How to check crowd links after placement

Checking placed links takes a few minutes per batch and saves surprises later. Go through each link with the checklist below.

1. The page opens publicly

Open the link URL in a private browser window, without being logged in to the forum. If the thread is only visible to registered users, search engines cannot see it either.

2. The link is present

Find your link on the page. Use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search for your domain. On long threads, the browser’s “Inspect” tool helps find the exact message.

3. It points to the right URL

Hover over or inspect the link and check the target address: the right page, the right protocol (https) and no typos. A link to a wrong or broken URL brings no value.

4. Check the rel attribute

In the page code, look at the rel value next to your link: none (dofollow), nofollow, ugc or sponsored. A mix is normal for crowd links; see dofollow vs nofollow links for what each one means.

5. The page can be indexed

• Search the page code for noindex in a robots meta tag.
• Check that the forum’s robots.txt does not block the section where the thread is.
• To see whether Google already knows the page, search for the thread URL in Google.

6. The thread is on topic

Make sure the discussion is related to the page you link to. Relevance matters more than any single metric of the forum.

7. Recheck over time

Moderators sometimes remove messages and forums close. Recheck links periodically — for example once a month — using a backlink tool or a simple list of URLs. With CRAUDO, if a link is removed within 6 months, we replace it.

Keep a record

Keep a spreadsheet with the link URL, target page, anchor, attribute, date placed and status at each check. It makes rechecks fast and shows how your profile grows. For planning the next batch, see how many crowd links you need.