Home / Blog
Blog: verifying link quality
Nine notes on the part of link building that can actually be checked. How to verify a placement is real, what the quality vocabulary means when someone uses it at you, how to spot manufactured inventory, and what to do when links break.
How to verify a backlink is real
Seven checks, about four minutes per link, no subscription required for most of them. What "delivered" should mean, why indexation matters more than existence, and the specific things a screenshot cannot prove.
verification · 11 min
What is white hat link building, actually?
The term has been diluted until it means "whatever we sell". A working definition, the grey areas nobody likes discussing honestly, and where paid placement genuinely sits.
definitions · 10 min
What is PBN link building and how to spot one
Private blog networks have got considerably better at hiding. Eleven signals, ordered by how hard they are to fake, plus the three that still catch most networks in under ten minutes.
risk · 12 min
How to disavow backlinks properly
Most disavow files do nothing, and a meaningful number do harm. When disavowing is the right call, how to build the file, the domain-versus-URL decision, and what to expect afterwards.
remediation · 12 min
Do-follow, no-follow, sponsored and UGC
Four attributes, what each one signals, and why a profile with zero no-follow links is a red flag rather than an achievement.
definitions · 9 min
Why links disappear, and what to do about it
Six causes of link decay, roughly how common each is, which are recoverable, and the monitoring setup that catches breakage in days instead of at the annual audit.
maintenance · 10 min
How to check whether a site has real traffic
Third-party estimates are estimates. Four ways to cross-check them, the high-authority-no-readers pattern in detail, and how to spot traffic that exists but is worthless to you.
verification · 11 min
Link building QA: a nine-point checklist
The checks we run before a placement is allowed to ship, written so you can run them on someone else's work. Copy it, use it, hold us to it.
verification · 12 min
What is a link building service, and what should it include?
Service versus agency versus marketplace versus freelancer. What each model is genuinely good at, what a service should contain as standard, and the four things worth refusing to buy without.
buying · 11 min
Linkproof Request a free gap audit
Or have us check your existing profile
Send your domain and the page you want to move. We will run the gap audit and flag anything in your current profile that fails the nine checks — free, and yours whether or not you continue.
Send request See all services