01The format
A spreadsheet, plus a PDF summary if you want one. Plain by default, or carrying your agency logo and colours if you send them over once. Nothing in the file identifies us: no watermark, no metadata fingerprint, no cute footer. You can forward it to your client untouched, or paste the rows into your own reporting stack. Most resellers do the former and bill for the latter.
02The nine fields
- Client reference
- Your name for the client, exactly as written in your brief, so multi client agencies can sort one inbox.
- Live URL
- The page the link sits on. Click it, see the link. No screenshots standing in for reality.
- Publishing domain
- The root domain of the publication. In a good month this column reads like a news stand; recent reports have carried placements on The Sun, the Daily Express and the Daily Record. No outlet is promised in advance, which is why the column exists: it shows what actually landed.
- DR at placement
- Domain Rating recorded on the day the link went live. Metrics drift; the report states what was true at delivery.
- Target page
- The URL on your client's site the link points to.
- Anchor text
- The exact anchor as published.
- Date live
- The date the placement was verified live and indexed reachable.
- Status
- Live, replaced, or pending replacement. Replacements reference the original row.
- Notes
- Anything you should know: context of the piece, why a site was chosen over a higher DR alternative, carry over flags.
03What is not in it
Our name. Other clients' links. Padding metrics like "potential reach" that inflate a number nobody can verify. Screenshots in place of URLs. If a field cannot be checked by clicking, it does not belong in a wholesale report, so it is not there.
04How agencies use it
Three common patterns. Forward it directly with a covering email and your invoice. Re-skin the rows into your own client dashboard. Or hold links back and drip them to the client across the month for a steady account touch. The data supports all three, which is why it ships as a spreadsheet and not a locked PDF. What each field means commercially is worth explaining to your client once; after that the report sells the renewal by itself.
05Checking a report
Email for an anonymised sample report and spot check it. Click five URLs, confirm the anchors, look at the sites. Every row must pass the acceptance checklist, and a row that fails is a row you do not pay for. If a link later comes down, the status field flags it and the replacement lands the following month, per the terms.
Q+AQuestions we get on email
- Can the report carry my agency branding?
- Yes. Send a logo once and every report after that ships with it. Plain and unbranded is the default.
- Can I get the data as CSV for my own dashboard?
- Yes. Spreadsheet and CSV are the same data. Pull it into whatever you report from.
- Do you send anything directly to my client?
- Never. The report goes to you and only you. What reaches your client, and with whose name on it, is entirely your business.