Contract check
What should I check in a link building contract?
Link building contracts are short, which is not the same as simple. These are the seven points where the difference between engagements is actually written down.
Last updated · Figures are third-party published data, cited inline
The short answer
Check seven clauses: term and exit notice, ownership of content and prospect lists on termination, the replacement window for dead links, written quality criteria, disclosure of paid placements, page-level reporting specification, and the make-good if a campaign lands nothing.
Link building contracts run to three or four pages, which encourages people to skim them. These seven clauses are where the difference between a good and a bad engagement is actually recorded.
1. Term and exit
Three months is normal. Outreach has a three to six week lead time and no agency recovers setup cost in four weeks, so a minimum is reasonable. What is not reasonable is twelve months with no break clause.
Ask for: a three-month initial term, then 30 days’ notice.
2. Ownership on termination
Live links stay live — nobody can retract those. What is negotiable is the content you paid to have written and the prospect list built for your campaign. Many contracts say nothing, which in practice means you leave with neither.
Ask for: explicit assignment of commissioned content and the vetted prospect list on termination.
3. Replacement policy for dead links
Ahrefs found 66.5% of links built between 2013 and 2024 are now dead. Without a replacement clause you are buying an asset with no warranty at all.
Ask for: monitoring for at least six months post-placement, with free replacement of any link that goes dead in that window. Twelve months exists in this market, so it is not an unreasonable ask.
4. Quality criteria, in writing
Not “high-authority sites” — the actual disqualification rules. Minimum organic traffic, maximum outbound links per page, whether the site openly sells placements, whether it has a real audience.
Ask for: the criteria as a schedule to the contract, so a placement that breaches them is a contractual issue rather than a disagreement.
5. Disclosure of paid placements
What proportion of your links will involve a payment to the publisher. This determines your actual policy exposure and the likely half-life of what you buy.
Ask for: a stated percentage, and ideally a cap.
6. Reporting specification
Domain-level referring domain counts always rise, which is why they get reported. Rankings are decided page by page.
Ask for: monthly reporting showing referring domains to each nominated target URL, plus live URLs for every placement and a live/dead status column.
7. Make-good on failed campaigns
Digital PR campaigns sometimes land nothing. That is the nature of pitching journalists, and it is not misconduct. A fee with no floor and no remedy means the buyer carries all of that risk.
Ask for: a minimum deliverable or a credit against the next month if a campaign produces no coverage.
None of these are unusual asks, and a good agency will have seen all seven before. The reaction to being asked is itself useful information.
Run the eleven questions before you get to contract stage, and check what you actually own if the engagement ends.
Questions
What is a normal minimum term for link building?
Should a link building contract include a replacement policy?
Who owns the content after the contract ends?
Related service
Hiring a link building agency
This guide sits under hiring a link building agency. Start there for the full picture.
Read hiring a link building agencyKeep reading
- Who owns the links if I cancel the retainer? Live links stay live and nobody can take them back. Almost everything else depends on a clause most contracts leave out.
- What happens when the links you paid for go dead? Two thirds of everything ever built is gone. It is the least discussed line item in link building and the easiest one to negotiate for.
- What questions should I ask on the first sales call? Ask all eleven, in the same order, of everyone. Identical questions produce comparable answers — which is the thing proposals in this market are missing.
- Agency, marketplace or freelancer — which should you use? Three routes to the same outcome, with completely different failure modes. The right one depends less on budget than on who is going to enforce quality.
- How do I vet a link building agency before signing? Five stages, roughly two weeks, and a small paid trial at the end. Cheaper than discovering the problem in month four.
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