.svg){kind=small}
I was stunned to see “buy backlinks” smash its previous record on Google Trends in 2025.
It’s clear evidence that growth-hungry marketers are sprinting for link equity like it’s Black Friday.
This guide sorts the gold from the rubbish. Here’s what you’ll find inside:
Link buying means paying an agency, freelancer, marketplace, or website owner to place a backlink to your site on their website for a fee.
The goal is to boost search rankings and attract more organic traffic.
Most marketers chase this outcome, but many fall short, especially when they rely on black-hat tactics or low-quality link vendors.
Choose a trustworthy partner (I recommend saaslinkbuilder 😉), and those higher rankings become far more achievable.
I started with one guiding question: Does the vendor build links through real outreach or simply buy links from a network? From there I layered on five more checkpoints to separate the true partners from the pretenders.
.avif)
saslinkbuilder is a niche agency that builds backlinks exclusively for SaaS companies through manual, relationship-based outreach. No PBNs, no rented placements, and no shortcut tactics. Their campaigns prioritize relevance (links from real SaaS and closely related sites), steady authority growth, and safety.
They publish founder-led case studies showing lifts in organic traffic after focused link pushes to home, product, and key content pages.
👉 Niche edits - Contextual links placed inside already ranking, top-performing articles on vetted sites, earned through long-term editor relationships on average DR 66 domains, so they pick up authority fast.
👉 Listicle link building - Inclusion in authoritative “best” and comparison roundups your buyers actually read, which lifts category visibility, drives warmer referral traffic, and helps search and AI surface your brand more often, including featured snippets and “best answer” spots.
👉 Quote placements - Expert commentary inserted into timely articles, for example “…” says Name Surname, CEO of Client, a leading (main keyword) solution, with the link on the brand mention or inside the quote, building clear expertise signals and earning clean editorial links.
👉 Brand mentions - Convert unlinked brand or product mentions into linked citations on relevant articles. Add a natural link to your brand or product page, and seed fresh mentions on SaaS publications to strengthen entity signals and bring steady referral traffic.
👍 Real outreach only - saaslinkbuilder does not buy links. When you order, saaslinkbuilder secures each placement themselves instead of reselling inventory.
👍 Pay after results. No upfront fees. You pay at the end of the month for links that actually land.
👍 Link replacement insurance. Every link is covered for 12 months. If a placement is removed after that, saaslinkbuilder will reach out and try to restore it.
👍 Clean link building. No PBNs, no marketplaces, no rented links. Just relevant sites, contextual placements, and clear reporting.
👍 Founder-led strategy. You work directly with Mykolas, who plans and oversees every campaign.
👍 SaaS Focus. It’s in the name: saaslinkbuilder works exclusively with SaaS companies, meaning every campaign is tailored to the unique needs, challenges, and growth goals of software businesses.
editorial.link is a manual link-building agency that earns editorial backlinks on real sites. You approve targets up front, they deliver links before invoicing, and they avoid link farms entirely.
👉 Niche edits - Contextual placements on real pages that already rank and get traffic, secured through publisher relationships.
👉 Listicle link building - Inclusion in trusted “best” roundups to boost category presence and how often your brand appears in AI Overviews and other AI results.
👉 White-label for agencies - Pre-approval, reporting, and special pricing for agency partners. Packages start at $1,750 for 5 links.
👍 Pre-approval and pay after results - You choose the sites first, links go live, then you get the invoice. No upfront fees.
👍 No link farms - They screen out sellers using their Link Type Classifier and focus on editorial placements only.
👍 Link replacement guarantee - If a link disappears within 6 months, they restore or replace it at no extra cost.
dofollow is a B2B SaaS link building agency that earns editorial backlinks through manual, relationship-based outreach. Typical placements are on high-authority publications, with many links in the DA 70 to 90 range. They offer a two-year link guarantee, no lock-in contracts, and a real-time client portal.
👉 Editorial outreach and placements - Manual outreach to SaaS-relevant, high-authority sites, avoiding pre-built lists and link marketplaces.
👉 White-label delivery for agencies - Dedicated PM, performance-based options, and transparent reporting for partners.
👍 Safety net included with a two-year link guarantee and free replacements if a link disappears
👍 No lock-in so you can scale up or pause without long contracts.
👍 Proof of impact through public case studies showing traffic and ranking lifts on SaaS sites.
👍 Transparent operations with manual outreach, clear QA criteria, and real-time reporting.
uSERP is an authority link building and SEO agency that earns editorial backlinks on high-traffic, DR60+ sites through content-led outreach. They pair link acquisition with strategy, content production, and AI SEO features.
👉 Authority link building - Manual outreach to secure contextual placements on real publications with DR50+ to DR65+ thresholds, avoiding PBNs and guest-post farms. Plans include fixed monthly link volumes.
👉 Digital PR and brand mentions - Editorial coverage plus “LLM citation” brand mentions placed on sources large models reference, aimed at boosting AI and search visibility.
👉 Niche edits and unlinked mention reclamation - Links added to already ranking articles and outreach to turn existing brand mentions into backlinks.
👉 Content and SEO programs - Full-funnel SEO strategy and content production, with optional fully managed scopes.
👍 Performance-focused plans with guaranteed numbers of authority links per month and live KPI dashboards.
👍 High quality standards like DR50+ and DR65+ placements, plus no PBNs or paid placements.
👍 Earned, relationship-driven outreach rather than reselling site lists. They do not guarantee specific sites and earn links via content-driven methods.
👍 Clear engagement terms with 6-month scopes, 60-day cancellation, and a minimum spend starting at $5,000 per month
👍 Proof of impact through public case studies and named brand wins such as Nav, monday.com, and others.
Digital Olympus is a relationship-based link building and digital PR agency that pitches journalists for top-tier news coverage.
👉 Digital PR and journalist pitching - Research-led campaigns that earn brand mentions and coverage on influential media, with an eye toward visibility in AI Overviews and similar surfaces.
👍 Earned media first, not paid placements or guest-post farms. They work by pitching and securing coverage on real publications.
👍 See the work as it happens with live access to campaigns and progress.
👍 Outcomes that travel by improving brand credibility and increasing the odds of high-authority mentions and links that come with real stories.
We have covered reliable partners, now it is time to call out the places you should avoid at all costs.
Fiverr looks cheap and fast. For backlinks, it is almost always a dead end.
This is the kind of gig people end up buying on Fiverr. It looks impressive at first glance. It is the exact pattern to avoid.
Most gigs use automation or private networks. You get profile links, blog comments, Web 2.0 dumps, and PBN placements with zero editorial context.
Sellers reuse the same domains for every buyer, so footprints are obvious. Anchors are off, topics are irrelevant, and many links sit on pages with no real traffic.
You might see DR or DA tick up. Rankings and qualified traffic do not. Google discounts these patterns or worse, flags them.
Links also rot quickly as low-quality sites die, sellers remove placements, or pages get deindexed.
Five dollars cannot fund real outreach, editing, or publisher time. The only scalable way to deliver thousands of links at that price is automation or link farms.
If Fiverr is the bargain bin, marketplaces are the big-box aisle. Same promise of scale. Same problem. You are buying from catalogs packed with recycled domains that exist to sell links, not to serve readers.
Or, in Abel Martínez López’s words: “Forget marketplaces. Same websites. Same buyers. Same shitty links.”
Let’s use one real listing as an example.
On the marketplace, you will see fileproinfo.com advertised with 132k traffic and DR 55. It looks like a safe, value buy at a glance.
When you plug the same domain into Ahrefs, numbers tell a different story. Estimated organic traffic is closer to ~800. The majority comes from India. DR slides from ~68 to 55 in a short window. That is not what “healthy and growing” looks like.
Marketplace metrics are easy to manipulate. Verify everything yourself first: page-level traffic, ranking keywords, outbound link patterns, country mix, and history. If you cannot audit each site, skip marketplaces and put your budget into a trusted partner that earns links through real outreach.
If you have been in SEO for a while, chances are you have seen hundreds of these. The pitch is always the same: a list of “high-authority sites” and a promise to insert guest posts or links.
Most of these senders are resellers. They do not run real outreach. They sell placements on the same overused sites to anyone who pays. That means weak topical fit, inflated metrics, and links that do not move rankings or traffic.
Many hide behind throwaway Gmail accounts or fake names, so there is no accountability if a link is removed.
I’d even avoid replying. A reply confirms your address is active, which gets you added to more lists. These sellers rotate domains, spin up new inboxes, and will chase you on LinkedIn and other socials once they know you respond.
Slack feels like a shortcut. Quick DMs. Fast “placements.” Low friction.
In reality, you are buying from strangers in workspaces that wipe message history after ~90 days, paying off platform with no buyer protection, and hoping the seller does not vanish when a link is removed.
Quality is murky. The same sellers pitch the same inventory across multiple groups. Posts live on thin sites that exist to sell links, not serve readers.
Page-level traffic is rarely shared. Replacement terms are vague or missing. No contract means no accountability.
If you still want Slack, join vetted groups that verify publishing access. Look for domain-email signups, moderator review, no pay-per-link policy, and active moderation.
I recommend trying out the saaslinkbuilder community for real collaboration link exchanges with people who can actually publish.
Because they are buying time. Real outreach is slow and heavy work: researching prospects, qualifying sites, building relationships, pitching, writing, following up, and replacing lost links.
Doing that at scale means hiring, training, and managing a team, then living with the fact that much of it will not go to plan.
When people pay for links, they are really paying for a working system that already does all of this every day.
Here is what the market thinks. In Editorial.Link’s State of Link Building survey, 92% of SEO specialists said they believe their competitors buy links.
That is why teams still buy backlinks when timing matters. If you go this route, keep it clean: prioritize topical relevance, real page traffic, and true editorial context, with clear replacement terms.
You are paying for outcomes, not just a URL. Keep the risk low and the impact high with a simple playbook.
1) Lead with relevance
👉 Match topic, search intent, and audience. The linking page should naturally talk about the same problem your target page solves. If the paragraph needs to bend to fit your link, skip it.
2) Place links on pages that make sense
👉 Favour pages that already rank and get search traffic. If you are publishing a guest post, write something that can rank on that site based on its topical authority, and make sure it is internally linked from strong pages.
3) Check real traffic, not just DR
👉 Verify page-level organic traffic and ranking keywords. Look at country mix and whether the page sends referral visits. A DR 70 page with zero search traffic rarely moves the needle.
4) Map your anchors
👉 Keep anchors relevant and varied. Mix exact match, partial match, branded, and URL anchors. Stay conservative with exact match and align with what top competitors use for the same query.
5) Vet every site
👉 Scan recent articles, outbound link patterns, author pages, and ad density. Avoid sites that sell to every niche or publish low-effort sponsored posts. If it would not impress a real reader, do not take the link.
6) Work only with trusted partners
👉 Choose vendors who earn links through real outreach, show examples, and let you review targets. Require clear reporting and a replacement guarantee if a link is removed.
7) Set cadence and track
👉 Drip links in over time, not in one burst. Track impact on the specific page and keywords, not just DR. If a page stalls, adjust anchors or target pages rather than buying in bulk.
💡 Pro insight: Evelina Grigorian, senior off-site SEO specialist at Mediatech
“In my experience, links from the same niche are critical. Metrics like DR, traffic, TF, and CT are helpful signals when evaluating a site.”
Buying links means you also buy the seller’s risk. Most bad offers look shiny at first, then fall apart when you check page traffic, context, and accountability. Use this quick gut check before you spend a cent.
Buying links means you also buy the seller’s risk. Most bad offers look shiny at first, then fall apart when you check page traffic, context, and accountability. Use this quick gut check before you spend a cent.
❌ Pre-shared domain menus before they learn your goals or pages
❌ Cheap DA or DR guarantees with fixed prices and no page-level traffic
❌ Public “any niche accepted” sites, casino or CBD sprinkled through the blog
❌ Gmail addresses, fake names, no company domain, no real website
❌ Crypto or Friends and Family payments, no invoice, no buyer protection
❌ No contract, no reporting, no link replacement terms
❌ Exact-match anchors pushed on every placement, no plan to vary anchors
❌ Sidebar, footer, sitewide, or orphan-page placements that never rank
❌ Pages with zero organic keywords, wrong country mix, or obvious bot traffic
❌ Marketplaces and Slack DMs recycling the same domains across sellers
If two or more of these trip, walk away. If you are unsure, treat the placement like an ad: nofollow, branded anchor, and only if the page can actually send qualified readers. Always check page-level traffic, internal links, author quality, and recent updates before you commit.
💡 Pro insight: Jayson DeMers, Founder of EmailAnalytics
“Watch for red flags like sites with excessive outbound links, irrelevant content, guaranteed rankings, lack of transparency, and unnatural anchor text ratios.”
Yes, but only if you know what you're doing. Technically, Google is against link buying. But buying links still works if you're buying from trusted sources using methods like guest posting, link insertions, advertorials, press releases, listicles, expert commentary, and product reviews.
Quality editorial placements typically run $300–$1,000+ depending on effort and site quality. At saaslinkbuilder, it’s $350 per earned placement. Every link is secured via manual outreach, and you pay after it goes live.
Article by
Mykolas is the founder of saaslinkbuilder and has built over 5,000 high-quality links for SaaS companies. He got his start working with top Lithuanian SaaS brands and now shares insights on link building, content marketing, and SEO.
Get powerful niche relevant links.
saaslinkbuilder is link building agency that builds powerful backlinks for saas companies
Copyright 2025 - saaslinkbuilder