Mohsin Bhatti
Published
1 min read
Anyone running an authority programme receives placement offers constantly. Most are not worth taking, and the reasons are visible quickly if you know where to look.
Start with organic traffic, not domain rating
Domain metrics can be inflated deliberately. Organic traffic is harder to fake. A site with a strong rating and almost no organic visibility has usually been built for link selling rather than readers.
Read three recent articles
If they cover cryptocurrency, dentistry and casino bonuses in the same week, the site has no topic and no audience. Relevance is the signal that actually carries weight, and it is obvious within a few minutes of reading.
Look at who else they link to
Check the outbound link patterns in their recent posts. A pattern of commercial links in every article, to unrelated sectors, tells you what the site is for.
Ask whether you would want a customer to see it
It is not a technical test, but it is a reliable one. A placement is brand exposure as well as a link, and the sites worth appearing on are the ones you would be comfortable sending a prospect to.