor on the same sites in the same month, and whether your campaign details stay private. If exclusivity matters in your niche, get it in writing.
Send Me the Questions. Then Check My Answers.
I build links by hand for clients in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, with a daily report of every link. Send me the questions from this guide and I'll answer every one in writing before you pay anything. Or start with my guide to link building if you're still learning the basics.