Red-flag list
Backlinking campaign red flags: what a law firm's partners should check
Law firms get pitched link bundles constantly. This page is the list we would hand a managing partner before anyone signs a purchase order.
How to use this page
One flag is a question; three flags are a no
One flag is a question. A single red flag usually has an innocent explanation, and you should ask for it in writing before deciding anything about the vendor. Three together describe a backlinking campaign built to look cheap, not to be read by future clients.
Ten red flags, in the order we would check them
- The seller will not show donor URLs until after payment
- Prices are a flat bundle, with no row-by-row Domain Rating or traffic
- Most donors have no legal, financial or business-services angle at all
- Anchors are exact-match phrases such as a city plus the words injury lawyer
- The same donor sites appear in every offer the vendor makes
- The article is clearly spun, with errors a clerk would be embarrassed by
- Delivery is promised on a rankings date rather than a placement date
- The site carries casino, pill or loan content next to your firm's name
- The vendor asks for your CMS login rather than a target URL
- Nobody at the vendor will say what happens if a link is later removed
Why a legal practice needs a stricter filter
Reputation is the product. A prospective client who finds your firm's name beside an unrelated gambling article will not read the footnote explaining that it was a link order, and may move on to the next name.
Google also treats advice about law, tax and money as sensitive. The August 2018 core update was reported to shift many such sites, and the March 2024 update tightened the spam policies further. Your effect is unknowable.
Check the rules. Your regulator or professional body may publish rules on advertising and on how firms describe themselves online, and we cannot know which ones apply to you. Ask your compliance lead before the first order, and file the answer.
Teardown of an invented 40-link bundle
| Line in the offer | What it suggests | What we would ask |
|---|---|---|
| 40 links for $200 flat | Average of $5 each, donors unknown | Which 40 URLs, and which ones could you show a client? |
| Mixed niches | Inventory chosen by price, not relevance | How many are legal, finance or local business sites? |
| Anchors listed by the vendor | Over-optimised phrases | Can we supply the anchor, and can it be our firm name? |
| Live in 7 days | Batch publishing | Is each placement dated, and can we see it individually? |
Three requests to send a vendor
Send it before paying. A polite email with three requests filters out most weak offers, because a vendor with nothing to hide answers within an hour, and one with something to hide goes quiet.
- Please send the full list of donor URLs, with the price of each link.
- Please confirm that we choose the anchor text and the target page.
- Please state in writing what happens if a placement is edited or removed.
What a defensible alternative looks like
Fewer links, each one chosen. On our marketplace every donor row shows Domain Rating, organic traffic, referring domains, niche, language and price, so the partner can see exactly why a given page was picked. Reading is the whole method.
Start small. The first-order walkthrough shows a $100 plan that buys a handful of placements, and the first twelve weeks timeline describes what to look at once they are live. Then decide.
Directories differ. A professional body's register is another kind of asset, with real readers behind it, and the directory checklist explains how to sort the good listings from the filler.