Reading your placements
Updated · First published
Once Automatic backlinks is running, placements are the thing to look at. Each one is a link inside an article, in one direction or the other.
The two directions
Links you've earned are links pointing at your pages, inside articles somebody else published. These are what you joined for.
Links you're hosting are links inside your own articles pointing at other members' pages, and what earns your credits.
One filter above both lists switches between Verified only and Everything. On Verified only, a list with links still on their way says so rather than counting them, and points you at Everything to see them.
What a row shows
The article carrying the link, the site at the other end, the current state, and an estimated value for the link.
Not live yet is the state for a placement that has been agreed and not yet confirmed on a page. It is the normal state for a new one.
View the article or Open the article takes you to the page in question.
The estimated value
A figure describing what a link like this is worth, based on the host domain's strength.
Treat it as a comparison rather than a promise. It is useful for noticing that most of your incoming links are from one weak corner of the pool, and not useful as a forecast of traffic.
Needs attention
A panel for the placements where something is wrong, described as placements where the link is not where it should be, with the reassurance that credits only ever move for a link that has been seen, so nothing here has quietly cost you anything.
That is the right way to read it. A placement that failed is an inconvenience rather than a loss.
The usual causes are the same as anywhere else: the article was edited, the page was moved, or the host site changed.
The checking schedule
Placements are verified when they should have gone live, and re-checked on a widening schedule afterwards: soon after, then a week, a month and a quarter later.
That shape is deliberate. Most failures happen early, and most links that survive the first month survive for years, so checking daily forever would spend a lot of requests learning nothing.
When a link disappears
You are notified. The placement moves into the needs-attention panel, and if a credit had moved for it, the record reflects what actually happened.
You are also told when one is restored, so a temporary problem does not leave a permanent worry.
Where to go next
Settings and credits is where you change what you will be matched with. Automatic backlinks is the overview.
Still stuck?
Open Rankbench and the page this article describes — most screens explain themselves as you go.