Purchased link control, from publication day to monthly tracking

To check a backlink after buying it, an SEO runs three controls on the referring domain: the link sits in the HTML, its rel attribute matches the order, and the search engine indexes the source page. A free backlink checker tool then tracks domain authority, referring domains and the full link profile against a competitor.

Four ways a paid backlink loses its value before the first month ends

A paid backlink can lose its value in four ways, and none of them shows up without a check. The first is plain absence: the article goes live, but the backlink is missing, or it points to an address close to the one requested (home page instead of a category page, http instead of https, a typo in the path).

The second concerns the attribute. A publisher adds rel="nofollow" out of habit, or their CMS adds it to every outbound link after a security plugin or a theme update. The third loss happens on the source page itself: an article blocked by a noindex tag, excluded by the robots.txt file or attached by a canonical tag to another address stays out of the index, so the backlink exists for the visitor and for nobody else.

The fourth comes later, with time: a redesign, a change of owner of the domain name, deletion of old articles, or a migration to a new CMS that breaks links. A bought-up domain can also switch topic, and the backlink ends up surrounded by content unrelated to the business that paid for it.

These four risks set the order of the checks. The publication-day check covers what the publisher controls directly (presence, address, attribute, anchor, indexing directives). The check in the following weeks covers what Google decides (crawling, indexing, discovery). Monthly tracking covers the lifespan, everything that can change without anyone warning the buyer. Every step relies on a written record: source page, go-live date, dated screenshot and the exact paragraph that carries the backlink.

Publication day: reading the source page the way a crawler does

The publication-day check of a backlink happens in the HTML code of the page, since what a browser displays can hide an attribute that neutralises the link, or a script that some robots skip. The simplest tool remains the browser itself: a right-click, then "Inspect" on the anchor text, opens the <a> element with its href and rel attributes.

The "View page source" command shows the HTML as the server sends it, before JavaScript runs. Comparing the two views tells you whether the backlink sits in the initial HTML or gets added later by a script, which matters because a crawler with limited rendering may miss the second case.

Presence of the backlink and destination URL

The presence of the backlink is checked by searching for the destination domain name in the source code (Ctrl+F on the source view). The href must match the order exactly: same protocol, same subdomain with or without www, same path, same trailing slash. An address behind a 301 redirect generally passes on its signal, but a redirect chain, a long-lasting 302 or a tracking parameter added by the publisher blur the reading of the link profile.

A click from a private window confirms that the destination responds with a 200 code and lands on the right page rather than a 404 error. Context weighs as much as presence: a backlink placed in the body of the article, inside text on the same subject, carries more weight than one relegated to a footer, a sidebar or a "partners" block repeated across the domain. The order usually specifies the placement, and day one confirms that the promise holds.

The rel attribute: dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc

The rel attribute decides how Google treats a backlink. With no rel value, or only noopener or noreferrer, the backlink is followed, which link building jargon calls dofollow. In September 2019 Google introduced two values alongside nofollow: sponsored, for paid placements, and ugc, for user-generated content. Since March 2020 all three are read as hints for crawling and indexing rather than strict instructions.

Google's spam policies ask that paid placements carry sponsored or nofollow, so the agreed attribute is settled with the publisher before the order and the check confirms the page carries it. The practical difference between a dofollow and a nofollow link weighs on its value and on how analysis tools count it. An attribute can also change afterwards: a WordPress plugin set to add nofollow to every external link rewrites hundreds of articles overnight, which is why monthly tracking re-reads it too.

Anchor text and the paragraph that carries the backlink

The anchor text ordered must appear word for word, with nothing added or cut. An exact-match anchor on a commercial keyword, repeated across many backlinks, draws an artificial profile; a brand anchor, a partial anchor or an anchor that names the destination in its own words fares better. The rules for choosing a safe link anchor apply from the order onwards, and day one simply confirms that the publisher kept that anchor instead of "click here" or the bare address.

The paragraph around the anchor deserves a second reading. A relevant backlink fits into a sentence about the topic of the target page; a backlink stuck into an unrelated sentence catches the eye of a human reviewer as well as Google's spam systems. The dated screenshot of the paragraph then serves as evidence if the text changes.

Indexing directives: noindex, robots.txt, canonical

Indexing directives of the source page live in three places. In the source code, a meta robots tag containing noindex or nofollow applies to the whole page and every backlink on it. In the server's response headers, an X-Robots-Tag can carry the same directives without leaving a trace in the HTML; the Network tab of the browser's developer tools reveals it. In the robots.txt file of the domain, a Disallow rule covering the article's path blocks crawling.

The canonical tag needs extra attention. If the article declares another address as canonical, Google may index that other version and skip the page that carries the backlink. This occurs on sites that publish the same content in several copies (AMP version, pagination, print page). The canonical has to point to the article itself.

Indexing of the source page and discovery of the backlink by Google

Indexing of the source page is the condition for a backlink to count in rankings: a page missing from the index passes on no signal. A buyer cannot run the URL inspection of Google Search Console on a site they do not own, since that feature only works on a verified property. Two means remain: a search for the exact address in Google (or the site: operator followed by the article's path), and a request to the publisher, who owns the property, for a screenshot of the inspection.

The site: operator gives an indication rather than proof, as it can omit an indexed page or show a result with a delay. A page still missing several days in a row after publication deserves a question to the publisher. The most frequent cause is an orphan page that no other page of the domain links to: absent from the menu, from every category and from related articles. Robots discover it slowly, sometimes never. The fix is to link to it from a category page or an already indexed article and to add it to the XML sitemap.

What the Search Console Links report shows, and what it leaves out

The Links report of Google Search Console, on the destination site's side, lists the top linking sites, the most linked pages and the most frequent anchor texts. It shows a sample rather than every backlink, updated with a delay of several weeks, so a backlink bought last month can be missing without any problem behind it. The report is mainly useful to see, over time, that the referring domain appears and that the ordered anchor climbs in the list.

Search Console is free and its data comes from Google, whereas third-party tools rebuild the web with their own robots. In return it assigns no authority score, reports no lost backlinks and offers no way to analyze a competitor's profile. It complements analysis tools; it does not replace them.

Backlink checker tools compared for post-purchase tracking

Backlink checker tools fall into three families: Google Search Console, commercial indexes (Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic, Moz Link Explorer) and crawlers you run yourself on a list of addresses, such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Every commercial index has its own robot, its own database and its own domain authority metric, so two tools never find exactly the same backlinks for the same site and the total number of referring domains differs from one to the other. The table sets out what each tool brings to the tracking of a purchased backlink.

Using a backlink checker: entering the address and reading the report

A backlink checker works in three steps. First, enter the domain or page to study and pick the scope: whole domain, subdomain or exact destination page. The tool then returns a report listing referring domains, backlinks, attributes, anchor text and the date of first discovery. The last step filters that report on the publisher's domain to find the purchased backlink.

A free backlink checker is enough for a one-off control: it confirms that a robot found the backlink, so a machine can read it. For dozens of backlinks, paid plans add lost-backlink alerts, history and export; agencies often produce a white-label PDF report for clients, and tools with an API feed an internal dashboard without copying data by hand. A new backlink sometimes takes several weeks to appear in a third-party index, so its absence in the first week proves nothing, and reading the source page directly stays the benchmark.

The most useful checker is the one whose index covers the target language and topic well. An index rich in data on the French-language web gives a fuller picture of backlinks from French sites, and the best habit is to cross-check two sources. Try the free tier of two indexes on the same domain before you commit: the gap between their counts already says a lot about coverage.

Domain authority metrics are tool data, not Google ratings

Domain authority metrics (Domain Authority by Moz, Domain Rating by Ahrefs, Authority Score by Semrush, Trust Flow by Majestic) come from each vendor's own index. Google uses none of them in its ranking algorithm: they compare domains within one tool and give no exact measure of what a backlink is worth. A score that drops after the purchase can mean the vendor recalibrated its scale or lost part of the domain's backlinks, without any change in the effect of your placement.

Reading Majestic's Trust Flow and Citation Flow shows the limit clearly: a wide gap between the two points to a profile inflated by low quality links, yet neither figure tells whether the page carrying your backlink is indexed. Moz's Spam Score, a percentage, measures how closely a domain resembles penalised sites: an indicator to cross-check, never a verdict.

Criteria for a good backlink once it is live

The criteria for a good backlink get a second look after publication, because the real page can differ from the domain profile presented before the purchase. The first criterion is topic: a relevant backlink comes from a page whose subject overlaps with the target page, on a domain whose editorial line stays consistent. The second is position: a backlink in the first paragraphs of the main content carries more weight than one at the end of an article or in a separate box.

• Outbound links on the page: a page pointing to thirty distinct sites shares its equity among them all and looks like a link farm.
• Health of the referring domain: stable or growing organic traffic according to measurement tools, keywords ranking within the topic, no sudden drop in visibility that would betray a penalty.
• Freshness: a recent blog article linked from the home page or a category gets crawled more often than a deep archive.

These criteria also guide the next order. A publisher whose backlinks stay online, dofollow and on indexed pages deserves to be kept, whatever authority score it displays: backlink quality is read in its real environment, and an isolated metric says little about it.

When a check fails: the request to send the publisher

A failed check of a purchased backlink calls for a short, factual message to the publisher, sent the same week. The message names the source page, the expected destination, the ordered anchor and the agreed attribute, then describes what the check found (missing backlink, wrong address, nofollow added, noindex on the page) with the dated screenshot attached. Publishers fix most of these cases quickly when the request is exact, because the cause is often a plugin or an editor's habit rather than a deliberate choice.

A backlink that disappears months later follows another path. Recovering lost backlinks starts with finding out why it went (deleted article, redesign, change of owner) before asking for it to come back, since the answer depends on the cause. Keeping the order, the publication date and the screenshots in the tracking sheet turns that conversation into a matter of facts.

Comparing a purchased backlink with a competitor's link profile

Competitor analysis puts a purchased backlink in perspective: an SEO who wants to know whether a placement helps a page rank compares its profile with the pages that already rank for the same keyword. Enter the competitor's address in a backlink checker, filter on referring domains, and the report lists the number of domains pointing to it, their authority and the anchors they use. This research shows whether your purchase closes a gap or adds a domain the competitor already has.

A detailed comparison also helps build the next strategy. Domains that link to several competitors and not to your site are high value opportunities: they accept links on the topic and their audience matches yours. Ahrefs (Link Intersect), Semrush (Backlink Gap) and Moz Link Explorer (Link Intersect) provide this feature, mostly on paid plans, and a full site audit of the destination page rounds out the picture by ruling out a technical cause (broken internal links, slow loading, thin content) when results lag. Learn to read these reports over the long term: a single month of data says little, and the trend over six months tells whether the link building effort pays. The legal notice or privacy policy of a referring domain is worth a look too, since a new owner named there often precedes a change of editorial line.

Building a monthly tracking sheet for every purchased backlink

Monthly tracking of purchased backlinks relies on a single file, kept from the very first order. For each backlink it holds at least the source page, the referring domain, the destination, the anchor text ordered, the agreed attribute, the publication date, the screenshot date and the status of the last check. A column for the keyword targeted by the destination page relates every purchase to changes in rankings, and a column for a competitor's comparable backlinks helps spot new opportunities for the next campaign.

A few backlinks can be checked by hand. Beyond about twenty, a crawler such as Screaming Frog in list mode, with a custom extraction on the destination domain, verifies in a single crawl the presence of every backlink, its attribute and the response code of each source page. Analysis tools with alerts report the lost backlinks they detect, with the delay of their own robot, and an API (Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic and Moz all offer one) automates the routine for an agency handling hundreds of placements.

Tracking finally connects backlinks to results. A monthly report that cross-checks active backlinks, positions of the targeted keywords and organic traffic to the destination pages shows which purchases move the SERP and which ones add nothing, and it gives every future link building budget a basis in data. The articles on the Link Hunter blog about link building cover the earlier steps, from choosing domains to setting anchors.

Purchased backlink checks: delays, alerts and Search Console gaps

How long does a backlink checker take to find a new backlink?

A backlink checker usually takes from a few days to several weeks to list a new backlink, depending on how often its robot visits the referring domain. Absence in the first week proves nothing; the source code of the page remains the first proof.

Why is a purchased backlink missing from Google Search Console?

Google Search Console displays a sample of backlinks, updated with a delay of several weeks. A recent backlink can be missing from the Links report while Google has already crawled and counted it.

How often should a purchased backlink be checked?

A purchased backlink deserves a check on publication day, another between the second and the sixth week for indexing, then a monthly pass in the tracking sheet for its attribute, its presence and the response code of the source page.