How to Spot Low-Quality Cannabis Link Sellers

Why cannabis attracts the worst sellers

Legitimate publishers avoid the niche, so cannabis operators get squeezed toward gray-market inventory, and sellers know it. The pitch decks are polished, the spreadsheets have DR columns, and the prices look reasonable next to agency retainers. The economics only work for the seller because the sites cost almost nothing to run — which becomes visible the moment you look at one properly.

Red flag: guaranteed-metrics pricing

Any menu priced by guaranteed metrics (DA40+ for $120, DR60 for $300) is selling numbers, not sites. Domain Authority is Moz's third-party estimate and Domain Rating is Ahrefs'; both are inflated cheaply with junk links, which is precisely what sellers do to expired domains before flipping placements on them. A real publication does not price its editorial by a metric it can manipulate. When the metric is the product, the site is a shell.

Red flag: the casino-CBD-loans neighborhood

Open the seller's sample site and read the last twenty posts. When a wellness magazine publishes CBD gummies on Monday, online casinos on Tuesday, payday loans Thursday, and crypto exchanges Friday, you are looking at a link farm serving whoever pays across every restricted niche at once. Google's spam systems see the same pattern you do. A cannabis link is not worth having from a page whose neighbors are slots reviews.

Red flag: same-network footprints

Networks leave footprints. Run a handful of the seller's domains through a bulk check: hosting on the same IP or tight subnet ranges, identical WordPress themes, no named authors anywhere, registration dates in clusters, and the classic giveaway: the sites linking to each other. PBN operators sell across hundreds of sites they control, and one manual action against the network can vaporize every link you bought. Ten minutes of checking beats discovering the footprint after Google does.

Red flag: traffic that does not exist

Pull each sample domain in Ahrefs and look at organic traffic. A site with DR55 and 60 monthly organic visits earned that DR from links, not from content anyone reads or ranks. Real sites show a traffic curve that roughly tracks their content history. Flat-zero traffic under a fat DR is the single most reliable tell in the whole vetting process, and it is the first thing to check when a price looks attractive.

Ask where the links live, and listen

Ask the seller directly: which sites, what traffic, who edits them, will the link be followed, is the placement disclosed as sponsored. A broker with real relationships answers most of that without friction. Evasion, like refusing to reveal domains before payment or calling the network proprietary, answers the question too, just not the way the seller intended. Never pay for placements on domains you have not seen.

A worked example: vetting one seller's sample

A dispensary got a menu offering DA40+ cannabis blogs at $95, guaranteed dofollow. The three sample domains shared a nameserver and a theme. One had 41 organic visits a month against DR44. Another's recent posts covered vape pens, betting apps, and debt consolidation. The third linked to the first two from its blogroll. Every red flag on this page, visible in under fifteen minutes with one Ahrefs subscription, and the $95 price suddenly explained itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is Domain Authority a reliable way to judge a link?

No. DA is Moz's estimate, and sellers inflate it deliberately by pointing cheap links at expired domains. Judge a site by organic traffic, ranking keywords, and whether a human being would actually read it.

What is a PBN and why does it matter here?

A private blog network is a set of sites one operator controls in order to sell links from them. Shared hosting, shared themes, and interlinking give them away, and a single Google action against the network can wipe out every link you bought from it.

Are all paid cannabis links a scam?

No, but the honest version looks different: a real publication with real readers, disclosed placement, and a price tied to audience rather than a metric. The dishonest version guarantees numbers and hides domains.

What if I already bought links from a farm?

Do not panic-disavow everything. Most junk links get ignored rather than penalized. Map what you bought, stop buying, and if a manual action ever arrives you will already have the list ready to disavow.