Myth vs reality
Link building report for client: five myths that cause bad calls
Clients rarely dispute the invoice. They dispute the story around it. These five myths are where the story usually breaks.
Myth against reality
| Myth | Reality |
|---|---|
| More links per month means a better report | Links are a cost line. Rankings and traffic are a separate line |
| A higher Domain Rating guarantees impact | DR is Ahrefs' own score for a domain, not a promise about your page |
| If rankings rose, the links did it | A core update, a content change or seasonality may have done it |
| If rankings fell, the vendor failed | The same updates push things down; check the dates first |
| Dofollow means safe | Google can discount links it considers unnatural, as its December 2022 link spam update showed |
Why the first myth hurts most
Counting links is easy, and that is the trouble. A report that leads with the count invites the reader to expect a straight line from count to traffic.
Lead with the purchase. Say what was bought, what it cost and what was verified. Then show the metrics that moved, labelled as correlation. Clients forgive a flat month much faster than a surprise.
If you agreed a scope with the client, write the scope at the top of the report and tick it. If the scope was loose, tighten it next month.
A one-page layout
- 1
Spend
Total, number of links, price range. Pull it straight from your invoice.
- 2
Evidence
The log from the acceptance check with URLs and dates.
- 3
Movement
Search Console clicks and impressions for the target page, referring domains from your tool.
- 4
Context
Any Google update in the period, with its month, plus site changes you made yourself.
- 5
Next month
What you will buy, what you will skip and why.
Questions clients actually put to the account manager
- How many links did we get this month, and is that good?
- Give the count, the spend and the verified live URLs. Whether it is good depends on the scope you agreed, so show the scope next to the count. Never answer with a comparison to some other client's numbers.
- Why did traffic drop when we added links?
- Check the dates of Google updates first. Core updates in March 2024, August 2024 and March 2025 each moved many sites at once. Then check site changes. Only then ask whether the links played any part.
- Can we see which sites carry our links?
- Yes, and you should be able to. In the marketplace each placement appears in ordered links with its URL and status, so the report can list them without guesswork.
- Should we buy more next month?
- Decide on evidence of process, not on rank alone. If acceptance went smoothly and the target pages still need support, a second batch is reasonable. If not, hold the budget.
Wording to avoid
Words like boost, skyrocket and guaranteed turn a factual report into a promise. Replace them with verbs that describe what you did: bought, verified, recorded.
Also avoid a single blended score. Blending DR, traffic and price into one number hides the part a sceptical client would ask about.
We bought six placements for $210. All six were verified live. Clicks to the target page rose over the period, and the March 2025 core update fell in the same window, so we cannot separate the two. This is an example wording.
Notice what the sentence leaves out. It makes no forecast and blames no one, and the client can still follow it.
If the client pushes for a promise anyway, point them to the budget memo, which frames the spend as inputs, and decline politely. No honest vendor can offer more.