Buyer's scorecard
Do follow backlinks: a buyer's scorecard in eight questions
Score every supplier from zero to two on each question, add it up, and only resell what scores twelve or more.
SMM SEO Pro editorial team ·
How to score
Zero, one or two points per question
Two means you can verify the answer yourself. One means the supplier says so. Zero means they would not say.
- Twelve or more: fine to resell
- Eight to eleven: test with one client
- Under eight: walk away
The eight questions, and what we say
| # | Question to the supplier | What a good answer looks like | Our answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Can I see the site before I buy? | Domain, DR, traffic, niche in the list | Yes, every row shows them |
| 2 | Is the link dofollow and permanent? | Written, not implied | Placements are permanent dofollow |
| 3 | What is the price range? | Stated, not 'contact us' | $1 to about $500 per link |
| 4 | How fast does it go live? | A time, not 'soon' | Usually within about 24 hours |
| 5 | Do I control the content? | Options for anchor and text | Automatic, your prompt, or your own article |
| 6 | Is there a subscription lock-in? | No | None, pay as you go |
| 7 | Can I review before paying? | Basket with no charge | Yes, charge happens at payment |
| 8 | Who do I contact when it breaks? | A named route | Contact options on the account page |
How to run the scorecard in twenty minutes
Open two supplier tabs side by side. Score both.
Ask the questions in the order of the table. Questions one to three can be answered from the public pages in under five minutes, and four to seven usually need a look at the dashboard or a test basket. Question eight needs a message sent through the account page. Send it first.
Write the score and the date in your client file. Suppliers change. A supplier that scored thirteen in October can look different by spring, and a dated sheet turns a vague memory into an argument you can use. Compare it against the mistakes list when something goes wrong.
What the scorecard cannot tell you
It cannot tell you rankings. No scorecard can.
It measures one thing: whether a supplier is transparent, not whether the links will work for your client. For that you still need a test page, a baseline from Search Console, and patience through at least one core update cycle. Ask carefully. Big tools and small ones both mislead if the question is wrong.
We claim no perfect score. Really. Our data comes from our own crawler and our own index, which is a snapshot, and sites change after you buy. Tools like Majestic, Moz and Semrush each describe a domain differently, so compare two before you commit to a large spend. See what the price covers before you decide.
Reading a low score without panic
A low score is information, not an insult.
Suppose a supplier scores nine because they will not state dofollow status in writing and the price is hidden behind a form. You can still use them for one test link, but you should not put that supplier's name in a client contract, and you should keep their orders on a separate page of your log.
Hypothetical, for illustration only: two suppliers score 13 and 9. Spend 80 percent of the test on the first, and 20 percent on the second to see if the gap matters. If it does not, you have learned something; if it does, you have paid little to find out.