What is site vetting?
Site vetting is checking a website thoroughly before you place a link on it. A buyer finds a home-improvement blog listed at DR 55 on a link marketplace. Site vetting means confirming the blog's traffic is real, reading its recent articles, checking who else it links to, and looking for signs Google may already distrust it, before any money changes hands.
Site vetting exists because the numbers in a site listing are easy to dress up. An authority score can be inflated (see DR inflation), traffic can be padded (see bot traffic on link sites), and a site can look like a publication while existing mainly to sell links.
Why is site vetting important?
Site vetting is important because a link from the wrong site wastes the budget at best and adds risk at worst. Google's manual actions include "unnatural links to your site", and Google states that buying links or taking part in link schemes to manipulate rankings violates its spam policies [3]. A site that sells links to anyone, on any topic, is the kind of place those links come from.
Vetting is also about value. A link on a site with no readers and no rankings sends no visitors and earns no trust, however good its metrics look.
What should you check when vetting a site?
When vetting a site, check six things: traffic, content, topic fit, outbound links, ownership and history, and policy risk. Each check catches something the others miss.
| Check | What to look at | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Search Console clicks, pages and queries [4] | Only screenshots offered; traffic on one URL or off-topic queries |
| Content | The last 20 posts | Thin, spun or generic articles; every post carries an outbound commercial link |
| Topic fit | What the site is about versus your page | "General" sites covering casinos, CBD, software and recipes in one week |
| Outbound links | Who the site links to and how | Followed commercial links on most posts; links to gambling, loans or pharma alongside everything else |
| Ownership and history | Domain age, past topics, archived versions | A domain that changed subject after expiring |
| Policy risk | The site's pages against Google's spam policies [1] | "Sponsored" sections, "write for us" pages listing link options, footer link blocks |
How do you vet a site's traffic?
To vet a site's traffic, ask for a live view of its Google Search Console Performance report, which shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position from Google Search [4]. Check that clicks are spread across real articles, that queries match the site's topic and language, and that the countries match the audience the content is written for.
Don't accept a Google Analytics screenshot as proof. GA4 removes known bots only, and Google says you cannot see how much it removed [5]. The full process is in traffic verification.
What are the red flags when vetting a site?
The biggest red flags when vetting a site are signs that it exists to sell links rather than to serve readers. Specifically:
- A "write for us" or advertising page that lists link options and turnaround times rather than editorial guidelines.
- Most recent posts carry one commercial outbound link each, often with keyword-rich anchor text, on unrelated topics.
- No author pages, no About page, no way to contact a real editor.
- Content that doesn't match the domain's history. Google's spam policies name expired domain abuse: buying an expired domain and repurposing it mainly to manipulate rankings with content of little value [1].
- Third-party sections unrelated to the site. Google's site reputation abuse policy covers third-party content published mainly to exploit the host's ranking signals, with examples such as an educational site hosting sponsored reviews of payday loans [1].
- Pages produced at a volume no editorial team could write. Google calls generating many pages mainly to manipulate rankings scaled content abuse [1].
- Footer or template links to other sites, which Google lists as an example of link spam [1].
- A traffic chart with a sudden collapse, which can mean the site was hit by an update or a manual action.
One red flag can have an innocent explanation. Several together usually don't.
What is the difference between site vetting and checking DR?
Site vetting judges the whole site, while checking DR looks at one third-party score built from backlinks. Domain Rating and similar metrics say how strong a site's backlink profile looks to one tool. They don't say whether the site has readers, whether its content is real, or whether Google trusts it. A site can be DR 60 and fail every other check.
Treat an authority score as a filter to shorten a list, not as a verdict.
What is the difference between site vetting and traffic verification?
Traffic verification is one part of site vetting. Traffic verification confirms that the claimed traffic is real and human. Site vetting adds content quality, topic fit, outbound links, history and policy risk. A site with real traffic can still fail vetting, for example if it sells followed links on every post.
How has Google's treatment of link-selling sites changed?
Google has moved steadily from crediting any link toward discounting links that exist for reasons other than merit. Wikipedia's history of link building and spam records the main turns [6][7].
2005: reciprocal links stop counting
With the Jagger 2 update in 2005, Google stopped giving credit to reciprocal links, because they did not indicate genuine popularity [7].
2011: Panda cuts back link farms
Link farms, tightly knit networks of sites linking to each other to manipulate rankings, declined after Google's Panda update in February 2011 improved spam detection [6].
2014: PBNs and Penguin 3.0
Google began deindexing private blog networks in 2014 [6], and launched Penguin 3.0 on October 5, 2014, to penalize sites using black hat link building [7]. Search Insider does not support or suggest using private blog networks.
Today: link spam, site reputation and expired domains
Google's current spam policies list link spam, site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse and scaled content abuse as separate policies [1]. A vetting checklist written before those policies existed will miss half of them.
Does site vetting make a paid link safe?
No. Site vetting lowers risk, but it does not make a paid link that passes ranking credit compliant with Google's policies. Google's spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including exchanging money for links or for posts containing links, as link spam [1].
Google also says buying and selling links is a normal part of the web for advertising and sponsorship, and is not a violation when the links carry rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" [1]. Google prefers sponsored for paid placements and still accepts nofollow [2].
When should you vet a site?
Vet a site every time before placing a link, using current data rather than a list from months ago. Sites change owners, topics and traffic quickly, and a site that passed last year may be selling links on every page today.
A practical order that saves time:
- Filter by topic fit first; it is the fastest check and removes the most sites.
- Read recent content and outbound links next.
- Verify traffic in Search Console for the sites that survive.
- Screen against Google's spam policies [1].
- Record what you checked and when.
- Expect any paid link to be qualified with
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow"[2].