Outrank Quietly Scrubs 'Backlink Exchange' Wording After Viral Warning
doooyle · x · 2026-09-21
SEO practitioner doooyle noticed that Outrank quietly removed all mentions of "backlink exchange" from its site in recent days, relabeling everything "backlink building" — days after Connor Showler's viral warning against using Outrank's exchange network:
- Exchange sites typically have no rankings of their own and aren't niche-separated, so your and your clients' sites will get dragged down
- Google evaluates your "link graph" (how related your links are to your niche), and prolonged exchange use pushes you outside it
- Paying a premium for genuinely relevant links beats penny link swaps
The wording change is widely read as a response to that criticism.
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