Buying Links

Buying Links

Written by Mike Banks Valentine
November 16, 2006

"I know that there's lots of ways to skin a cat. I've never bought links myself and would appreciate some input from those who have." - Moderator Comment

I've been opposed to link buying for a couple of years, ever since I contacted a well known broker and asked a few questions. They had to do with IP ranges and variety in placement sources, as well as result tracking of customer ranking improvements. I was blown off with "I don't have time for that! Everyone knows this works to increase PageRank!"

The providers simply don't care how your links look to the Algorithms. They are providing a service which is in demand and consequences be damned. My personal take on it is don't risk your reputation or your rankings on a short term high sold by PageRank pushers. You'll become addicted and the rankings crash can be nasty with serious withdrawal symptoms. Besides, you've just put the world on notice that you are considering it and made it public here. I recommend against it.

Mike Banks Valentine
RealitySEO.com

<Moderator Comment>

Whoa there Mike. I haven't put the "world on notice" that I'm considering buying links! Don't know how you jumped to that conclusion. It sounds very dramatic though. :-) Personally I have no intention of buying links, because I don't need to buy links. But I'd love to hear from those who have experience with the process. Not for my own consideration, Mike, but for the discussions it might produce.

One attribute of this list is that it tends to produce higher quality posts than most any other forum I've been to. The format lends itself to quality. It's a slower response rate, it's very public, it's formalized (a name is even required - no tag names - imagine that!). These are things that help make posts more editorial and thoughtful than your typical blog, forum, etc.

So bringing up the link buying question gives us an opportunity here to explore that topic on the LED. As far as I'm aware, we haven't had many discussions about it. I've found a few from years past but nothing current.

So link buyers - you can post anonymously if you want - what's your take? I'm going to stick my head out there and say that it's not so black and white that buying links is "bad." It also might be pretty risky. I think I remember the O'Reilly network getting burned by Google because of purchased links...? I'm sure it can be effective, which is why Text Link Ads (for one easy example) has been so successful (and was recently bought out).

Experiences, thoughtful posts, rants, flames, all are welcome.

Cheers,
Adam

this post ran in LED Digest 2290: Experiences Buying Links?

Comments (5) add comment

Nathan Holley said:

Yes, I buy links all the time for clients. I do it for the traffic, not for the rankings. Search engines aren't too happy about sites purchasing links solely for rankings. The correct way is with nofollow.

Matt Cutts has a blog entry about why artificial inflation of PageRank w/ paid links is bad:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/

Here's an interview Mike Grehan did w/ Matt Cutts regarding this issue. It's in MP3 format:
http://www.mikegrehan.com/audio/mattcutts/prclip.mp3 .

"The best things in life are free." And so are the best links.

November 16, 2006 | url

Eric Ward said:

Suffering Snorkelblats...I don't mean to sound like The Grinch, but frankly if you are buying links anywhere anytime with the intent of getting the search engines to rank you higher as a result of those bought links, then you are flirting with disaster and the clock is ticking on any success you experience from that tactic.

As it should.

The engines don't want you buying links to fool them. It's patently clear that ALL the engines DO NOT want you buying links for rank.

So don't.

That said, I buy links for clients all the time. I bought fifty links this week at adbrite for a big pharma client.

I don't buy links for search engines, I buy them for click traffic directly from the site I bought them on. We old timers call that 'advertising'. :)

When buying links using this 'advertising' approach my single most important concern is making sure the engines know the link was not bought with the intention of fooling them. That's one good thing about adbrite. Adbrite's method is not intended to fool engines.

Eric Ward

November 16, 2006 | url

anon9-SEO said:

I think one of the reasons I've never posted here is because it allows no anonymity. I don't like using my real name for competitive reasons, and because I need to keep a "low-pro" on the Net. It is a small world in this industry and those who wear black ties (or any shade of grey) aren't exactly loved. Kudos for adding this blog to the LED site so I can contribute.

Buying links is a reality for SEO purposes and raising pagerank (aka link popularity). I know the SEs don't want to hear that, the white-hats don't want to hear that, but it's the truth if you want results and want results quickly. Many clients are willing to pay for that. Most won't risk the danger of getting slapped by Google though (nothing more unhappy than a client whose site gets banned from Google). I and many other affiliate marketers use this tactic for affiliate sites all the time. It's an industry.

One word of warning: this is not to trifle with. Most site owners won't need to buy links specifically for link pop.

Okay, here's the basic advice I have:

- Balance: lots of lower quality links first - directories, etc. These give a wider base point for any higher-end paid links so it looks natural. Registering w/ directories is something you should do anyway, regardless of this topic. Most paid directories are good investments - Business.com, Yahoo, Joe Ant, bCentral, BOTW, etc. These raise your credibility level w/ the SEs while extending your "linking profile" in a nice natural pattern. It's very unlikely that Google will discount quality paid directories anytime soon, but they may start to factor this into the algorithm. Again - balance. If you are covered here then any algo changes won't matter much.

- The best links send targeted traffic AND increase your link popularity. So for new sites get some niche-related links first.

- The amount of links on any renting page matter. More links = less value for you. You want as close to "virgin" pages as you can find for your link buys.

- Find out all you can about site-wide links (also called "Run of Site"). These can be dangerous to purchase. Recently Google dinged ROS links for many sites because they reveal unnatural linking.

- Anchor text is extremely useful. Keep it in mind when purchasing links and be sure to use it correctly (viz - mix it up with your buys).

In my opinion, link buying / renting really only needs to be done in competitive areas and for specific rankings. It's an advanced technique and you can get in lots of trouble quickly if you do it the wrong way.

For more specific info I recommend Aaron Wall's seobook.com. It's not really updated anymore (at least not with relevant info) but it's got good archives.

anon9-SEO

November 16, 2006

DeepSeaLegs said:

yah - the -30 penalty! watch out for site-wide links. this penalty was put in place by goog specifically for link purchasers. bastards - sorry no goog love here. they make the rules but i dont haveto link 'em!

November 16, 2006