Most advice about buying backlinks is opinion. This page is our order log. Data as of September 2026. We analyzed 668 recent link placements built for the agencies that order through Links That Move, and published the patterns below so buyers can see what real, editorial link building actually looks like in practice. If you are earlier in the process, start with our guide on how to buy backlinks.
How many link building orders has Links That Move completed?
Links That Move has completed more than 650 link building orders for agency clients, with an average turnaround of 28 days from order to published placement. Orders are managed through a client portal, and the analysis below covers 668 recent placements across those campaigns.
Which industries buy the most backlinks?
In our placement data, home services dominate. Out of 668 placements, 48% were for roofing companies, the single most link-hungry vertical we serve. The full distribution:
- Roofing: 48% (322 of 668 placements)
- Garage door companies: 16% (108)
- HVAC: 9% (60)
- Electricians & lighting: 4% (30)
- Plumbing, sewer & drain: 4% (28)
- Siding & exteriors: 3% (22)
- Fencing & decks: 3% (19)
- Dental & healthcare: 3% (18)
- Glass & shower doors: 3% (17)
- Legal (criminal defense & injury): 2% (14)
- Marketing/software, landscaping, real estate and other niches make up the remaining ~5%
The takeaway for buyers: competitive local trades, where a single job is worth thousands of dollars, are where agencies consistently invest in links.
What anchor text do professional link builders actually use?
Across 668 placements, only 12% of anchors were exact-match keywords. Professional campaigns lean on safer, more natural anchor text:
- Partial-match anchors: 38% (the keyword appears modified or extended, e.g. a location or qualifier added)
- Natural sentences and questions: 23% (anchors that read like editorial copy, e.g. "how to spot wind damage on your roof")
- Branded anchors: 15% (the client's business name)
- Exact-match: 12%
- Exact keyword embedded in a longer phrase: 12%
In other words, 76% of anchors contained no exact instance of the target keyword at all, and a further 12% embedded the exact keyword inside a longer phrase; only 12% were the bare keyword. That distribution is deliberate: over-optimized anchors are the most common footprint in penalized link profiles.
What kind of content earns links for local businesses?
We also classified 628 article titles published across these campaigns. Cost content wins:
- Cost and pricing guides: 28% ("How much does a new roof cost in Texas")
- Local and topical explainers: 23% ("How North Texas hail season affects your roof")
- Question explainers: 23% ("Do metal roofs leak?")
- How-to guides: 11%
- Lifespan and durability guides: 6%
- Comparisons: 5% ("TPO vs. EPDM")
- Checklists and pros-and-cons pieces make up the remaining ~5%
58% of all article titles are phrased as questions or direct answers to questions. That is not an accident: question-formatted content is what earns citations, from human editors and, increasingly, from AI search engines.
Where do these links live?
The placements in this sample were published across a broad, deliberately varied set of publications: local and regional news outlets, real estate and rental media, architecture and design magazines, business publications, legal resources, and health magazines. And the sample understates the network. We contract publishers continuously, ahead of demand, so when an order arrives in a new niche the placement inventory already exists. That pre-contracted network is a large part of why the average turnaround stays at 28 days.
How geographically spread is link building demand?
These 668 placements supported businesses in 41 US states plus Ontario, Canada. Texas, Ohio, Minnesota, Georgia, Indiana and Florida generated the most volume, tracking where storm-driven home-services markets are most competitive.
How many of these placements actually rank?
About half of the links we placed in our most recent monthly sample went on to rank for at least one keyword their article targeted, typically in the top 20 to 30 positions, and to send traffic to the publisher. That result follows from the four-layer publisher standard we apply before any placement: a domain rating above 30, more than 5,000 monthly organic visits from the United States, a vetted backlink profile, and a track record of many ranking pages rather than a homepage-heavy domain. One anonymized example: a roofing company ordering two to three links per month saw a sustained organic surge over six months with only 31 backlinks from 12 referring domains added, alongside rising AI citations. We frame that as contribution, not credit; the standard is explained in full in what makes a good backlink.
Method notes
Counts come from Links That Move's internal order records as of September 2026: 668 recent placement rows, of which 628 had a distinct published article title available for format classification. Rows were classified by service vertical, anchor-text type, geography, and content format. Client names, target URLs, and publisher identities are confidential and excluded. Percentages are rounded. Company-level figures (650+ completed orders, 28-day average turnaround) reflect the full order history, not only the analyzed sample.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a link placement take?
Across all completed orders, the average is 28 days from order to live placement. That window covers prospecting, content production, editorial review by the publishing site, and quality checks. The full five-step process is described in our buying guide.
Do you only build links for roofing companies?
No. Roofing is our largest vertical, but the same data set spans 15+ verticals across home services, legal, healthcare, and more.
Is exact-match anchor text bad?
Not in small doses. In our data, professional campaigns keep exact-match anchors near 12% of the profile and lean on partial-match, branded, and natural-sentence anchors for the rest.
Want links built with this playbook? See how Links That Move works.