The useful test is simple: can you see the websites before you pay? Agencies that sell volume need you to trust a metric. Agencies that sell placements need you to approve a domain. Pick the second model if you have a brand to protect.
A brand you cannot show a client is not off-page SEO. It is a PDF. If the sales call spends more time on a ranking graph than on a publisher URL, you already know the product.
Questions worth asking
- Can I see named publishers, with niche and price, before the invoice?
- Who writes, who pitches, and who do I WhatsApp when something stalls?
- What is the deliverable — a live URL, or a ranking screenshot?
- What happens if the host pulls the post?
- Do you run a private blog network, even if you call it something else?
Vexa’s answers: the sheet is the inventory. Bilal, Afshan and Jaweria are the team — you message the person doing the work. The deliverable is the published URL. If a placement is removed, we replace from the same sheet where a matching row exists. We do not promise the link lives forever. Hosts control their HTML.
We do not sell PBNs. We do not sell unnamed DA packs. We do not attach a portal that pretends one guest post moved a keyword overnight. If you need that theatre for a stakeholder, we are the wrong vendor.
What a good answer sounds like
A good agency can walk you through one row: domain, niche, what they can request, what they write, how long that host usually takes, and what you get when it is live. They can also tell you no. “That host does not take your topic” is a better sentence than “we will find something similar” with no name attached.
Ask who owns the relationship with the publisher. If the answer is “a partner network” and they cannot name the partner, you are two hops from the editor. Two hops is how briefs get lost and how replacements appear on a site you would never have approved.
Ask whether writing is included. Some rows are placement only. Some include a draft. If your legal team needs two rounds, that is not included in a 48-hour TAT. Get it in the brief before the clock starts.
Red flags
Mystery DA packs. “Guaranteed page-one” language. A portal that shows fake ranking graphs. Sitewide widgets dressed up as editorials. Payment before you see a single domain. A contract that calls the deliverable “SEO improvement” instead of URLs.
Another flag: they will not let you exclude hosts. If you cannot blacklist a competitor, a junk blog you already used, or a publisher legal has banned, you do not control the campaign. You are funding theirs.
If the pitch sounds like a lottery, it is not a publisher relationship. Lotteries need volume. Publisher work needs names.
How to compare two quotes
Do not compare “20 links” to “20 links.” Compare twenty named rows to twenty named rows. If one quote is cheaper because the domains are missing, the cheaper quote is a different product. Read how guest posting is priced the same way: per site, not per DA point.
Look at replacement terms. “We will make it right” is not a term. “We replace from the same sheet with a matching row” is. Look at what happens after go-live. A live URL in an email is the job. A monthly ranking PDF is a side show.
People, not a logo
You should know who replies on WhatsApp when a draft sits for a week. At Vexa that is a named person, not a ticket queue labelled Success. Meet them on About, or skip the theatre and send the niche.
If you already have a shortlist from our sheet, say so in the first message. If you need us to mark rows for a niche and budget, say that instead. Either way you will see domains before money moves. That is the test. Keep using it on every vendor, including us.
What to send in the first email
Niche, destination URLs, budget band, hosts to exclude, and whether drafts need legal. That is enough. You do not need a 20-page RFP. If a vendor cannot reply to that with named rows or a clear “we need one more fact,” they are not ready to run the work.
We reply in 12–24 hours, Monday–Saturday. If we cannot cover the niche from the sheet, we say so. A no is cheaper than a campaign you will hate at delivery. Read what link building is if your stakeholder still thinks the deliverable is a ranking. Align that person before you buy volume. Volume will not fix a wrong brief.
Start with a small order
You do not need a six-month retainer to test a vendor. Book two or three named rows. Watch how they confirm the host, how they handle a draft note, and whether the live URL matches the row. That sample tells you more than a sales deck.
If the sample is late, silent, or on a different domain than you approved, do not scale it. If the sample is boring and correct — named site, honest copy, live link — then talk about a month. Boring and correct is the product. Excitement is usually a ranking promise.
Keep the same test when you switch vendors. New logo, same questions. Can you see the websites before you pay? Who do you message when it stalls? What happens if the host pulls the post? If those answers get fuzzier as the quote gets bigger, the quote is the problem.