A link building marketplace is a website where publishers list their sites and you pay to get an article with your link published on one of them. The platform shows the catalog, holds your payment and takes a cut. That part is simple. The hard part is picking a site that is worth the money, because the catalog numbers are often the least reliable thing on the page.
I buy guest posts through marketplaces every month for sites I work on, mostly in Spain and Germany. In this post I’ll show you how these platforms work, what Google says about paid links (it matters more than most marketplace blogs admit), and the seven checks I run before I pay for any placement.
Last updated: October 13, 2026.
How a link building marketplace works
Every marketplace I have used follows the same basic flow. Publishers add their sites and set a price. You filter the catalog by language, topic, price and a few SEO metrics, then place an order. Either you send your own article or the publisher writes one, which is usually included in the price or costs a little extra. Once the post is live you get the URL and confirm the order.
Getalink, for example, describes exactly this process on its homepage: you choose a publication, optionally supply your text, approve the draft and receive the live URL, usually within about five business days.
The platform makes its money from a commission, and that is the real value it offers you. A good backlinks marketplace protects the payment until the post is live and gives you someone to complain to when a publisher removes your link after a month. Outreach by email gives you neither.
What Google says about buying links
Before you spend anything, read Google’s spam policies. “Buying or selling links for ranking purposes” is listed as link spam, and the first example is “exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links.” That is literally what a marketplace sells.
The same page says paid links are fine when they are qualified with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”. Most marketplace orders are sold as followed links with no attribute, so you are taking a risk the moment you buy one. How big is that risk? It depends on how obvious the pattern is. One guest post on a real magazine that covers your topic looks like the rest of the web. Fifty posts on sites that exist only to sell posts looks like what it is.
So my rule is boring. Links from marketplaces are a small part of the plan, never the plan, and only on sites a reader would take seriously.
Links won’t save weak content
Want proof? I measured it on this very blog. This site has around 1,200 referring domains, built over years of guest posts, mentions and links from other niche sites. It still lost most of its traffic in Google’s helpful content update of September 2024. The links were there before and after. What changed was how Google judged the content.
That’s why I only buy links for pages that already deserve to rank. My topical authority guide covers how to build that base first. A link pointing to a thin page just sends authority to something Google has already decided not to show.
7 checks before you buy a link
These are the checks I run on every site, in this order, before I click “order”. The order matters because the first ones are free and eliminate most of the catalog.
1. Does the site have real search traffic?
Marketplaces show traffic numbers, but many of them come from the publisher or from a tool estimate that is months old. I check the domain myself in an SEO tool and look at the trend over the last year. For the sites I work on, I used SE Ranking and DataForSEO for this. A site that dropped 80% in the last update is still a site that Google stopped trusting, whatever the catalog says.
2. Is the traffic coming from the right country?
A Spanish site with most of its traffic from Latin America is not the same as one read in Spain. If your business sells in one country, the link should come from a site read in that country.
3. Does it publish anything other than sponsored posts?
Open the blog and scroll through the last 20 posts. If every one of them is a guest post with a commercial link (casinos, loans, CBD, then “10 tips for your kitchen”), skip it. Those sites are the easiest pattern for Google to spot.
4. Is the topic close to yours?
I prefer a smaller site in the same field over a bigger general one. A link from a real estate blog to a jeweller makes no sense to a reader, and it makes no sense to Google either.
5. Have you used this domain before?
The second link from the same domain is worth much less than the first. I keep a spreadsheet with every domain that already links to each site I work on, and I check it before every order. Marketplaces don’t track this for you across projects.
6. Who links to your competitors?
The best candidates are sites that already link to two or three of your competitors but not to you. Run a backlink gap in your SEO tool and then search the marketplace for those domains. When one of them is listed, you know it is a site your niche already trusts.
7. Will the post get indexed?
A link on a page Google never indexes does nothing. Before buying, I search Google for recent sponsored posts on that site with the site: operator. If older guest posts don’t show up, mine won’t either. After publication I check again about ten days later. Some placements never get indexed, and the good marketplaces will help you claim those.
Which page should get the link?
Not the homepage by default. I pick pages that already rank between positions 4 and 20 for a keyword with real search volume. A page sitting on page two has already shown Google it is relevant. An extra link can be the push it needs, and you can measure whether it worked.
Pages ranking at 60 usually have a content problem, not a link problem. Fix the page first. A content audit will tell you which ones need it.
Keep the anchor text natural, too. The brand name, the page title or a plain description are all fine. An exact-match keyword on every purchased link is the second pattern Google looks for after the sites themselves.
The marketplaces I have used
I’ll only mention platforms I have used myself. Which one fits depends mostly on the language of your site, because catalogs are strong in some markets and thin in others.
| Marketplace | Where it is strongest | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Getalink | Spanish-language media, plus many other countries | Check real traffic yourself; catalog numbers vary in freshness |
| Getlinko | Spanish sites and regional press | Compare the same domain on Getalink before ordering |
| PRNEWS.IO | News and press sites in many countries | Verify the real traffic of the site, not just the brand name |
| Backlinked | German sites | Check how long the link is guaranteed to stay live |
| Collaborator | English-language sites | Large catalog, so filtering by real traffic is essential |
I wrote a full Collaborator review if you want the details of that one. For English-language niche sites you will also find sellers on general freelance marketplaces, but there the vetting is entirely on you.
How much should a link cost?
Prices on marketplaces are set by each publisher, so you will see the same kind of site listed at very different prices. Price says very little about quality. That’s why the seven checks above come before the price filter, never after it.
Decide what a link is worth to you by the page it points to. If the page sells something that brings you a few hundred dollars a month, a placement that moves it from position 9 to position 4 pays for itself. If the page brings no money, no price is cheap.
Are there other ways to get backlinks?
Yes, and they should come first. Content that people want to cite still earns links on its own: original data, tools, honest reviews. Guest posting through real outreach takes longer but gives you links on sites that don’t sell them, which are worth more. My guide to niche-relevant backlinks covers those methods.
A marketplace is a shortcut for the gap between what you can earn and what you need, nothing more. If you are still building the content side, start with my niche blogging guide.
Link building marketplace FAQ
Is buying backlinks illegal?
No, it is not illegal. It goes against Google’s spam policies when the link passes ranking credit and is not marked with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”. The risk is a loss of rankings, not a legal problem.
Can buying backlinks hurt my site?
Yes. Many links from sites that only sell posts, or many exact-match anchors, can lead Google to ignore your links or to take manual action. A few links on real, relevant sites rarely cause problems.
What is the best link building marketplace?
The best one is the one with real, relevant sites in your language. For Spanish sites I start with Getalink and Getlinko, for German sites with Backlinked, and for English sites I compare Collaborator with direct outreach.
How do I know if a backlink is good?
Check that the site has real search traffic from your country, that it publishes its own content, that its topic is close to yours and that its pages get indexed. A good link is one a reader might actually click.
If you are about to place your first order, start with one site that passes all seven checks, point it at a page already ranking on page two, and measure the result for a month before you buy the next one.
