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Getting startedCreating your Rankbench accountReading your site before you sign upAdding your first websiteProving your site is yoursWorkspaces, the switcher and your viewYour dashboardHow Rankbench tells you thingsRankbench Pro and billing
Your workspace and accountYour website and its settingsWorkspace settingsPeople and rolesInviting a website to RankbenchYour profile and accountThe assistantThe audit log
Site audit & search growthThe SEO overviewRunning the site auditThe site health scoreThe Fixes tabFindings, and how to read oneWorking your fix listThe kinds of fix, and how to triageEverything Rankbench looks forInternal linksTopicsPages nothing links toPast auditsConnecting Google Search ConsoleThe Search tabCompetitorsAuthorityThe page connections map
Guest postsGuest posting on RankbenchSubmitting your first guest postImporting from Google DocsWriting in the Rankbench editorReview and sendWhen the editors ask for changesTracking your guest postsThe Content LibraryOpening your site to guest postsWriting your guest post rulesReviewing a submissionFinal review and the Approver rolePublishing and the live check
Link exchangeLink swaps on RankbenchSetting up your site for swapsPages you sharePages you published elsewhereFinding a site to swap withSending a swap requestReviewing a swap request you receivedAsking a partner for a linkAnswering a link requestWhen the page is published somewhere you cannot editHow Rankbench keeps watchThe partner ledgerPlacements and agreements from older swapsThe automatic backlink exchangeAutomatic exchange settings and creditsReading your placementsCollaboration requests on published articles
Content calendarThe content calendarSetting up your calendarWhere the keywords come fromReading the calendarSteering a day before it is writtenThe day page and the editorRefreshing your topicsConnecting where it publishesPublishing and what happens nextBrief and settingsCovers and the pictures insideAll articles, and the rewrites the audit asks for
TutorialsHow to add your website and get it workingHow to run your first site audit and ship the fixesHow to connect Search Console and win more clicksHow to write a guest post that gets acceptedHow to accept guest posts on your site without losing qualityHow to do your first link swapHow to keep your links aliveHow to plan and publish a month of contentHow to invite a teammate, a client's site, or an agencyHow to get started with the automatic exchangeHow to use articles you published elsewhere in link swapsHow to get answers from the assistant
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  5. Placements and agreements from older swaps

Placements and agreements from older swaps

Updated September 11, 2026

If you have been swapping links for a while, you may notice two shapes of the same idea. This article explains the older one, so a link that does not look like the others is not a mystery.

The two shapes

The current flow is partnerships and link requests. Two sites become partners, then either asks the other for a link, one at a time. That is what asking a partner for a link and the partner ledger describe.

The older flow is agreements and placements. A swap was planned as a unit, with placements inside it, each proposed, approved, published and validated through its own page.

What a placement page does

It holds one agreed link and its whole history.

What was agreed shows the page it goes on, where it points and the words it uses, with a note that both sides signed off on this exact wording and it is what the live page is checked against.

The proposal controls let one side propose the wording and the other agree or ask for different wording.

It's live takes the published address, and validation opens the page to confirm the link is really there.

Underneath, the history: every version of the wording, every live address submitted, every validation attempt and what it found, and every monitoring check since.

There is also a way to report a problem with a placement, with a list of what can go wrong: the link is gone, the wording changed, it points somewhere else, the page will not load, or the page is hidden from Google.

Why it still exists

Links agreed under the older flow are real links on real pages, being watched. Migrating them into a different shape would risk losing the record of what was agreed, which is the thing worth keeping.

So they stay where they are, and they keep being checked.

What you need to do about it

Nothing. Both shapes appear in your ledger, both are monitored the same way, and both count in your totals.

New swaps use the current flow. You will not create anything in the older one.

Where to go next

The partner ledger is where both shapes appear together.

← The partner ledgerThe automatic backlink exchange →

Still stuck?

Open Rankbench and the page this article describes — most screens explain themselves as you go.

On this page

The two shapesWhat a placement page doesWhy it still existsWhat you need to do about itWhere to go next
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