Checks 1–3: Is there a real audience?
Authority scores can be inflated. Organic traffic from real search queries is much harder to fake.
1. Organic traffic and its trend
Look at estimated organic traffic over the last 12 to 24 months in Ahrefs, Semrush or Similarweb. A steady or rising line is good. A cliff, traffic that dropped sharply after a Google update, suggests the site was penalised or devalued, and links from it may be worth little.
2. Where the traffic comes from
A .my domain with 80% of its traffic from India isn't really a Malaysian publisher. If you want to reach Singapore readers, look for a meaningful share of Singapore traffic. Our own country pages only list a site under a country when that country is its main audience or sends at least 20% of its traffic.
3. Traffic compared with authority
A DR 60 site with 300 monthly visitors is a warning sign. High authority with almost no traffic usually means the authority was built with bought links rather than earned by content people read.
What to do in the next 30 days
For every shortlisted site, screenshot the 24-month traffic graph and the country breakdown. Drop any site with a recent cliff or with little traffic from your target country.
Checks 4–7: Is it a publication or a link shop?
Read the site the way a reader would. Link farms look fine in a spreadsheet and obvious in a browser.
4. Outbound links per post
Open five recent articles. If each one links out to several unrelated commercial sites, a casino, a VPN, a dentist and a crypto exchange in 800 words, the site exists to sell links. Search engines discount links from pages like that.
5. Topic consistency
A food blog that also publishes loan advice, SaaS reviews and furniture guides has no topical focus. Your link carries more weight on a site whose audience actually cares about your subject.
6. Editorial quality
Are articles written by named authors? Are they edited? Do they get comments or shares? Are there real news or opinion pieces, or only “sponsored” posts? A publication with its own editorial content protects your placement's credibility.
7. “Write for us” footprint
Plenty of good publishers accept contributions. The warning sign is a site that advertises prices for do-follow links on its homepage, lists every niche it accepts, and has a “sponsored post” category larger than its editorial one.
Checks 8–10: Will the link actually count?
A placement that isn't indexed, or disappears in three months, isn't worth the price.
8. Indexing
Search Google for site:example.com and then for a recent article's exact title. If recent posts aren't indexed, Google may be ignoring the site's new content, and your post with it.
9. Link attribute
Ask whether links are dofollow, nofollow or sponsored. Google's guidance is that paid links should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and many reputable publishers follow it. That doesn't make the placement worthless, referral traffic, brand mentions and AI citations don't depend on the attribute, but you should know what you're buying.
10. Permanence
Ask how long the post stays live and whether it will be moved, deleted or have its links removed later. Keep a record and check it periodically. We verify every live link automatically after publication and re-check it when something breaks.
Checks 11–12: Is the deal fair?
Price should follow audience and quality, not just an authority score.
11. Price against traffic
Compare price per thousand monthly organic visitors across your shortlist. Unusually cheap placements on high-DR sites are often cheap for a reason; unusually expensive placements on low-traffic sites rarely justify the premium.
12. Terms in writing
- Turnaround time from approved article to live URL.
- Word count range and whether the publisher edits your copy.
- Number of links allowed and whether anchor text can be chosen.
- Restricted topics (gambling, crypto, CBD, adult) and extra fees.
- What happens if the post is removed early.
What to do in the next 30 days
Turn this checklist into a scoring sheet: each check is pass, partial or fail. Only buy from sites that pass the traffic, outbound-link and indexing checks, whatever their authority score.
Frequently asked questions
Is DA or DR more important?
Neither on its own. Moz DA and Ahrefs DR are both estimates of backlink strength, and both can be inflated. Use them to shortlist, then decide on traffic, audience country, topical fit and outbound-link hygiene.
What's a reasonable minimum traffic figure?
It depends on the market. A niche Malaysian or Vietnamese publisher with 3,000 well-targeted monthly visitors can be more useful than a general site with 50,000 visitors from elsewhere. Look for real, stable traffic from your target country rather than a universal number.
Are nofollow guest posts worth buying?
They can be. They still send referral visitors, build brand recognition, and can be read and cited by AI assistants. Price them accordingly and don't expect the same direct ranking effect as an editorially given link.
How can I tell if a site sells links to everyone?
Read five recent posts. If most contain commercial links to unrelated industries, or the site's sponsored section dwarfs its editorial content, assume it sells to anyone, and that search engines have noticed.
How does Sojuva vet sites in its catalogue?
Imported sites start as unverified and are hidden from customers until staff approve them. Sites classed as grey-hat are never listed. After an order goes live, we automatically check that the page loads, the anchor is present and your target is linked.
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