Split the seven checks by what you can see
A single score hides the failed line. These checks stay separate, and they also stay in order, because the first three use the marketplace row and the last four need the hostname. Doing all seven 'from the DR' is how a masked domain gets a passing grade it cannot earn yet. The safety note is the page you paste the sentences into. This page is how each sentence gets a pass or a fail.
Time: about 15 minutes before you pay, and about 25 minutes on delivery day. If you cannot spend the second block, do not buy a second row until you have. A queue of unpaid vetting is cheaper than a queue of live URLs you have not opened.
1. Traffic trend versus the DR cell
From the row you only have a monthly traffic number, not the chart. Pass for now means the number is large enough that a chart could exist, and you have written down that the chart is a delivery-day item. Fail means you are about to buy TECH-107 because DR is 76 while ignoring that you have not seen whether 310,000 visits is a current plateau or a leftover spike. The drawer labels DR as Ahrefs DR. The hero copy calls the traffic figure Google Analytics traffic. Screenshot both cells into the note so the number you judged is the number you were shown.
On delivery day, open the organic chart for the last twelve months. Pass: the line is flat or rising, and the last three months are not a cliff. Fail: one post in 2024 is the whole history, or the line falls while DR stays high. DR lags. A domain can look strong after the audience has left. Write 'chart pass' or 'chart fail' with the month you looked. A fail here ends the review. Do not average it with a pretty DR.
2. Country, from the cell you already have
This one you can fail before payment. SAAS-109 says US 51%. WEB3-105 says US 38%. AI-101 says US 48%. Pass: your buyers are in that country, or the product is a developer tool whose readers are genuinely spread out and you have written that reason. Fail: you sell only to UK accounting firms and you picked the row because the visits number was round. There is no UK-majority row described in the shipped table. Do not invent one by hoping the US share is 'close enough.'
On delivery day, check the country chart against the cell. If the cell said US 51% and the tool you trust says the traffic is mostly somewhere else, the cell was wrong. Ask for a correction or leave. Do not quietly keep a row whose geography you have now disproved.
3. Outbound links, delivery day
You cannot see outbound links through a mask. Schedule this for the hour the URL arrives, and also open two other articles that are not yours. Pass: the page cites sources that are not sponsors, and commercial dofollow links are rare. The shipped listings talk about a cap of two. Fail: a footer repeats the same partners on every URL, or the paragraph above yours and the paragraph below yours are both paid mentions in the same sentence shape.
Count, do not vibe. Write the number of dofollow links that point at a product, excluding the site's own properties if you can tell. Three or more on the page that will hold you is a fail even if the prose is fluent. Fluent spam is still a list. The PBN signs are the version of this check that looks at the family of sites, not just the page.
4. Indexation of the URL that will hold the link
Insertion: they must send the URL first. Search it. Pass: it is indexed. Fail: it is not, or it is indexed and then canonicals to another URL that will not contain your link. Guest post: you cannot check your URL yet. Check the last five articles in the folder their sample path implies. SAAS-109's sample path is a /compare/ slug. If you cannot see the folder until delivery, the pass is 'five recent posts indexed.' Fail is 'the last five are missing.' A new URL on a site that does not get its recent posts indexed is a receipt.
5. Topic, which you owe them in a sentence
Pass: you can say why this title hint would assign your story without a sponsor. SAAS-102's hint is B2B SaaS reviews. A review of a renewal product can live there. DEV-110's hint is CLI and DevOps. The same review cannot, unless Ledgerline shipped a CLI and the story is about the CLI. Fail: the sentence uses the words 'high authority' and never names the publication's job.
Write the sentence in the note before you pay. If it takes more than two lines, the fit is imaginary. Niches the FAQ refuses — casino and gambling, adult, CBD and pharma, essay mills — are a fail even when the title hint is adjacent. Rewording the anchor does not create a pass.
6. The rel you will actually get
Pass: the link-type cell matches what you are allowed to buy. On the shipped rows the cell is DoFollow, and checkout prints DoFollow Guaranteed. If that is what you want, write 'DoFollow, accepted.' Fail: your counsel wants rel="sponsored" and you have only the green label. The fail stops the order. It does not become a note that says 'ask them later.' Later is after the href is live.
7. Who can change the page next week
Pass: you know the live URL will be in the delivery report, you know the FAQ's 12-month replacement if the link drops, loses indexation, or flips to nofollow, and you have a place in the note for the day-7 index check. Fail: the publisher's answer to 'who edits this after we pay' is nobody, or everybody. A page nobody will correct when the anchor is wrong is a page you should not fund. A page everybody can edit is how your sentence disappears behind a newer sponsor.
Seven words, one per check: chart pass, US match, outbound 1, indexed, topic sentence attached, DoFollow accepted, URL will be rechecked day 7. Any fail replaces the word pass. One fail and the row is off the cart. Do not total them into 5/7.
FAQ
Which checks happen before I pay?
Country, a provisional traffic note, topic sentence, rel, price, and turnaround. The chart, the outbound count, and indexation of the real URL happen when the domain is visible. Do not mark those three as passed from the drawer.