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In practice
The readiness check exists because links amplify state, and the states that waste placements are common: the thin page (a link to 200 words is a referral to a dead end — readers bounce, engines take note, the publisher’s editor who checks the target wonders why they linked); the unindexed page (noindex, canonical pointing elsewhere, caught in robots — the link transfers whatever it transfers to a page the index hasn’t agreed to show); the mid-migration page (URLs changing, templates broken, content shifted — the placement will be stranded by the time it’s live); and the mismatched page (ranking for nothing relevant, answering nothing the placement’s context promises).
The checklist, per target: indexed (URL Inspection, not assumption), self-canonicalising, content complete against the page’s stated intent, rendering in raw HTML, performing adequately on a phone, and internally linked (the page can route what it receives). The sequencing rule: a page failing readiness is fixed first — engineering gets the ticket, the placement waits — because fixing the page after the link goes live wastes the publisher relationship’s freshness and the campaign’s pacing.
The honest veto: a strategy that names a target the site cannot make ready is a strategy that hasn’t looked — and the vendor’s value includes saying so on the call, whether or not the client wants to hear it. The readiness gate is the cheapest quality control in the entire discipline: fifteen minutes per page, run before any budget moves.
See also: Technical SEO prerequisites for link campaigns, On-page SEO essentials that make links work, Core Web Vitals and link value.
Checklist: Link Requirements.
Related service: Link building strategy.
