Buyer's scorecard
A ten-point scorecard for donor rows in a client basket
Every row in a marketplace looks good for a few seconds. This scorecard slows you down just enough to compare rows fairly and to explain the choice to a client.
Agencies that buy page authority backlinks usually have two problems: too many rows to compare and a client who asks why this one. A score answers both.
Give each of the ten criteria below 0, 1 or 2 points. Twelve is the floor. Anything under it stays out of the basket, and anything over 16 earns a closer look at the price.
The ten criteria
| Criterion | 0 points | 1 point | 2 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niche match | Unrelated | Neighbour niche | Same niche as the target page |
| Language match | Different language | Mixed | Same as the target page |
| Domain Rating | Far below the client's | Similar | Clearly above the client's |
| Organic traffic | Not visible or a lone spike | Small but steady | Steady and sizeable for its niche |
| Referring domains | Thin profile | Moderate | Broad and varied |
| Price vs track budget | Over the cap | Near the cap | Well inside the cap |
| Target page health | Slow or thin | Fine | Strong and indexed |
| Anchor plan | Exact-match again | Mixed | Brand or natural phrase |
| Content mode | Not decided | Automatic, unreviewed | Prompt or own article, reviewed |
| Order timing | Same day as 10 others | Same week as a few | Spread across weeks |
How to read the total
Twelve is the floor, sixteen is a green light
Scores are a conversation tool. A row with 18 points at $400 can still lose to a 14-point row at $12 when the track budget is $150.
- Write the score next to each basket line.
- Keep rejected rows in a note; clients ask later.
- Re-score after three months, when traffic numbers have moved.
Reading the criteria without fooling yourself
Domain Rating comes from Ahrefs; Moz and Semrush publish similar scores. Estimates, all of them. They are third-party numbers, not Google signals, so use them to compare rows and never as proof.
Traffic is the criterion people skip. A donor with a decent score and no visible organic visits tells you little about whether anyone reads it. A row with steady visits in the right niche tells you more than any single metric.
Price is last on purpose. Decide the budget per track first, then see which scored rows fit. Doing it the other way round means the cheapest row wins by default, which is rarely what the client would choose.
Red flags that cap the score at zero for that line
- The seller refuses to show where the link will sit before payment.
- The donor row shows no organic traffic at all.
- The offered price is a flat bundle with no per-domain detail.
- The target page you picked returns an error in Search Console.
- A promise of rankings or of immunity from Google updates.
A dental clinic's service page gets two candidate donors. Donor A: same niche, same language, steady traffic, price $45, score 17. Donor B: general news site, higher Domain Rating, price $120, score 11. The scorecard picks A, and the client sees why.
How the score fits the rest of the plan
Scoring is step three of a longer flow. Step one is the budget split, step two is checking the target page.
After payment, track the placement in your ordered-links list. Then verify it in Ahrefs, Semrush or Google Search Console over the following weeks.
Hitting a doubt on a specific seller's pitch? The offer teardown walks through the clauses worth reading twice.