Link Building
Link Delivery Tracking
Link delivery tracking is a provenance ledger for an agreed external-link deliverable, recording its source page, target page, relationship, qualification, evidence and verification state.
What it means
A delivered record means the agreed artifact was observed under the documented acceptance criteria. It does not mean the link passes ranking credit, remains live, complies with search policies or caused an outcome; paid placements need the appropriate qualification.
Why it matters
Separating delivery from value prevents a live URL from being reported as guaranteed authority and preserves who supplied, approved and verified the evidence.
Example
A sponsored article record stores the publisher URL, destination URL, visible anchor, `rel="sponsored"`, first-seen time, approval reference and later HTTP verification.
Common mistakes
Do not mark a promised URL as delivered before verification, hide commercial relationships, require ranking-credit links, treat HTTP 200 as editorial quality or report a placement as guaranteed ranking value.
How AYSA handles this
Signals reviewed
source URL, target URL, anchor context, rel value, relationship, approval reference, HTTP result
Problem AYSA can identify
AYSA can flag an agreed link record whose evidence is missing, changed, removed, redirected or inconsistent with its declared relationship.
Recommendation prepared
The review requests re-verification, qualification correction or escalation without assigning an authority or ranking guarantee.
Approval preview
The user sees the source page, target, relationship, evidence and exact correction before any supported owned-site action.
Execution
AYSA can update an approved supported owned WordPress page when the outbound link is under the user's control; it cannot force an external publisher to place or retain a link.
Verification
A later check records the HTTP result and visible link attributes as a new observation rather than overwriting the original evidence.
Limits
A ledger cannot certify publisher quality, policy compliance, ranking credit, permanence or SEO impact, and third-party pages remain outside AYSA control.
Sources and further reading
- Google Search Central — Qualify outbound links — Official search documentation
- Google Search Central — Spam policies for web search — Official search documentation
- W3C — PROV-O provenance ontology — W3C Recommendation
- RFC 9110 — HTTP Semantics — Internet standard
Written by Marius Dosinescu. Reviewed by AYSA SEO Editorial Team · 2026-07-28 00:00:00.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Does delivered mean the link passes ranking credit?
No. Delivery records the agreed artifact and evidence; search engines interpret the relationship and qualified commercial links should not be sold as ranking credit.
Is an HTTP 200 response enough to approve delivery?
No. The source, target, visible placement, relationship, qualification and agreed acceptance criteria must also be reviewed.
SEO execution campaign
Less SEO work. More organic growth.
AYSA monitors your website, finds opportunities, prepares the work, asks for approval and executes accepted changes so you can grow without living in SEO tools.
