The backlink exchange

A backlink is a link from another website that points to yours. Search engines treat backlinks as signals of trust, so a site that earns links from relevant, quality sources builds authority in its niche. Earning them normally takes outreach, negotiation, and follow-up. The backlink exchange automates that work: your site joins a vetted network of participating RankYak websites, and links are matched, placed, and verified for you.

How the exchange works

The exchange connects websites with complementary content and facilitates mutual link placement.

Matching. RankYak analyzes your articles and matches them with relevant websites in complementary niches. Only contextually relevant pairings are considered, so a link always makes sense on the page where it appears.

Placement. Links are placed inside relevant articles rather than in sidebars or footers. Your articles receive backlinks from partner sites in the network, and in return your own articles include contextual links to other relevant sites. The exchange is balanced, so every participating website both gives and receives.

Quality control. Every link is checked for relevance, quality, and fit within the article it appears in. This keeps the network healthy and ensures each link adds value for readers as well as search engines.

Joining the network

The exchange is opt-in per site.

1. Go to Backlinks in the left-hand menu.
2. Click Join the network.

Once you have joined, matching begins automatically. Depending on your niche, the first backlink may take a few days to arrive. If a week passes without a new link, your site moves to the front of the line for the next related article in the network. You may follow your incoming links on the backlink overview.

Eligibility

To participate, RankYak must know the live URLs of the articles it has written for you, so that links can be matched, placed, and verified. Only articles that RankYak wrote take part: exchange links are placed in them and point to them, so posts you wrote yourself neither give nor receive exchange links. If you publish through an integration, this happens automatically. If you publish manually, you should mark each article as published and provide its URL. If you publish through a webhook or an automation tool, you should report each live URL back with Set external URL in the article's actions menu or through the API.

You also need to keep publishing: to join, your site must have published at least one article with a live URL within the past 30 days. If your site stops publishing, its participation pauses automatically, and it resumes on its own once a new article goes live.

The exchange links paying sites to each other, so a site on its free trial neither gives nor receives exchange links. You may still join during the trial, and the links start once the subscription starts.

Websites in high-risk or heavily regulated niches are not eligible for the exchange.

Leaving the network

If you would like to stop participating, go to Backlinks and click Leave network. Your site is removed from the network immediately, which stops both the links you receive and the links your articles give. Of course, you may rejoin at any time.