Link Building Agency: 10 Questions to Ask, From 12 Agency Pages
We read the service and pricing pages of 12 link building agencies. Twelve explain their method. One shows sample sites. Here is what to ask before you pay.
A good link building agency tells you, before you pay, which sites your links will be on, what counts as a delivered link, and what happens if one disappears. Most agency pages answer the last question and skip the first. We read the public service and pricing pages of 12 link building agencies, tallied what each one states, and turned the gaps into ten questions to ask any agency before you sign.
10 questions to ask a link building agency before you sign#
Ask every agency on your shortlist the same ten questions, in writing. The answers are easy to compare, and an agency that will not answer one is telling you something.
- Can I see five sites you placed links on last month? Real URLs, not anonymised screenshots. Only 1 of the 12 pages we read shows sample sites, and it hides the domains.
- Where do the links come from? Manual outreach to sites you have no ties to, or a list of sites that publish for a fee? Ask whether they own or run any of the sites.
- What counts as a delivered link? Live, indexed, followed, in the body of a relevant article? Get the definition before the invoice.
- What is the minimum quality bar? A DR or traffic floor is a start; 6 of 12 state a DR floor and 5 state a traffic floor. Ask how they check that a site gets its traffic from real search.
- Will the page be about my topic? A link from a page on a different subject is weaker than one on a related page, whatever the domain's score.
- What happens if a link is removed? 7 of 12 give a replacement window. Get the number of days in the contract.
- Do you pay site owners for placement? If yes, Google's spam policies list "exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links" as link spam. You should know which kind you are buying.
- What will the monthly report show? Ask for a sample. Only 1 of 12 pages shows one. Our link building KPIs post lists the six numbers worth reporting.
- What is the minimum term and exit? One page states a minimum term; five say there is none. Get both in writing.
- Who owns the relationships? If you leave, do the site owners know you or only the agency?
If an agency answers questions 1, 2 and 7 clearly, the rest are usually easy. If it avoids them, keep looking.
What 12 link building agency pages say in public#
We read the main link building page, and the pricing page where there was one, for Siege Media, Page One Power, Editorial.Link, Loganix, FatJoe, Authority Builders, uSERP, Linkbuilder.io, Stellar SEO, Sure Oak, Rhino Rank and SEO Buddy in October 2026. For each page we marked which of 14 things it states.
What the tally shows:
- Every page describes its method; almost none shows the result. All 12 say how links are sourced, but only Rhino Rank shows sample sites (with the domains hidden) and only FatJoe shows a sample report. Editorial.Link and Authority Builders offer samples on request.
- Guarantees are common. 9 of 12 promise a guarantee or replacement of some kind. Siege Media, Page One Power and Sure Oak, which sell custom campaigns, do not.
- "White hat" is common and loosely defined. 8 of 12 call their links white hat. Only 3 (Page One Power, Authority Builders and uSERP) mention Google's guidelines at all.
- Case studies are self-reported. 8 of 12 quote results, and every one links only to the agency's own case-study page.
- Three sell from an inventory. Loganix, Authority Builders and SEO Buddy each offer a site list or database alongside outreach.
Two quotes show the split. SEO Buddy: "Most of what is sold as link building is inventory: a private blog network, a farm of expired domains, or a spreadsheet of sites that will publish anything for a fee." Authority Builders, explaining why its inventory hides domains: "We block the website URLs for new users to keep our database protected from the big G, and also from people looking to steal our list." Read both before you decide what you are buying.
What the published prices and quality floors buy#
Eight of the 12 publish prices, and the cheapest tiers come with the lowest floors:
- Entry tiers: FatJoe from $72 at DR 10+, Rhino Rank guest posts from $75 at Moz DA 10+, SEO Buddy from $79 at DR 20+.
- Middle: Loganix guest posts from $200 at DR/DA 30+; Stellar SEO guest posts from $297, with DR 30+ links in its packages.
- Top tiers: SEO Buddy $399 at DR 60+, Rhino Rank $400 at DA 60+, FatJoe $456 at DR 60+, Editorial.Link $375 per link with a DR 60 floor.
At the three agencies that price by tier, a 60+ link costs 5 to 6.3 times their entry link (SEO Buddy $399 vs $79, Rhino Rank $400 vs $75, FatJoe $456 vs $72). Our link building cost breakdown has the full price set, including marketplaces, so we will not repeat it here. Retainers work differently: Linkbuilder.io charges $2,999 a month for eight links, about $375 each.
A score floor is easy to meet with a site that has a high score and little real traffic. FatJoe's DR 10+ tier lists "0-1000 monthly traffic," and FatJoe says it "cannot refund or replace blogs that reduce or rise in DR after the first day of the secured placement." Ask for a traffic floor as well as a score floor, and check a sample of sites yourself. Five of the 12 state a traffic floor, from 100 to 5,000 visits a month.
Want to see every site before a link exists? GenLink's backlink agent finds relevant pages and sends each email from your own mailbox, so every prospect, reply and relationship sits in your inbox, not an agency's.
Guarantees and replacement windows#
Seven agencies put a length on their replacement promise. Five give none.
- FatJoe offers lifetime replacement plus a money-back guarantee.
- Rhino Rank adds a first-order refund up to $550 to its 365 days.
- Editorial.Link adds 90 days after the contract ends to its 180.
- Loganix gives 210 days for niche edits, 180 for most other links.
- Linkbuilder.io and Stellar SEO promise delivery (a monthly link volume, a "guaranteed placement") but no replacement window.
A replacement window protects you against removal, not against a weak link. A link that stays up for a year on a page with no traffic and no topic match is a delivered link under most contracts. That is why question 3, the definition of a delivered link, matters more than the window. Our backlink indexing post covers how to check that a delivered link sits on a page Google has indexed.
Outreach agencies vs inventory sellers#
Agency pages describe two different products under the same name:
- Outreach agencies pitch sites they do not control, one editor at a time. Page One Power: "We Don't Do Paid Links. Ever." Sure Oak: "We are NOT a database providing you (and everyone else) a list of sites to 'order' from."
- Inventory sellers keep a list of sites that accept posts and sell placements from it. Loganix offers a list of "25,000 sites" next to a relationship-based service and states "We do not own or control any of the sites we work with."
Neither label tells you whether the site owner is paid. Ask question 7 directly. Google asks that paid placements be marked with rel="sponsored", and its spam policies treat buying links for ranking purposes as link spam. Our buying backlinks and white hat link building posts cover where that line sits.
Red flags on a link building agency page#
None of these proves an agency is bad, but each is worth a direct question:
- Hidden domains. Sample sites shown with the URL blurred, or an inventory you can only browse after paying.
- Score-only quality. A DR or DA floor with no traffic floor and no word on topic match.
- Guaranteed numbers of links per month with no definition of a delivered link.
- Results with no client name. Four of the eight agencies quoting results keep the client anonymous.
- "White hat" with no method. If the page says white hat but never says whether site owners are paid, ask question 7.
Agency, software or in-house?#
An agency makes sense when you have budget and no time, and when it answers the ten questions well. Doing it yourself costs time but keeps the relationships. Software sits in between. Whichever you choose, the work is the same: find relevant pages, write a specific email, follow up, and track what lands. If you keep the outreach log yourself, you can judge any agency's report against your own numbers. For the full process, start at our link building guide.
Frequently asked questions#
How do I choose a link building agency? Ask each agency for five recent live placements, where its links come from, what counts as a delivered link, whether it pays site owners, and what its report shows. Compare the written answers. In our tally of 12 agency pages, only one showed sample sites.
How much does a link building agency cost? Among the 12 agencies we read, entry-tier links start at $72 to $79 for a DR or DA floor of 10 to 20, and 60+ links cost $375 to $456. One retainer was $2,999 a month for eight links. Four publish no prices of their own. Our link building cost post has a wider price set.
Are link building agencies worth it? They can be, if you can see the sites, the links are on relevant pages that get real traffic, and the contract defines a delivered link. They are poor value when you cannot see where the links go.
What is a good replacement guarantee? Among the agencies that state one, windows run from 90 days to lifetime. The length matters less than the definition of a delivered link and whether you can check the site first.
Do link building agencies pay for links? Some do and some say they never do. Agency pages rarely say which, so ask directly. Google's spam policies list exchanging money for links as link spam, and paid placements should carry rel="sponsored".
What is the difference between an agency and a link marketplace? An outreach agency pitches sites one editor at a time. A marketplace or inventory sells placements from a list of sites that accept posts. Three of the 12 agencies we read offer both.
Keep the relationships in your own inbox. GenLink's backlink agent prospects, writes each email around why your link fits, and follows up from your domain. The free plan includes one agent.
