What makes you reject a publisher before buying a backlink?

Hi Product Hunt 👋

Ahead of tomorrow’s launch, I’d love to hear how SEO professionals and content teams evaluate publishers before buying a backlink.

We built Publisher QC Scorecard around five hard gates:

• Search visibility

• Index status

• Audience fit

• Outbound-link environment

• Commercial transparency

Our principle is that some risks should stop a placement immediately instead of being averaged into a high overall score.

Which warning sign makes you reject a publisher immediately? Is there another hard gate you would add?

I’ll be reading every response and using the feedback to improve the scorecard.