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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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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. How to use articles you published elsewhere in link swaps

How to use articles you published elsewhere in link swaps

Updated September 11, 2026 · 3 min read

A swap needs a page of yours that can carry a partner's link. That doesn't have to be your own website. If you can get a link added to a page, it's worth the same as a page on a site you own. This guide is for writers, consultants and anyone whose work lives on Medium, Substack, clients' blogs or past guest posts.

Step 1: Register your articles

  1. Open Published articles.
  2. Paste the address of a piece. You can add several at once, or upload a spreadsheet.
  3. Say how changes get made: I can edit them directly, or The publisher makes changes.
  4. Check the titles Rankbench read from each page. Partners see those titles.
The list of registered published articles with their verification state
Each article with its access and verification state.

Warning

Be honest about access. Partners see your answer, and claiming you can edit a page you can't leads to an agreement you can't keep.

Step 2: Wait for verification

Rankbench checks you really can update an article before collaborations are offered on it. Until then, the entry says it's pending verification.

Step 3: Share them

A verified article joins your shared list exactly like a page on your own site, with a note saying where it lives and what access you have. Partners can see at a glance which of your pages are quick and which involve a third party.

The four ways to add pages, with the sitemap option selected
Pages you share. Verified articles sit in the same list.

Step 4: Send a swap request

Find a site whose readers overlap with yours and send a request as usual. The form tells you that your published articles are carrying it.

The request form with both sites and their figures side by side
The same request form a site owner uses.

Two rules to know first:

  1. A partner that restricts countries or languages can't be matched by published articles, because those carry neither. The form says so.
  2. An article on the partner's own domain can't be used. A link from their site to their site is an internal link, whoever wrote it.

Step 5: When the publisher has to make the change

If a partner asks for a link on a page you can't edit, accept and say it's published somewhere you can't edit. Rankbench gives you a link to send the publisher, from your own email with a line of context. They see exactly what would change and press one of two buttons, with no account needed. The link expires if nobody answers.

Step 6: Open an article to collaboration requests (optional)

A registered article can also take link and mention requests, sometimes paid. On the article's page you set the topics you'll consider, the ones you won't, countries, languages, how many requests you'll hold at once, and how quickly you reply.

An article's collaboration settings
Requests already in flight keep the terms they came in under.

Rankbench handles no money. Agree the price in the request itself; payment is settled between you.

Tip

Open one article first, the one you're least precious about, and see what arrives before opening the rest.

What to do next

  • Pages you published elsewhere
  • Collaboration requests on published articles
  • How to do your first link swap
← How to get started with the automatic exchangeHow to get answers from the assistant →

Still stuck?

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

On this page

Step 1: Register your articlesStep 2: Wait for verificationStep 3: Share themStep 4: Send a swap requestStep 5: When the publisher has to make the changeStep 6: Open an article to collaboration requests (optional)What to do next
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