99creatix Book a 15-minute fit call
Glossary · Agency & pricing

link insertion

Also called niche edit, paid link

Reviewed 31 Oct 2026 By Madiha Fatima 4 min read Check it yourself: yes, free

4 min
Definition

Link insertion is paying the owner of an existing article to add a link to your website inside it. The article is already published and already indexed, so the link looks earned. It is also called a niche edit. Google classes any link bought to pass ranking credit as a link scheme, whatever it is called.

It shows up in proposals as link acquisition, authority placements or a price per link. The fact that there is a price per link is the tell.

Short version: a paid link in someone else's old article.
Why it matters for your business

It works until it does not,
and the penalty lands on you.

Link insertions are popular because they are quick. Earning a backlink by publishing something worth citing takes months; buying one takes an email and a payment. For a while the rankings move. The problem is that the vendor selling the placement is selling the same spot to hundreds of sites, the article it sits in was often bought too and Google has spent years learning what that pattern looks like.

When Google acts, it either ignores the links, so you paid for nothing, or applies a manual action against your domain, so your real pages drop with them. The agency that bought the links has moved on. You are the one filing a reconsideration request. That is why a proposal quoting a number of links per month, rather than a plan for earning them, is a red flag, and why nothing on our price list includes bought links.

The fair version exists: a sponsored article, clearly labelled, with the link marked as sponsored. That is advertising. It can send you customers and it passes no ranking credit, and it is honest about what it is.

Example

A towing company buys
ten authority links a month.

What the proposal says

"Ten high-authority link placements per month on established sites, contextual and permanent." A metric from an SEO tool is quoted as proof of quality.

What that means

Ten paid insertions into old articles on sites that sell them, chosen by domain authority rather than by whether anyone in the towing company's city reads them, none marked as sponsored. The company's referring domains jump. The map pack does not move, because map rankings barely use these links, and the next core update wipes out the organic gain. A real plan would name the local directories, the roadside-assistance partners and the news outlets a tow company could genuinely earn a mention from.

How to check it on your site

Four free checks for bought links.

Tick each one as you go. 0 of 4 checked on your site.

  1. Read the proposal for a quantity of links

    "Ten links a month" or a price per link is an insertion programme. A fair plan describes what will be published or pitched and to whom, and admits that the count is not guaranteed.

  2. Open your Links report

    In Search Console go to Links, then Top linking sites. Click through to the actual pages. An insertion is an old article, often off-topic, with your link dropped into a sentence that did not need it.

  3. Look at the other outbound links on that page

    A page that links to a towing company, a casino and a supplement shop in one article is a page that sells links. Every link on it is worth nothing or worse.

  4. Ask the agency to put it in writing

    Ask: are any links in this plan paid for, and are they marked rel="sponsored"? A fair agency answers in one sentence. An evasive answer about relationships with publishers is a yes.

Related terms

Usually in the same sentence.

Read next

Where this shows up in practice.

Pricing & transparency The fees agencies hide

Link budgets that are never itemised are on the list. Here is how to ask where the money goes.

 SEO explained How long SEO takes

Why earned links take months, and why anything promising faster is usually buying them.

 Service SEO & AI search

How links are earned in the rolling SEO work, with the targets named in the plan.
Related service

Links in our SEO service are earned through directories, partners, press and content, never bought, and the plan names the targets. Prices are on the price list, not on a call.

See the SEO service
Reviewed by Madiha Fatima, founder of 99creatix

Every entry in this glossary is written and checked by the person who runs the agency, reviewed at least once a quarter and dated. Last reviewed 31 October 2026.

Spotted an error or a term we are missing? Tell us and it is fixed within the week.

Did this explain it?
Next step

Worried about links
someone bought for you?

Bring your Search Console login to the fit call. In fifteen minutes we can tell you whether the links pointing at your site were earned or bought and what, if anything, needs doing about them.

Book a 15-minute fit call Back to the glossary