Why the list is seven items and not a score
A single score hides the failure. A site can have a strong DR, a dead traffic chart, and a footer full of casino links at the same time. The checks below stay separate on purpose. Fail one and you either get a written exception or you skip the row. The safety guide explains the policy context. This page is the sequence.
1. Read the traffic trend, not just DR
DR estimates how strong a domain's link profile looks. It does not tell you whether people still arrive from Google. Open the organic traffic chart for the last year. You want a line that is stable or rising, not a spike from a viral post in 2022 and silence after it. On ChainEpic the table already shows a monthly traffic figure. Treat that figure as a prompt to open the chart, not as the chart.
2. Check where those visits come from
A site can show 80,000 visits and still be the wrong site if almost none of them are in the country you sell to. The marketplace rows include a top-country note. If your pipeline is US and UK SaaS buyers, a row whose visits sit elsewhere needs a reason, such as a developer audience that is genuinely global. "The DR was high" is not that reason.
3. Look at how the site links out
Open three recent articles and the homepage footer. You are looking for sitewide outbound links, blocks of unrelated sponsors, and paragraphs that exist only to hold anchors. A healthy editorial site links out to sources. A site that sells links as its product links out to whoever paid this week, often in the same sentence shape. If you can spot the template in two minutes, a reviewer can too.
Count the dofollow commercial links on one page. A page that already endorses fifteen vendors does not become more convincing when you are the sixteenth. The rel attribute guide is the vocabulary for what you find.
4. Confirm the future URL can be indexed
For a niche edit, the URL exists. Search for it. If it is not indexed, do not pay for a link on it until someone can explain why. For a guest post, look at the last five articles in the same folder. If those are indexed within a few days, the new one has a chance. If the publisher's recent posts are absent, you are about to rent a URL Google is not keeping.
5. Match the topic to the target page
The niche label on a marketplace row is a bucket: SaaS, developer tools, Web3, marketing. Your target page is narrower. A developer-tools site can be a good home for a CLI product and a bad home for a payroll app. Read the title hint and two headlines. If you cannot imagine the editor assigning your topic without a sponsor, pick another row.
6. Write down the rel attribute you will actually get
The link-type column is part of the order. On the rows shipped with this site, that column says DoFollow. If your counsel wants rel="sponsored" because the mention is an ad, do not assume the column will change after you pay. Ask before checkout and keep the answer. A dofollow link you were not supposed to buy is a worse outcome than a disclosed one you priced on purpose.
7. Ask who controls the page after you pay
You want a named answer: the editor can change the draft, the link stays for the guarantee window, and a removed link is replaced under the rule you were shown. ChainEpic's FAQ states a 12-month replacement if the link drops, loses indexation, or switches to nofollow. Get the live URL in the delivery report and check it yourself. A guarantee you never audit is a paragraph.
If two checks are soft, do not average them into a yes. Buy the row that passes, or buy nothing this week. The catalog will still be there.
FAQ
What if DR and traffic disagree?
Trust the traffic trend and the outbound pattern over the DR number. DR can lag a site that has already stopped being useful, and it can flatter a site that accumulated links without an audience.
Should I vet a cheap listing less carefully?
No. A low price changes the budget math. It does not change the risk of adding a bad referring domain.