Buyer's scorecard
Automated backlink software against the alternatives: a scorecard
Three ways to get links into a small-business blog, scored on the same grid. The grid is the point, so feel free to change the weights.
Three options, seven rows
| Criterion | Automated software | Marketplace like ours | Swaps by email |
|---|---|---|---|
| You can see each site first | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Cost you can predict | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Time it takes you | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| Fit with your niche | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Control of page and anchor | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| Risk of looking unnatural | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Easy to stop | 3 | 5 | 5 |
How to read the grid
Software that posts for you wins on time and loses nearly everywhere else. Automated backlink software has its place for people who understand the risks, but a shop owner with one guide rarely does, and the March 2024 spam policies made that gap wider.
Swapping by email scores well on fit. It also eats evenings. Answers arrive slowly, and few owners keep it up past three or four exchanges.
A marketplace sits in the middle. That is our bias, so check the rows yourself. Where the scores differ from yours, trust yours, since you know your trade and your time better than any table can.
Where each option breaks
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Majestic can show you where rivals get links, but they sell data, not placements. Pair one of them with a marketplace if your budget allows, and use their free views to check a donor before you buy.
The Moz Domain Authority score and Ahrefs' Domain Rating are different measures, so do not mix them in one comparison. Pick one metric, apply it to every row, and ignore the rest.
Hand-made swaps break when the other person goes quiet. Automated tools break when a search engine changes its mind. Marketplaces break when a donor deletes a page, which is why you read the offer teardown before the first order and check the timeline afterwards.
A tiny worked example, invented
Take a made-up tutoring business with $60 to spend. Under option one it buys a tool subscription and has nothing left for placements. Under option two it buys four links at $15. Under option three it spends six evenings writing emails and gets maybe two swaps.
Which is best depends on what the owner values. Time-poor owners tend to pick the marketplace row. Owners with a friendly network pick swaps. The numbers here illustrate the trade and are not a forecast.
If your own numbers come out differently, good. The grid exists to make you write them down, because a decision you can see on paper is easier to defend later to a partner or a bank.
Our take
Marketplace for the first five, swaps for friends
For a first test I would buy a few placements and keep email swaps for people I genuinely know. Software is the one I would try last, and only with a throwaway page.
- Every score above is an opinion, not a measurement
- No option here promises a ranking
- Ahrefs, Semrush and Majestic remain better for deep link research
Your own scorecard, in five steps
- Copy the seven criteria into a notebook
- Add one criterion that matters to you, such as language
- Score each option before you read any sales page
- Multiply the criterion you care about most by two
- Re-score after the first order and see which guess was wrong