Link Insertions Into Pages That Already Rank

An insertion earns its money only when the page already has readers, and most of what is sold as a niche edit does not. The rule I use is checkable before anyone pays: the target URL ranks in the top twenty for at least one query with real monthly demand, has been published for more than six months, and carries fewer than four existing outbound follow links to commercial domains. Roughly one URL in eight that gets offered to me clears all three. The rest are pages that exist to hold links, and a link on one of those is a line item, not an asset. What actually changes on the page: I rewrite the passage. Not a sentence with your brand bolted onto the end of it: the paragraph is rewritten so that the link is the reason a reader clicks, with the publisher's editor approving the new text. That is slower than the trade standard and it is the difference between an insertion that survives the next content refresh and one that gets stripped the first time somebody actually reads the page. Where the surrounding section is out of date, I fix the facts in it too, at no charge, because that is what makes an editor say yes a second time. Dates and disclosure: I do not ask a publisher to change a published date, backdate an insertion, or touch the modified timestamp on a page where nothing else changed. Editors who agree to that are telling you what else they agree to. Where money does change hands with the publisher, and at this end of the market it sometimes does, the link carries rel="sponsored" and you decide with that fact on the table, before the invoice. What I turn down: Insertions into "best tools" and "top ten" roundups where you would not qualify on merit. Pages already carrying links to two of your competitors, which is a page with a price list whatever the seller calls it. Sites whose entire traffic is one viral post from 2019. Private blog networks, including the well-built ones. Casino, loan and adult adjacency anywhere in the outbound profile, which in fintech disqualifies most of the cheap inventory on its own. And any site where the search traffic cannot be verified independently of the seller's screenshot. Proof, and what happens later: For each insertion you get the live URL, a capture of the page before and after, the query the page ranks for with its position on the day of insertion, and the disclosure status. I check every link I have placed for you once a month for twelve months and tell you when one disappears. Insertions have a mortality rate, near one in ten in the first year, and a supplier who never mentions it is hoping nobody checks. Not for you if: You want volume at a unit price. This costs a multiple of the market rate per link and produces fewer of them, and if the arithmetic you run is cost per link then the market rate is a better fit, which I mean without sarcasm. Also not for new domains with nothing else running: an insertion accelerates a page that is already close, it does not launch one. Where the links point: Pages you have decided to keep for two years. Usually a comparison page, a documentation landing page, or a category page sitting between position eight and twenty-five. I will argue with your list before I accept it.