The honest answer is "it depends, and mostly be careful". Buying links to manipulate rankings breaks Google's rules and can sink a site. But paying to place genuinely useful content on relevant publications is a normal part of modern PR; if you do it the right way. Here is the line, and how to stay on the safe side of it.
Google's link spam policy is clear: exchanging money for links that pass ranking signals is a violation. The key phrase is "pass ranking signals". A paid placement is acceptable when the link is marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", so it does not pass equity, and when the content earns its place by being useful. Buy a dofollow link purely to move rankings and you are gambling with a penalty; covered in our white hat vs black hat guide.
Guest-post marketplaces make discovery faster by listing publishers and their metrics. The catch is that inventories are mixed, and some listings carry inflated stats. Treat the platform as a sourcing tool, then run every candidate through the quality checklist: confirm real organic traffic, check topical relevance, look at who else the site links to, and only then proceed.
If you want to source placements at scale, Adsy is one of the more established options. Launched in 2018, it lists 90,000+ publishers with Ahrefs DR, Semrush AS, Moz DA and traffic data shown per site, and pricing visible before you order (from around $25). That transparency is what makes careful vetting possible. The inventory is broad, so the responsibility to filter for real traffic and relevance stays with you; but as a discovery and ordering tool, it is a solid choice.
Check out Adsy.com ▸We build earned, relationship-led link and brand-mention programmes; the kind AI and Google both reward. Start with a free audit of your current profile.
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