Link Building Vendor Scorecard and Placement Approval Brief

Vendor Scorecard (fill-in)

When to use: Score every vendor on the same 9 rows before you look at price, and keep the evidence next to each score.

Vendor scorecard

Score every link vendor on the same rows, before you see the price. Most bad link buys happen because the pitch arrived with a price and a promise, and nothing to compare it against.

Scoring

• 5: evidence supplied, in writing, specific to your market.
• 3: claimed and plausible, no evidence yet.
• 0: refused, dodged, or answered with a screenshot of a metric instead of an answer.

Total: [score] / 45 · Scored by: [name] · Date: [date]

Compare vendors on the total only when every row is filled. A high score on a half-filled card just means they answered the easy questions.

Placement Approval Brief

When to use: Approve or decline each proposed placement in writing: site, anchor, attribute, cost, relevance and evidence.

Placement approval brief

One brief per proposed placement, sent before anything is written or paid for.

• Proposed site: [domain] · Country and language: [market]
• Page the link points to: [your URL]
• Anchor text proposed: [exact words]
• Link attribute: [follow / nofollow / sponsored]
• Placement type: [guest post / editorial mention / listing / other]
• Who writes it: [vendor / us / the publisher]
• Cost: [amount] · Included: [writing, images, revisions, anything else]
• Why this site is relevant: [one sentence a customer would agree with]
• Evidence of real readers: [link to the proof supplied]
• How long the link stays live: [period, in writing]

Buyer response

• Reviewed by: [name] · Date: [date]
• Response: [approved for drafting / changes requested / declined]
• Notes: [what must change before this proceeds]

Important: approval on this brief is editorial only. It confirms the placement fits, and it is not a purchase order, an instruction to pay, or a commitment to any invoice. Purchases go through your normal procurement route, signed by whoever is allowed to sign.

Relevance & Traffic Evidence

When to use: The questions that separate a site with readers from a site with metrics, and the answers to keep on file.

Relevance and traffic evidence

Ask for these in writing. A vendor who cannot produce them for a site they are selling you does not know that site either.

Relevance

• What does this site publish, in one sentence? [answer]
• Name 3 recent articles on it that our buyer would read: [3 URLs]
• Would the link make sense to a reader who never heard of us? [yes / no, and why]

Where its readers come from

• Which countries? [answer] · Does that match our market? [yes / no]
• Is traffic mostly search, social, newsletter or referral? [answer]
• Can you show the analytics or a screenshot with dates visible? [yes / no, evidence link]
• How many other paid links are on the same page? [number]

Signals that should lower the score

• Every page carries outbound links to unrelated industries, in several languages.
• The site's own traffic comes from one branded keyword and nothing else.
• A price list covering hundreds of sites, with no editorial contact for any of them.
• Authority metrics quoted with no traffic evidence at all. Metrics can be bought; readers cannot.

Check the site yourself before you decide. Our free Backlink Analyzer shows what a domain's own link profile looks like, which is usually enough to spot a network.

Terms, Exclusions & Replacement

When to use: Agree link attributes, exclusions and what happens when a link is removed, before the order is placed.

Terms, exclusions and replacement

Write these into the order. The time to agree what happens when a link disappears is before you pay for it.

Link terms

• Attribute agreed: [follow / nofollow / sponsored] · who controls it: [name]
• Anchor text: [exact words], changed only with our written approval
• Minimum live period: [period]
• Disclosure: [how the placement is labelled on the page]

Exclusions we require

• No placements on [sites, sectors or networks you will not appear on]
• No links from pages that exist only to host links: [yes / no]
• No changes to our landing page content: [yes / no]
• No resale of our placement to another client: [yes / no]

If it goes wrong

• Link removed inside the agreed period: [replaced within X days, at no cost, on a site of equal or better relevance]
• Page deleted or 404: [same remedy]
• Attribute changed without approval: [remedy]
• Site later found in a link network: [remedy, including refund terms]
• Who checks, and how often: [name, cadence]

Re-check live links on a schedule. A link you never check is a link you are paying for on trust alone.

Worked Example (two vendors)

When to use: Two invented pitches scored side by side, where the cheaper one loses on the rows that decide whether the link survives.

Worked example: two vendors, one placement

Example only. The vendors, sites and numbers below are invented to show how the scorecard separates two pitches that look similar in an email.

Totals: Vendor A 41 of 45, Vendor B 14 of 45. Vendor B was 40% cheaper, and the gap is entirely in the rows that decide whether the link survives and whether anyone reads it.

Decision recorded: approve Vendor A for a 3-placement trial, re-score after the third placement goes live. Approval is editorial only, and the purchase order goes through procurement.

Next step

Score your own shortlist, then bring it to us: we will tell you which rows we would fail, and quote against your criteria rather than ours. Book a free consultation, or see how we run the work on the link building services page.