You’re paying for digital PR. Or link building. Or some hybrid that your agency describes in language vague enough to cover both. Every month you get a report with a list of URLs and some metrics. Everything looks fine.
But is it?
After analyzing 5,272 real media placements and seeing what good, mediocre, and terrible PR links actually look like in the wild, I can tell you: most people have no idea what they’re paying for. And that’s exactly how some agencies prefer it.
This guide will teach you how to audit the links you’re getting from any PR or link-building provider. By the end, you’ll know exactly what to look for, what the red flags are, and whether you should keep paying or start looking elsewhere.
Why You Need to Audit PR Links
The gap between “we got you 15 placements this month” and “we got you 15 links that actually help your business” is enormous. I’ve seen monthly reports that looked impressive on the surface but contained:
- Links from sites with inflated Domain Ratings (DR) that get zero organic traffic
- “Placements” that were actually paid advertorials marked as sponsored
- Follow links that were quietly changed to nofollow a week after the report was sent
- Links buried in the author bio of a guest post, not in the editorial body
- Coverage on sites so irrelevant to the client’s industry that Google probably ignored them entirely
None of these are useless. But none of them are what most clients think they’re paying for, either. The only way to know what you’re getting is to look.
The 7-Point Link Quality Audit
Here’s the framework we use at Presslei to evaluate every link, whether it’s one we earned or one a client is showing us from a previous provider. Work through each point for every link in your last report.
1. Domain Rating / Domain Authority
What to check: Open Ahrefs and look up the Domain Rating (DR) of the publication. Or use Moz for Domain Authority (DA). These aren’t the same metric but they serve the same purpose: they tell you roughly how authoritative a site is.
What good looks like:
- DR 70+: Tier 1. Publications like The Guardian (DR 92), Forbes (DR 95), Business Insider (DR 93). Links from these sites carry significant SEO weight and brand credibility.
- DR 40-69: Tier 2. Solid industry publications, strong regional news, established niche sites. These are the workhorses of most PR campaigns.
- DR under 40: Tier 3. Smaller blogs, local news, niche directories. Not worthless, but not premium.
Red flag: If your agency promised Tier 1 coverage and most links are DR 30 to 45, you have a targeting problem. Check our PR KPIs guide for how we benchmark this.
Deeper red flag: Some sites have artificially inflated DR. A site might show DR 55 in Ahrefs but get almost no organic traffic. This usually means it’s a link farm or a private blog network (PBN) that’s built its authority through link schemes rather than real content. Always cross-reference DR with organic traffic. A DR 55 site should be getting at least 10,000 to 50,000 organic visits per month. If it’s getting 200, something is off.
2. Topical Relevance
What to check: Is the site that linked to you relevant to your industry, your audience, or the topic of the campaign?
What good looks like: A fitness brand getting a link from Men’s Health. A fintech getting a link from Business Insider’s finance section. A travel company getting covered in Conde Nast Traveller. The publication’s audience overlaps with the brand’s audience.
Red flag: A SaaS company getting links from a recipe blog, a pet care site, and a wedding directory in the same month. This screams “we’re buying links from whoever will sell them” rather than earning editorial coverage from relevant journalists.
Google’s guidelines are clear on this. Links should be editorially placed and contextually relevant. An irrelevant link from a high-DR site is worth less than a relevant link from a mid-DR site in most cases.
This is one of the core differences between digital PR and link building. Earned media coverage is inherently relevant because a journalist chose to cover the story. Bought links are often irrelevant because the transaction is about the link, not the content.
3. Follow vs Nofollow
What to check: Right-click the link to your site, inspect the HTML, and look at the rel attribute. A standard follow link has no rel=”nofollow” or rel=”sponsored” tag. A nofollow link does.
What good looks like: A healthy mix. In our dataset, roughly 60 to 65% of editorial PR links are follow and 35 to 40% are nofollow. Major publications like Forbes, HuffPost, and many regional outlets default to nofollow on external links.
Red flag: If 100% of your links are follow, especially from mid-tier sites, that’s suspicious. It suggests the links are placed, not earned. Real editorial coverage from a mix of publications will always include some nofollow links.
Important nuance: Google has said since 2019 that nofollow is a “hint,” not a directive. Nofollow links from authoritative, relevant sites still carry some SEO value, drive referral traffic, and build brand awareness. Don’t dismiss them. But don’t pay follow-link prices for nofollow links either.
4. Anchor Text
What to check: What text is hyperlinked? Is it your brand name? A keyword? A generic “click here”? The URL itself?
What good looks like: Natural anchor text distribution. In genuine editorial coverage, anchors tend to be:
- Brand name (“Presslei” or “according to Presslei”)
- Descriptive phrase (“the PR agency’s study found”)
- URL (“presslei.com”)
- Occasionally a natural keyword (“reactive PR agency” in a sentence about reactive PR)
Red flag: Exact-match keyword anchors like “best digital PR agency London” or “cheap flights to Spain” appearing repeatedly. This is the single biggest giveaway that links are being built, not earned. No journalist writes “according to best digital PR agency London, a study found…” That’s not how English works.
Google’s Penguin algorithm specifically targets unnatural anchor text patterns. If your backlink profile is stuffed with exact-match keyword anchors, you’re building a penalty risk, not building authority.
What to do: Pull your full backlink profile from Ahrefs (Site Explorer > Backlinks > Anchors). Look at the distribution. Brand name anchors should be the majority (50%+). Natural phrases and URLs should make up most of the rest. Exact keyword matches should be rare and incidental.
5. Link Context and Placement
What to check: Where on the page does the link appear? Is it in the body of the article? In the author bio? In a sidebar widget? In a “sponsored content” section?
What good looks like: The link appears naturally within the body of an editorial article. It’s referenced because the journalist found your data, product, or expertise relevant to the story they were writing. The surrounding text is genuine editorial content.
Red flags:
- Link in the author bio of a “guest post” (this is paid placement, not PR)
- Link in a “sponsored content” or “partner content” section (pay to play)
- Link in a blogroll, sidebar widget, or footer (sitewide links are often manipulative)
- Link in a listicle of 50+ “best tools” where every entry is clearly paid
The context test: Read the paragraph around the link. Does it read like a journalist wrote it? Or does it read like marketing copy? If the paragraph could appear on the company’s own website without any changes, it’s probably not genuine editorial coverage.
6. Traffic and Engagement
What to check: Does the page your link appears on actually get traffic? And does the site itself have real readers?
How to check: Ahrefs shows estimated organic traffic for any URL. SimilarWeb gives broader traffic estimates. If the site claims 500,000 monthly visitors but SimilarWeb shows 3,000, something doesn’t add up.
What good looks like: The page has some organic traffic of its own. It ranks for related keywords. It’s been indexed by Google. People actually read it.
Red flag: Your link appears on a page with zero estimated traffic, on a site with zero social following, and no other visible signs of real readership. This is a ghost site. It exists only to sell links. Google knows these sites exist and devalues them accordingly.
Bonus check: Look at the page in Google’s cache. If Google hasn’t cached it recently (or at all), that tells you something about how much Google values the content.
7. Link Persistence
What to check: Is the link still live? Not just today, but was it live last month? Will it be live next month?
What good looks like: Links that stay live indefinitely. Genuine editorial coverage doesn’t get deleted because the journalist wrote it, the editor approved it, and it’s part of the publication’s archive. We’ve tracked links from placements that are still live 3+ years later.
Red flag: Links that disappear within 30 to 90 days. This is common with paid placements on sites that sell links on a rental basis.
How to monitor: Set up a monthly link audit. Use Ahrefs (Backlinks > check “Lost” tab) or a dedicated tool like Linkody or Monitor Backlinks. If you’re losing earned PR links, it’s usually because a page was restructured. If you’re losing bought links, it’s because the deal expired.
I covered link tracking in more detail in the PR KPIs guide, including the spreadsheet template we use.
How to Run the Audit: Step by Step
Here’s a practical workflow for auditing your last 3 months of PR links.
Step 1: Collect all links. Pull every link from your agency’s reports for the last 90 days. You should also pull your backlink profile from Ahrefs to catch any links they didn’t report (or links they reported that don’t actually exist).
Step 2: Build the audit spreadsheet. For each link, record:
| URL | Publication | DR | Organic Traffic | Follow/NF | Anchor Text | Placement Type | Still Live? | Relevance (1-5) |
|---|
Step 3: Score each link. Use a simple scoring system:
- DR 70+ and relevant: 5 points
- DR 40-69 and relevant: 3 points
- DR under 40 but relevant: 1 point
- Irrelevant regardless of DR: 0 points
- Deduct 1 point for: nofollow, author bio placement, or keyword-stuffed anchor
- Deduct 3 points for: paid/sponsored disclosure, ghost site, link already removed
Step 4: Calculate your average. Sum the scores, divide by number of links. If your average is below 2, you have a quality problem.
Step 5: Compare to what you’re paying. A good digital PR campaign delivering genuine editorial coverage should average 3+ on this scale. If you’re paying premium prices for links that score 1 to 2, the value isn’t there.
What Good PR Links Look Like vs What Bad Ones Look Like
Let me paint the contrast clearly.
A good PR link:
- Appears in The Guardian, Business Insider, or a respected industry publication
- DR 75+
- Follow link (though nofollow from top-tier is still valuable)
- Anchor text is the brand name in a natural sentence
- The article is written by a staff journalist or named contributor
- The page ranks for related keywords and gets organic traffic
- The link is still live 6 months later
A bad PR link:
- Appears on a site you’ve never heard of with a generic name like “BusinessNewsDaily247.com”
- DR 45 but organic traffic of 150 visits/month
- Follow link (suspiciously, because real publications at this level are often nofollow)
- Anchor text is “best digital PR services UK”
- The “article” reads like a press release copy-pasted with no editorial input
- The page has no social shares, no comments, no signs of real readership
- The link disappears in 60 days
If your monthly report is full of the second type, you’re not getting PR. You’re getting link building dressed up as PR. And there’s a significant difference in long-term value and risk.
What to Do With Your Audit Results
If the links are mostly good (average score 3+): Great. Your provider is delivering genuine coverage. Make sure you’re also tracking the downstream metrics: referral traffic, keyword rankings, brand search volume.
If the links are mixed (average score 2-3): Have a conversation with your provider. Ask specifically about the low-scoring links. Were they part of a broader campaign that also included strong placements? Or are they padding the numbers?
If the links are mostly bad (average score under 2): You have a problem. Either your agency is selling you link building as PR, or their approach isn’t landing real editorial coverage. This is a good time to explore what earned reactive PR looks like versus what you’re currently getting.
The Business Case for Switching to Earned PR
Here’s the uncomfortable comparison. The link-building industry charges $100 to $1,000+ per link depending on DR. For that money, you get a placed link on a site that may or may not be relevant, may or may not have real traffic, and may or may not stay live.
Earned editorial PR, the kind where a journalist at a real publication covers your data study and links to you because the story is genuinely newsworthy, produces links that:
- Come from sites with real audiences (because the publication has real readers)
- Are topically relevant (because the journalist covers that beat)
- Have natural anchor text (because a journalist wrote the sentence)
- Stay live indefinitely (because it’s part of the publication’s editorial archive)
- Build brand awareness beyond SEO (because real people read the article)
We break down the full cost comparison in the digital PR pricing guide.
Your Audit Checklist
Before your next report review, check every link against these questions:
- What is the site’s DR and does it match its organic traffic? (Inflated DR is a red flag)
- Is the publication relevant to your industry or audience?
- Is the link follow or nofollow? (A natural mix is expected)
- What’s the anchor text? (Brand name and natural phrases are good; keyword-stuffed is bad)
- Where does the link appear on the page? (Editorial body is good; bio/sidebar/footer is weak)
- Does the page get real traffic? (Check Ahrefs estimated traffic)
- Is the link still live? (Check monthly)
Run this audit quarterly. It takes 2 to 3 hours and it’s the single best way to understand whether your PR investment is building real authority or just building a number in a spreadsheet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many links should I expect from a PR campaign per month?
It depends on the approach and the budget, but a good benchmark for a data-driven digital PR campaign is 8 to 15 placements per campaign, with about 60 to 70% including a backlink. Some placements will be brand mentions without a link, which still have value for awareness but less for SEO. If your agency is promising 50+ links per month, they’re almost certainly not all earned editorial coverage.
Is a nofollow link from Forbes worth anything?
Yes. A nofollow link from Forbes still drives referral traffic (Forbes has millions of readers), builds brand credibility (you were covered in Forbes), and sends indirect SEO signals (Google treats nofollow as a hint). It won’t pass as much direct link equity as a follow link, but dismissing it entirely is a mistake. The best PR campaigns produce a natural mix of follow and nofollow links.
My agency says DR doesn’t matter as much as relevance. Are they right?
Partially. Relevance is extremely important, and a DR 45 link from a perfectly relevant industry publication can outperform a DR 80 link from an irrelevant source. But the claim is sometimes used to justify consistently low-DR placements. Both matter. A relevant, high-DR link is the gold standard. Push for both, not one at the expense of the other.
Want links that pass every point on this audit? Presslei earns editorial coverage in DR 70+ publications through data-driven reactive PR. No paid placements. No guest posts. No link schemes. See how it works.
Salva Jovells is the founder of Presslei, a reactive PR agency based in Zurich. He has analyzed 5,272 media placements to build a data-driven approach to earning press coverage. Get in touch at presslei.com/contact.
About the Author
Salvador Jovells
Founder of Presslei. 12+ years in ecommerce SEO across international markets. After a decade of link buying for Hockerty and Sumissura, I reverse-engineered 5,272 earned media placements and founded a reactive PR agency that builds authority through data-driven stories journalists actually want to publish. Based in Zurich.
