When you order guest posts or backlinks, the placement report is your proof of delivery. A good one lets you open every link, see exactly what was placed and check it against what you asked for. A vague one, such as a list of domains with no URLs, tells you almost nothing.
What a good report contains
At minimum, each row should include:
- The live URL of the article (not just the domain).
- The publisher and, ideally, the type of site.
- The anchor text of your link.
- The target page on your site.
- The date it was published or delivered.
- The batch or order it belongs to, so it can be traced back to your brief.
Useful extras include the keyword or topic requested and any metrics recorded at the time, labelled with their source. In our Fast Turn PCB report, each of the 97 rows recorded the publisher, both anchors, both target pages and the live URL, in a public, view-only sheet with one tab per batch.
Five checks you can run yourself
1. Is the article live?
Open the URL. Make sure the page loads and that it is the article, not a homepage or an error page. Check a sample, not just the first few rows.
2. Is your link there, in the body?
Use your browser’s find function (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) to search for your anchor text, then hover over or inspect the link to confirm it points to the right page. Links in the article body carry more weight than links in author boxes or footers.
3. Does it point to the right page?
The report should match the brief: if the order said “custom keychains” to the keychains collection, the link should go there, not to the homepage.
4. What are the link attributes?
Right-click the link and choose Inspect. Look for rel=”nofollow”, rel=”sponsored” or rel=”ugc” on the link. Write down what you find; it matters for how you interpret the placement, and it is information you are entitled to.
5. Can the page be indexed?
In the page source, search for “noindex”. A page with a noindex robots meta tag will not appear in Google’s results. You can also search Google for the exact article URL to see if it is indexed, although that is only a rough check.
Reading the results honestly
When you check a sample, keep three groups separate:
- Live with the expected link.
- Removed or changed by the publisher: deleted articles, sites offline, links edited out.
- Couldn’t check: pages that block automated tools or require a browser check.
Do not count the last group as passed or failed. In our Vograce review, we checked 60 recorded URLs at random: 36 were live with the expected link, 23 had been removed or changed by the publisher and 1 could not be reached. Reporting it that way is less flattering than “all links live”, and far more useful.
Recorded volume vs verified results
A report records what was delivered. A live check records what is still there today. Both numbers matter, and they should never be blended into one headline figure. If an agency’s report says “200 links delivered”, ask how many were checked recently, how, and with what result.
Questions to ask your provider
- Can I see every live URL, not just domains?
- How do you choose the sites, and do they publish for real readers?
- What anchor text do you use, and can I approve it?
- What happens if a placement is removed?
- Do you re-check placements, and how often?
Every order in our Guest Posts & SEO Backlinks service comes with a placement report you can check line by line. Our case studies show what those reports look like in practice.
