Indirect Link Exchange: Is It a Scam?

Imagine receiving an email offering to “exchange links” with a genuinely authoritative website.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

It’s an excellent opportunity to get a high-quality backlink and showcase your product with a reputable player who shares your audience.

Sometimes, this kind of offer arrives from the company’s official domain and offers an “exchange.”

But the devil is in the details—specifically, in the word “indirect.” It turns what seems like a solid offer into a shady tactic, to say the least.

Some might even call it a scam.

Here’s an example:

As the conversation continues, it turns out that you are not expected to get the link from the authoritative website mentioned. You’ll get an annual subscription from the mentioned SaaS and a backlink from their “partner.”

Here’s a quote:

“I’m requesting an indirect link exchange where I’ll link Xamsor.com to my partner website, livepositively.com(DR72 and 19.7K Traffic). In exchange, you’ll also link one of VEED’s pages to an article at Xamsor.com.”

A quick search shows that the suggested “partner website” backlink is available on every marketplace, starting at just $7.

In other words, the offer is – the backlink from my website to VEED’s website “paid” by:

1. VEED annual subscription (effective cost ± zero)
2. Link from a marketplace publisher valued below $40.

Whether VEED’s “indirect link exchange” offer is legit depends on several factors:

1. Do you use their product? If yes, it’s probably worth considering. If not, it doesn’t make sense.
2. Do you offer links from your website for sale? If yes, do you value them at the price of a low-cost publisher in the marketplace?

For me, the offer wasn’t great:

1. I had no idea about this product before receiving their outreach.
2. I neither sell links from my website nor value them on par with marketplace links.

However, it inspired me to write this post and will probably ignite an interesting discussion. Do you think the “indirect” link exchange is a scam? Drop a comment on my LinkedIn.