<b>SOP #47 — Backlink Quality Screen</b>

<b>SOP #47 — Backlink Quality Screen</b>

A strong link profile is an asset. A spammy one is a future penalty you'd inherit. Screen it.

1. Pull the full referring-domain list (Ahrefs or Semrush). Note total referring domains, not total links.
2. Sort by domain rating. A profile of 5 strong links beats 5,000 directory links.
3. Scan anchor text. Over 20% exact-match commercial anchors signals past link-buying.
4. Check for PBN footprints: clusters of same-IP, same-template, thin sites linking in.
5. Look at the link-velocity graph. A sudden spike followed by a traffic drop = recovered-from or pending penalty.
6. Search the manual-actions history if GSC access is granted — past penalties are a hard discount.

You buy the whole profile, dirty links included. Price accordingly.

Save this — run it every deal.