Add-ons
Backlink Exchange
Earn and spend credits to swap contextual backlinks with other Grandranker websites.
Your site earns credits by hosting one contextual link to another member inside an article we generate for you, and spends credits to have another member link to one of your pages. Manage it under Backlinks in the sidebar.
Exchanged links are followed links given in return for credits. Search engines, including Google, may treat links exchanged this way as a link scheme and may devalue, ignore, or penalize them. Grandranker makes no ranking or indexation guarantee. Read the Backlink Exchange clause in our Terms of Service before you rely on it.
Credits
1 credit = 1 Domain Rating (DR) point. DR is Ahrefs' 0-100 measure of backlink authority.
- Receiving a link costs the linking site's DR. A DR 30 link costs 30 credits (minimum 5).
- Giving a link earns a share of your DR, rounded down, floor 3 credits: 70% below DR 40, 85% up to DR 59, full DR above that. A DR 30 site earns 21 per link; a DR 60 site earns 60.
- New sites get a one-time grant of 100 credits.
- Give-to-get: if five links your site gave in a calendar month are verified live, you are granted credits that month regardless of your DR.
Credits are consumed only once a link is verified live. A link that never publishes, or that we cannot find within 14 days, releases the credits. If a verified link is later removed, the receiver is refunded and the site that dropped it is deducted.
Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Links per generated article | 1 |
| Links you can receive per day | 3 |
| Links you can receive per month | max(5, DR ÷ 2), capped at 30 |
| Links your site gives per month | 30 |
| Same pair of sites | One link, once |
We never link two of your own websites, never link you to a competitor listed in your brand profile, and never place the same pair twice.
Same-country links
By default a website only exchanges links within its own market — a UK site is not matched with a US shop its readers cannot buy from.
- The market comes from the country detected during setup. Change it in your brand profile.
- The setting is on when we have a country for your site, off when we do not.
- Websites that sell worldwide match any market, both directions.
- If no member in your market is available, no link is placed.
To widen your pool: Backlinks → Settings → Only link to sites in my country. Applies to every website in the workspace, on every tier.
Participation
Participation is on by default for eligible websites. A website is eligible when it is a paid or primary domain, its hostname is verified, and it publishes to a platform that produces a crawlable article URL on your own domain. Sites with no publishing platform, or that use the JavaScript embed, cannot give links and do not participate — they can still receive.
Turn it off under Backlinks → Settings → Network participation. Your site immediately stops hosting and receiving new links. Links already published stay until you remove them.
The Backlinks page
Both sides of the exchange: your DR (refreshed roughly every 30 days, data from Ahrefs), your credit balance, verified links received and their referring sites.
- Backlinks to You — inbound links, each Placed (published, awaiting verification), Verified, or Dead.
- Links You Host — outbound links with credits earned, the article carrying them, anchor text, and target page.
Free and paid tiers
Every eligible website participates for free, earning credits by hosting links and using a fixed minimum DR filter of 5. Paid tiers add a monthly credit allowance and targeting controls, per website:
| Tier | Price | Credits per month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Earned only |
| Premium | $149/mo | 200 (~13 links at a median DR of 15) |
| Enterprise | $399/mo | 700 |
Paid tiers also unlock:
- Minimum DR — refuse links from sites below a DR you choose, between 5 and 20.
- Link targeting — nominate which of your pages receive links.
- Custom anchors — supply preferred anchor text. Exact-match anchors are capped at 10% of links received, on every tier.
Credits are granted on each successful invoice, not per calendar month, and do not expire. Cancelling keeps your remaining balance.
Earning free credits
Backlinks → Free Credits lists one-off tasks, claimable once per account:
| Task | Credits |
|---|---|
| Share a post about Grandranker on social media | 50 |
| Join the Grandranker affiliate program | 50 |
| Leave a review on G2 or Capterra | 50 |
| Leave a review on Trustpilot | 50 |
| Record a short video review | 200 |
Submit an http:// or https:// URL as proof. Claims sit at Pending review until we approve them. If a claim is Not approved, the task reopens so you can submit better proof.
FAQ
Will these links get my site penalized?
We cannot tell you they will not — these are followed links given in exchange for credits. Participation is optional and reversible. See the Terms of Service.
Where does the link go in my article?
In a body paragraph, in the article's language. Never in a heading, first paragraph, link list, or closing CTA. You can delete it in the editor.
Who chooses which site links to me?
We do — filtered for topical relevance, then a weighted lottery so credits do not flow only to the largest balances.
What happens if I stop participating or cancel?
Published links stay live until you remove them. Your balance stays, and you keep receiving until it runs out.
Is this the same as the Backlinks report under Analytics?
No. Backlinks under Analytics monitors your whole profile from every source. This is only links traded inside the network.
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