Answers
How do you check a website's backlinks before buying it?
Short answer: Get the seller's Search Console Links report, then check the top linking sites and link text with a link tool. Treat bought links, look-alike linking sites, repeated keyword anchor text and sudden link bursts as risk. Value the site on the traffic it would likely keep without those links, and hold back part of the price.
Why do backlinks matter when you buy a website?
For a content site or any business that lives on Google traffic, the links pointing at it are part of what you are paying for. Good links from real sites in the niche tend to keep working after you buy. Bought links, link networks and spam can stop counting or turn into a problem, and the traffic they propped up can go with them. A backlink check tells you how much of the ranking you can expect to keep.
Google's spam policies (read 27 October 2026) define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings. Its examples include buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, excessive link exchanges, automated link building, low-quality directory or bookmark links, keyword-rich links in widgets, widely distributed footer or template links, optimized links in forum comments, and paid guest posts or advertorials with links that pass ranking credit. Google says paid links are fine when they carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
What should you ask the seller for?
- A Search Console Links report export, or read access to the property so you can open it yourself. Search Console Help (read 27 October 2026) says the report shows top linking sites, top linked pages and link text, and can export the latest links. It also says the report is a sample, not every link, and does not show whether a link is nofollow.
- A plain answer on link building: has the seller, or anyone they paid, bought links, guest posts or link packages? Ask for invoices from link vendors or outreach agencies in the expense history.
- Any disavow file the seller has submitted, and why.
- Any manual action messages in Search Console. See how to check for a Google penalty.
How do you read the backlink profile?
Compare the seller's export with a third-party link tool, which sees a different sample. Then look at:
- Who links: do you recognise the top linking sites, and are they real sites in or near the niche, with their own audience?
- Link text: natural profiles are mostly the brand name, the bare URL and plain phrases. Many links using the same money keyword is a classic sign of bought or built links.
- Timing: links should build up over time. A sudden burst, especially just before the listing, deserves a question.
- Where on the page: links in footers, sidebars or widgets across many unrelated sites, or in forum signatures and comments.
- Look-alike sites: several linking sites with the same design, thin posts and outbound links to many unrelated businesses suggest a private link network.
- Which pages earn the traffic: if the pages that make the money are also the ones with the suspect links, the risk sits exactly where the revenue does.
What should worry you?
- The seller will not share Search Console, or the Links report is missing from what they share.
- Link vendor or "outreach" spend in the expenses with no explanation.
- Most links come from sites that look alike or link to everything.
- Rankings rose quickly with few signs of real readers, such as newsletter sign-ups, comments or branded searches. Pair this with a check for botted traffic.
- A domain whose old links are about a different topic. See how to check a domain's history.
Paste the listing into the free red-flag checker too. Flags such as organic search over half of traffic or claims SEO growth but search is small tell you how much of the price depends on links holding up.
How should a weak link profile change your offer?
Our rule of thumb, not market data: value the site on the traffic you believe it would keep without the suspect links. If you cannot tell, run the traffic-drop test with the pages that rely on those links removed, and offer on that number, or ask for a larger holdback tied to traffic.
Composite example, not a real listing: a $40,000 content site earns $1,500 a month in profit. Two of its five money pages hold most of the traffic, and most of their links come from a group of look-alike blogs using the same keyword anchor text. Those two pages bring in about $700 a month. Valuing the site on the remaining $800 a month at the same multiple gives roughly $21,000. The buyer offers $26,000 with $5,000 held in escrow for 90 days, released if traffic to the two pages holds.
Frequently asked questions
Can I disavow bad links after I buy the site?
You can, through Search Console, but it does not bring back rankings that rested on those links. Price the site as if the bought links already count for nothing.
Is a small number of links a red flag?
Not on its own. A young site, or one that ranks on long-tail topics, can do well with few links. A large or fast-growing link count with poor quality is more worrying than a small, clean one.
Do I need a paid SEO tool?
Not to start. The seller's Search Console export and a free tier of a link tool are enough to spot the main problems. Pay for a deeper audit only when the price justifies it.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search (link spam), read 27 October 2026
- Search Console Help, Links report, read 27 October 2026
- FirstPass Memo, red-flag checker rules, our own rules, published as /rules.json
Related
- Free red-flag checker
- How to check a domain's history
- How to check for a Google penalty
- Was the site hit by a Google update?
- How to verify website traffic
- Content website due diligence checklist
- Traffic-drop test
- Red flag: organic search over half of traffic
- Glossary of listing terms
- More questions buyers ask
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Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice.