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2026-10-15 12:40 Guides

Link Exchange With Project Partners: Keep Your Links Alive | EU Grants for STARTUPS

TL;DR: Link exchange with partner organisations only pays off if the pages carrying your links stay online, and in our 14-month audit, page deletion caused almost half of all lost links. Partners also restructure their websites: 26.1% of the pages carrying our links had moved, but a redirect kept the link 96.7% of the time. Keep a shared register of partner links, ask partners to redirect rather than delete, and check the links on a schedule. The full data is in our link exchange data on 131 backlinks.
Funded projects run on partners. Consortium members, pilot sites, associations and investors all publish pages about the work, and many of those pages link to each other.
That is, in practice, a link exchange: you link to them, they link to you. The question is what happens to those links once the news item is old, the website is redesigned or the project ends.
We have data on exactly that, with one caveat up front. Our data doesn't come from EU projects. It comes from an experiment on test websites in our portfolio, where we answered inbound link exchange requests from 62 partner sites over about 14 months. We never pitched an exchange; partners always came to us.
We received 131 links back and checked every one of them on 13 October 2026. The ways those links failed are the same ways partner links fail on any project website.

What the grant agreement says about promoting your project

Official source, not our data: Article 17 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement covers communication, dissemination and visibility.
  • Beneficiaries must promote the action and its results by giving targeted information to multiple audiences, including the media and the public, in a strategic, coherent and effective way.
  • Communication in electronic form and on social media must acknowledge EU support and show the European flag and the funding statement.
  • Information must be factually accurate and carry the standard disclaimer.
  • If a beneficiary breaches these obligations, the grant may be reduced.
The grant agreement says nothing about backlinks or websites. Links are simply one of the ways your project's results stay findable online.

Backlink exchange with consortium partners: pages disappear

In our audit, 14.5% of the links we received stopped delivering value within about 14 months.
The biggest single cause was the page disappearing. Page deletion caused almost half of all losses: 7 of 16 lost links.
Outcome (131 links)Links% of links
Live and counting11285.5%
Lost: link removed, page still live86.1%
Lost: page deleted (404/403)75.3%
Link still on page but worthless32.3%
Lost: link never published10.8%
On a project, the same thing happens when a partner archives its news section, closes a project microsite or drops old pages in a redesign.
What this means for you: ask partners to keep project pages online after the project ends, or to redirect them to a page that still links to you.

When partners restructure their websites

30 of the 115 pages carrying our links (26.1%) had moved to a new URL since the link was placed.
PagesShare
Placement pages that had changed URL since the link was placed30 of 11526.1%
Of those, link still on the page after the move2996.7%
Of those, link still counting after the move2893.3%
Moves caused by one site restructuring all its URLs (3 partner sites)2480% of moves
Most moves came from just 3 partner sites restructuring all their URLs. When the move used a redirect, the link almost always survived. The one loss came with a full rewrite of the article.
What this means for you: a redesign isn't a disaster if partners redirect old URLs. Put that request in your communication plan.

Partners are all-or-nothing

49 of 62 partners (79.0%) kept every link they gave us. 11 (17.7%) kept none of value. Only 2 (3.2%) kept some and lost others.
When a partner dropped links, it usually dropped all of them. One partner removed all 3 of its links, and another deleted all 3 pages that carried ours.
What this means for you: when one partner link disappears, check every link from that partner the same day. It usually signals a site-wide change.

Link insertion into partner pages Google already indexes

A link on a page Google hasn't indexed passes little or no value. In our audit, 1 in 5 live placements (19.6%) sat on a page Google hadn't indexed.
That's why we now prefer a link insertion: adding the link to an existing page that Google has already indexed, rather than a brand-new page. For a project, that could be a partner's existing page about the collaboration rather than a new press release that may never get indexed.
After the link goes in, ask the partner to request re-indexing in Google Search Console. Then check after 7 days that Google has the version of the page with your link. Our link exchange checklist explains the day-7 check step by step.

Keep one shared register of partner links

Our own records were the weak point. More than 1 in 5 placements (21.4%) had no record of which of our pages they pointed to, and 9 records (6.9%) had no anchor.
A project register needs only a few columns:
ColumnExample
Partner page with your linkfull URL
Your page it points tofull URL
Anchor textthe linked words
Date addedYYYY-MM-DD
Date re-indexing was requestedYYYY-MM-DD
Last checked, and statusYYYY-MM-DD, live / removed / page gone
Use one row per link, not one per partner. A single partner page can carry several of your links, and each one can disappear on its own.
You can automate the checks with free tools. Our guide to building a link exchange tracker shows how.

A partner-link routine for project coordinators

At kick-off:
  • Agree which partner pages will link to the project, and record them in the register.
  • Ask for links in the main content, not in footers or sidebars.
  • Ask partners to use redirects, not deletions, if they move or retire pages.
After each partner publication:
  • Check the link is on the page, points to the right URL and is a normal (dofollow) link.
  • Check the page isn't set to noindex, in the HTML or the HTTP header. We found one page noindexed through the header alone, invisible in the source.
  • Check the canonical tag points to the page itself.
Every month:
  • Re-check every link and confirm any loss in a real browser.
  • Check that Google still indexes the partner pages.
At project end:
  • Ask partners to keep project pages online, or to redirect them to a page that still links to you.

Conclusion

Partner links are easy to collect and easy to lose. In our data, 1 in 7 links stopped delivering value within about 14 months. Deleted pages and site restructures were the main threats.
A shared register, a redirect clause and a monthly check keep most of them alive. They also make your project's online footprint easier to show when you report.
Looking for the right EU call for your startup? Our grant finder matches your startup to open EU funding calls, and our grant writer drafts the application. Find your grant.

FAQ

Do EU-funded projects have to link to partner websites?

The Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement (Article 17) requires beneficiaries to promote the action and its results and to acknowledge EU funding. It doesn't mention backlinks or websites. Check Annex 5 of your own agreement for any project-specific communication rules.

How often do partner links disappear?

In our audit of 131 exchanged links, 14.5% stopped delivering value within about 14 months, at least about 12% a year. Our data comes from website partners, not EU consortia, but the failure modes are the same.

What happens to links when a partner redesigns its website?

In our data, 26.1% of the pages carrying our links had moved, and 96.7% of those still carried the link. Redirects were the reason. The one loss came with a full rewrite of the article.

Is a link exchange between project partners allowed by Google?

Google's spam policies (outside source, not our data) treat excessive link exchanges as link spam. Partners linking to each other's pages about a shared project is a normal reason to link. Keep the links relevant and in real content.

Should partners link from a new press release or an existing page?

We prefer an existing page that Google already indexes. In our audit, 1 in 5 live links (19.6%) sat on pages Google hadn't indexed.

How do I check whether a partner page is indexed?

Search site: plus the exact page URL in Google. To check that the version with your link is indexed, add a few words from the sentence with your link in quotes.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.