Timeline
Editorial calendar backlinks: what happens in each week
A link order is a small project with a start, a live date and a check-in. Here is how it fits beside your publish dates, week by week.
Order after the target page is live and indexed-ready, never before. A link to a draft or a redirect is a wasted slot, and you cannot move it later.
Week by week, for one page and three placements
Page publishes
Check it loads fast, carries the right canonical, and is in your sitemap. Only now does it become a link target.
Shortlist and basket
Filter the marketplace by niche and language, add three candidates, choose a content mode for each. Nothing is charged yet.
Sign-off and payment
Share the basket with whoever holds the budget. Pay from the balance and save the invoice.
Placements usually go live
Delivery is typically within about 24 hours of payment. Open each URL and confirm the link, the anchor and the destination.
Google recrawls
Search Console may show new referring pages as Google reaches them. The timing is Google's, so do not read silence in week 2 as failure.
First honest look
Compare impressions and clicks on the target page with the weeks before it shipped. Other changes will be mixed in, and the quarterly report shows how to separate them.
Why Thursday matters more than it looks
A calendar is a promise to colleagues. Links break that promise only when nobody wrote the date down, so put the paid date and the go-live date in separate cells.
Because delivery is usually inside about a day, you can order inside a normal working week instead of leaving a month of slack. Your own review of the live page, however, needs a person and a slot, and that is the cell most teams forget.
One caution. Core updates, such as the March 2024 update, can shuffle results for weeks, and a link you bought in the middle of one tells you very little. Avoid judging a placement during an update roll-out.
Search Console, Ahrefs and Semrush each report links on their own timetable, so give yourself two sources before you decide a placement is missing. Compare the live page itself, not a dashboard, first.
Link rows to copy into your calendar
| Row name | Owner | Date rule |
|---|---|---|
| Target page ready | Content manager | Same day as publish |
| Basket built | Content manager | Within 2 working days of publish |
| Budget approved | Marketing lead | Before payment, never after |
| Placement verified | Content manager | The day after payment |
| Check-in | Content manager | Six weeks after payment |
On the verification day
- Does the live URL open without a login or a pop-up wall?
- Is the link dofollow, with the anchor you chose?
- Does it point to the exact URL, not a redirecting version?
- Is the status updated under ordered links?
- Did you paste the live URL into your tracker?
When the slot slips
Slots slip. A page that was due on the 14th ships on the 21st, and the basket you built on the 15th now points at a draft. Do not pay it.
Leave the items in the basket. They carry no charge, so the cost of waiting is only attention. If a donor you liked is still listed when the page is truly ready, order then; if it is gone, the filters in the marketplace will give you the next candidate in a few minutes.
Write the new date in the same cell, with the reason beside it. Three months later, when someone asks why the Q4 links landed in November, the answer is in the sheet.
The same goes for a refresh. A page you rewrite in October should be re-linked after the rewrite is live, not before, because an insertion points at the version that exists today.
Three calendar patterns that work
The batch week
One week per month is reserved for link orders. Easy to staff, and the invoice arrives once. Good for teams of one or two.
The publish-plus-two rule
Every flagship page gets its basket two working days after publication. Predictable, and finance sees the pattern.
The quarter-end sweep
Pages that missed their slot get a second chance in the last fortnight, before the report is frozen.