Is Buying Links a good idea???
-
Hello Everyone,
I want to know, what is the search engine's preference when it comes to links that have been bought. I observed that quite a few the good local directory listings (with good mozrank and moz trust etc) offer one to be listed for a yearly or lifetime price.
Does Google frown upon these type of links too?
regards,
Talha
-
As I see it, Google needs to take no action on paid links. Well, no action different than devaluating them. While the market for paid links grows, the overall value and quality of each purchased link is deemed to go down. At one point people will stop bying them at all.
-
I purchased some links once and feel that at this point, I would not likely do it again. I was assured the links would be related to the topic and of quality. Not the case. However, I have learnt through visiting this forum, that content is VERY important. And also things can take a lot of time and work before real results begin to show. Hope that helps. By the way ........ follow the link John Barth provided to EGOLS answer....... great one!
-
simple answer is no...
-
Every response here is on the nose but I thought I'd throw a good example of a proper paid directory link. In researching backlinks for a client competitor, I saw they had a link from the local chamber of commerce. Tracing that link back, it came from their directory, which the competitor was featured in. I then contacted the chamber to find out how to be included and it turns out it has a pricey yearly membership fee. With that fee though, you're being included into a VERY reputable business directory along with a juice passing link. I think those are the types of paid directories that are worth the money and seeking out. It's a little outside the box, but look at what it does for your site and it's legitimacy. I know this was a bit random, but I thought it was applicable.
-
The answer isn't quite black and white. There are dozens of ways to "buy" links, and not all of them are necessarily frowned upon.
To address your specific question, paying money for directory submissions isn't necessarily a bad thing. A couple of the bigger directories, like Yahoo! and Business.com, require a fee for listing, and though SEOs do disagree about the value of these links, they are generally not regarded as anything that can get you in trouble with Google. It's best to focus on the most prominent, trafficked, and authoritative directories - you shouldn't shell out cash to just any old directory out there.
As far as other ways to buy links...that's where things get a bit dicey. Many SEOs, and certainly most that you will encounter on an SEOmoz forum, subscribe to the theory that link buying is bad. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a great many SEOs that actively buy links, including some of the biggest-name SEO firms that exist. Those that have success with link buying generally do not work with a brokerage (like Text-Link-Brokers), but rather negotiate private deals with owners of authoritative, relevant websites in their industry. When it comes to link buying, the best practitioners put a great deal of effort into procuring links that look natural, are embedded into content (rather than sitewide or footer links), and on pages/websites that have content related to the website they are promoting.
Regardless of what those in the industry do, Google very specifically states that link buying is NOT an acceptable practice in their eyes, and they go to great lengths to find ways to both manually and algorithmically punish websites engaging in this practice.
Aaron Wall wrote a great post talking about "white hat" ways to purchase links, and it demonstrates that with a bit of creativity, one can effectively exchange money for links without necessarily breaking Google's guidelines: http://www.seobook.com/archives/002422.shtml
Basically, the decision is up to you. Certainly there are very effective ways to practice SEO without engaging in link buying, and indeed many of the websites leading the pack for competitive keywords haven't had to buy links to get there. The most important thing is knowing all of the facts, and the potential consequences of each choice.
-
Google doesn't frown on them, but I would really question their value at this point. You could probably put your money somewhere more useful. I really like EGOLs answer to http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-would-you-use-500-to-improve-your-site-s-visibility.
If you do want to buy a link, a good one is the Better Business Bureau. Here's a post about it. You can get a followed high PR link that way. There's also the SEOMoz directory list.
-
We'll start with the standard response from an SEO guy that references the Google Site Guidelines that basically says don't buy links. If you find local niche directories that apply to your industry then technically there is nothing wrong with links from those websites. They are a lot of times deemed as low quality, but still not a bad idea if you pick the right ones. Yahoo Dir is paid and Google still sees that as a highly recognized link source. As to whether that's worth $299/year is another debate. The way that directories get around this is that you are actually paying for "inclusion" which means they have a human who reviews these links and includes quality websites. Technically if you're not paying for the actual link then it's not against Google's Site Guidelines.
If the price isn't bad and it's a relevant local niche directory that applies to your website and industry I don't see anything wrong with employing that as a link building strategy.
Do not rely on just this as a link building strategy though. Think of it as a component.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Getting a sitewide links from one domain as oppsed to few links from certain pages, a good, bad or horrible idea?
Hello, I have a website that is performing really well in Google for country specific Real Estate Website. I have had this site for just about 2 years and I have 4600+ indexed pages, and about 50 of my main keywords appear in top 10 results on Google. I have now started a second site with a brand new domain, its only about 2 months old. This one is a Travel website and again its country specific (same country that real estate website is performing well in) and since its still building up the content and has barely a couple of backlinks, I am thinking of adding a linkback to it from my Real Estate Site. Is it a good idea to add a site wide link back from header section of the real estate website to my travel website? Both sites has same country and most of the keywords in both relate to this country. Or will I be better off adding a few text links from few pages with best Page Authority? Or - do you suggest that I do not link the two at all? Both sites are hosted on different servers, with different IP's and one is on windows server created in asp.net while another is a magento site. Any advidce / insight will be much appreciated and thank you in advance.
Link Building | | waituk_sanjeev0 -
What are inbound links worth after Panda and Penguin, since a site ranks for the NATIONAL keyword "outdoor furniture" with ONLY 7 INBOUND LINKS!?!?
ARE INBOUND LINKS TODAY ALMOST WORTHLESS??!!? After having been the KING of SEO, down to the toilet? Today I got a great sample from a fellow SEO professional showing a site, rockymountainfurniture.com rank for "outdoor furniture" with ONLY 7 INBOUND LINKS FROM 3 DOMAINS and a domain trust of 14!!!! ON A NATIONAL, VALUABLE, HIGH QUERY VOLUME KEYWORD!! I was stunned, but is this the "NEW SEO WORLD" we live in, so we should skip spending hundreds of hours on link building? There are over 32 different types of inbound links but this is much MORE than a radical change, this is turning SEO as it was up-side-down. Any input, thoughts, ideas?
Link Building | | yvonneq0 -
LInk Building Ideas for Large Site
Hi, I have a very large sized website of about 5 Million Pages. Earlier i used to rank very well with many naturally occurred links, But now, i lost my rankings with numerous Google updates. My content is user generated content and it wont be pure original as my users will post the same on other forums too. I all of my pages rank on #1 page for their keywords. Can anyone suggest me good link building strategy for larger websites as each url will have different keyword, i want all of my urls to be ranked well. Waiting for your replies.
Link Building | | Vegitss0 -
Link Exchange
Hi everyone, I just started working for a client in a new niche. After reviewing the backlink profiles of his competitors I can see that the top sites are using a ton of link exchanges. They are from really spammy sites too. The kind that will link to anyone that provides a link back. Anyone else seeing much of this?
Link Building | | SixTwoInteractive0 -
Link or Ad
I recently requested a link back from a site that is ranking 2nd for a term that i'm working on and they said they would gladly give me the link and remove my competitors but would also like me to have an ad on the same page for an annual fee that i could link to a landing page. I know that paying for links is no good and google can penalize you. so do i pay them and do a no follow to the landing page from the ad and call it a day? and how does google differentiate an ad from a link?
Link Building | | CHiP_RuN0 -
How can a not so passionate subject get links? Need ideas?
Our client owns a very big pest control site. They are competing with pestmall, orkin, terminex to name a few. Almost all of there competitors are spamming like crazy. For some of their competitors it is working. They get natural links very slowly. Maybe 1 natural link every week. How can a not so passionate subject get links? Here was my ideas. Offer a tool to pest control sites for a link in return. The flaw is most pest control company owners are not tech savy and if they are they have hired it out. I just really need some ideas. Thank you.
Link Building | | OxzenMedia0 -
Blog traffic / link ratio? (Esimated of how much traffic will result in a link)
Hi, Was wondering if people could please tell me some estimates of how much traffic is likely to gain links to a blog post? For example 1,000 hits = 1 link, Hence 10,000 hits = 10 links to a blog post? I understand there is no magic ratio I just want to know what people have achieved. I’m after averages not just a one off really successful blog post too. Please specify the topic you achieve this in e.g. SEO, photography, business, heath... etc.
Link Building | | charles10 -
Back Links
Hi there, I have been guest posting on blogs trying to build some back-links into my website, which so far is going not too bad, however I was wondering when writing these guest posts should I limit my post to let's say 2 back-links per guest post? If 2 back-links are going to different pages on my website, does the first back-links in the guest post have more value than the 2nd back-link? Kind Regards,
Link Building | | Paul780