Who owns the links if I cancel the retainer?

The good news first: live placements stay live. An agency cannot remove a link from a publisher’s site — it does not control that site, and the publisher has no reason to act on a request from an agency whose client has left.

There is one exception worth checking. If any of your links sit on properties the agency itself owns or controls, those can disappear. Ask directly whether any placements are on owned properties. The answer also tells you something about how the links were obtained in the first place.

What you can lose

Commissioned content. You paid for the articles that carry your links. Whether you own them depends entirely on the contract, and link building agreements are frequently silent on it — which in most jurisdictions means the creator retains it. This matters if you want to repurpose the work or if a publisher later asks who holds the rights.

The prospect list. Weeks of research went into finding and qualifying sites for your campaign. That list is valuable to whoever comes next, and it is almost never handed over unless the contract says so.

Historical reporting data. If reporting lives in the agency’s dashboard rather than in files sent to you, access can stop the day the contract does. You then cannot show what was built or when.

Outstanding placements. Work in progress at the moment of cancellation. Some contracts complete committed placements after termination; others stop immediately. Check which.

What to ask for in the contract

• Commissioned content assigned to you on termination
• The vetted prospect and outreach list provided on request
• Reporting data delivered as files monthly, not only as dashboard access
• Placements already commissioned to be completed after notice
• The replacement policy for dead links to survive termination for its stated window

That last one is the most commonly missed. If you have a six-month replacement window and you leave in month four, does the window continue? Usually not, unless the contract says so — and given that 66.5% of links built between 2013 and 2024 are now dead, that gap is worth closing.

Before you give notice

Export everything first. Once notice is given, cooperation tends to become slower, and none of it is unreasonable to want:

1. Every live placement URL with its publication date
2. All commissioned content
3. The prospect and outreach list
4. Full historical reporting
5. The current live/dead status of every placement

Then re-check the live status of every link yourself 90 days later. That is the number that tells you what the engagement actually bought — see link rot.

Get these terms settled before signing, using the contract checklist.

Questions