John
No Integrity - Poor ROI
Update: They left a 1 Star review on our Google page since I shared my experience with their company. I am genuinely shocked. I've never seen a professional company act with such little integrity. TLDR: The folks at Linkdoctor.io, like most marketing/SEO related companies in my experience, over promised and under delivered. I would not recommend them. Scroll all the way down to see Linkdoctor's updated review from the post that was taken down for context of my updated review. (They tried to report this review for including the owner's name - which he included in his response to my review.) I feel they are at this point they are simply trying to remove what is a legitimate review, and thus my review has gone from 3 stars, to 2 stars, and finally now to 1 star. ------------------------------------------------------------ Update: I saw that the owner updated his response, and I feel like it would be helpful to add context to my own. It feels like he is framing the situation as a lack of patience on our end, whereas I left the rating I did because to me it felt like classic overpromising, under delivering which I will explain in greater detail in a moment. Ultimately I'm changing my review back to 2 stars (it had been 3 stars after the owner reached out to me privately about it - he said it could hurt their business and as a fellow business owner I empathized with that and changed it to 3 stars in good faith) However, I feel his updated response was knowingly misleading and that's why I'm changing it to 2 stars again. Here's the long winded version: I spoke with the sales rep from Linkdoctor and explicitly told him about marketing companies over promising and under delivering in the past, which is why I said if we were to work together it was important to me that we set up clear KPIs for a 3 month timeline and asked if they were achievable. The KPIs were the following: 1.) Rank in the top 5 for "Personal trainer Austin" 2.) Increase qualified leads to 5-10 per month 3.) Achieve a Domain Rating of 25 As the owner points out the results were: 1.) 2 Qualified Leads total in 4 months (not per month) 2.) Domain Rating of 6 Well short of what the sales rep had assured me were realistic and achievable goals. In short, after having spoken specifically about our experience of marketing companies overpromising and under delivering, it feels like Anthony of Linkdoctor did exactly that. That's why I think it's important to provide context, since it feels like the owner's updated response framed it as though we had unrealistic expectations that we blindsided Linkdoctor with, and then unfairly left a lackluster review. That's simply not the case. We were clear about our goals, they said they could help us solve our problem, and then under delivered. I would not recommend them based on my experience, and if I had read a review like this one, I may have decided to go in a different direction in the first place. -------------------------------------------------------- (Original Review) The team at Linkdoctor is wonderful to work with, but unfortunately in the 4 months and the thousands of dollars we spent with them we only received 2 leads through organic channels. I hesitate to leave this review because truly they are very nice people, but part of the reason I decided to go with Linkdoctor was because of the numerous positive reviews on Trustpilot. Had I read more reviews that highlighted the friendliness of the staff but ultimately a poor ROI I probably would have gone with a different company. I hope this review helps others make an informed decision either way. John ----------------------------------------------------- (Linkdoctor's updated response to our original review which prompted me to update our review, which was subsequently flagged and deleted without any explanation.) John, Thank you for leaving this review. I truly appreciate that you liked working with our people. Looking at your website's progress - the real challenge we faced was starting from absolute scratch - 0 aDR and just 5 ranking keywords. For a site with no backlink foundation, getting to ROI-driving rankings takes time and effort. Although it was a tough start, in just 4 months time we managed to move your site to aDR 6 from aDR 0 and have got you ranked for 97 keywords and delivered 2 organic leads. So, it was just a matter of time that would have helped us break the ROI in your case. In our journey of working with founders like you, we have many success stories where we have helped founders scale, get funding, hire more people. We are incredibly proud of the successes we have delivered many many life changing events like these. In your case, I feel we did not manage your expectations properly. I wish you all the best for your endeavors. Regards, The Owner Founder
Response from Linkdoctor.ioMay 19, 2026
Edit: (Response to John) John, for anyone reading this, I want to be straight about the timing: this is a review of an engagement from three years ago that was recently deleted and reposted, so it now sits at the top of our profile as if it were recent. We take feedback seriously - our full account of this project, and what we changed because of it, is in our earlier response - but we won't stay quiet when a 3 year-old review is recycled this way to mislead people looking at us today. Across 600+ businesses, and now as a two-time Inc. 5000 company, we're proud of the work we do and how we treat the businesses we partner with, and we're comfortable letting our record speak for the rest. We won't be continuing this thread, and we wish you well. --- John, thank you for the review, and I want to respond to it openly. This experience happened in April 2023, three years ago. The original review from that time was removed from Trustpilot at some point (not by us, we never reported it), and was recently reposted, which is why it now appears at the top of our profile as if it were a recent customer experience. I want to be upfront about that timeline so anyone reading this has the full context. You were with us for about three months back in 2023. You came to us at aDR 0 with virtually no backlink foundation, and we built 4 links/month for 3 months in that window. Your aDR went up, your keyword count grew, and you got a handful of organic leads. But it didn’t reach the goals you’d hoped for in that window, and I understand the frustration behind your review. Looking back, three months on a brand new site with that budget was always going to be a tall order, and we should have set expectations more carefully at the start. I’ve also reached out to you privately three times over the past few weeks to try to resolve this directly, and I haven’t heard back. I’d still welcome that conversation if you’re open to it. Your review has genuinely changed how we operate, and I want to share what’s different now. We no longer take on aDR 0 sites unless the customer is committed for an longer engagement or they’re going after less competitive terms where a shorter horizon can realistically deliver. We also don’t accept aggressive lead or ranking goals on tight budgets for new sites. Our sales team is now trained to push back honestly when the math doesn’t work, and every KPI conversation gets documented in writing so a customer never has to wonder later what was actually said. Neither of those guardrails existed when you signed up. They exist now because of your feedback, and I’m grateful for that. For anyone reading this who is researching link building services: The most important thing you can do is start with a clear-eyed view of where your site is today and what’s realistic from there. If you have a newer site with limited domain authority, results take time, and any partner worth working with will tell you that upfront rather than sell you a shorter timeline to win the deal. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to now. When you talk to our team, we’ll walk you through what’s achievable given your starting point, your budget, and your competitive landscape, and we’ll be honest if a different approach or a longer horizon would serve you better. That conversation is free, and there’s no pressure to sign up after it. We’d rather earn your trust with the truth than win a customer we can’t deliver for. Sam Darwin Founder, LinkDoctor