Paying For Backlinks

Paying for backlinks

You shouldn’t be paying for backlinks. If you are, stop now.

I don’t think I’ve started a blog with such a pointed title as today. However, I feel it is necessary to get to the crux of the subject quickly. I have grown tired of reading countless posts on Reddit and other forums where supposed ‘experts’ recommend places to buy backlinks from.

I’ll throw another blunt point out there before we get into more detail. The people that recommend you buy backlinks don’t care about the potential damage to your site. They also don’t take what Google says seriously (or don’t keep up to date with it).

Paying for backlinks - what is a backlink

What is a backlink?

We’ll go from the basics. A backlink is a link to your website from another. Google values them and traces them.

It looks at how many backlinks come to your website, where they come from, what type of content the referring site contains, how relevant it is to the content of your website, and it builds what is known as domain authority for your website. Think of that as a mark from 0 to 100.

Paying for backlinks - domain authority

Domain authority and backlinks

Your domain authority can, and usually does, have a direct impact on where you will be shown in Google SERPS (search engine results).

You’ll note I said “can” and “usually does”, because it isn’t imperative to have a high domain authority to be shown in a strong position in search results. It is entirely possible for new websites to get ranked highly if their content is good, their website structure is solid and the content is relevant and niche enough to match what the user is searching for.

Ultimately, if you have a good amount of backlinks from well thought of websites, it’s a good thing. It is something that Google puts a lot of trust in. They want to see your website linked to from other websites.

This makes backlinks in demand, but the process of building up your stable of good backlinks can take a considerable amount of time (as does everything in SEO).

Paying for backlinks - why do people pay for backlinks

Who sells backlinks?

If you publish high quality content, or content that is in demand, you’re almost certainly going to accumulate backlinks. Subsequently, there are always people that want to avoid putting the time and effort into building those backlinks organically. That creates demand.

The supply of backlinks in response to demand is met by websites that sell backlinks to you. For a fee, they’ll give you a link to your website, often associated with words of your choosing (known as anchor text). The fee might be one-off, but there has been a more recent trend where the website or seller will ‘rent’ the backlink to you for a monthly payment. These websites know how to extract the most money from you!

Paying for backlinks - how much are good backlinks

How much are backlinks?

When it comes to the cost of buying (or hiring) backlinks, you should sit down before you read the next part of this blog. It won’t surprise you to hear that websites with a low domain authority cost less to buy backlinks from than those with a high authority.

It might be as little as $10 per annum or $1 per month. A very high authority website could cost you upwards of $2,500 a month. Yes, you’ve read that correctly. That is £1,924 per month at the time of writing. Ouch.

Think about it for a moment. If you know your website rankings and visibility are going to change dramatically, perhaps it is a good investment?

Indeed, and this is where I begin twitching, that’s the line the sellers will give you. They tell you it is a fantastic investment and a guaranteed way of increasing your presence in search results. What could possibly go wrong?

Google policy on paying for backlinks

Google backlink policy

Google will class paid-for backlinks as spam. That’s it, plain and simple. Your website ranking will, sooner or later, suffer and you may even lose all your indexed pages.

Here’s a few excerpts from Google’s policy on the matter:

“In the context of Google Search, spam is web content that’s designed to deceive users or manipulate our Search systems in order to rank highly.”

Followed by:

“Link spam is the practice of creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings. The following are examples of link spam:

  • Buying or selling links for ranking purposes. This includes:
    • Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links
    • Exchanging goods or services for links
    • Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link”

Then:

“Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.”

You would be forgiven for pointing out that the last line above says “may rank lower” and not “will rank lower”, but there are sufficient examples to demonstrate that the chances of you not being found out eventually are slim. If you want to read the full guidance from Google, go to Spam Policies For Google Web Search.

The issue today is that Google has gone on the offensive in this respect. They are pursuing sites that abuse link policies. In some cases, entire sites that they feel have been guilty of breaching their policy have been de-indexed. Gone, never to return (particularly given the length of time it takes to appeal any decision by Google).

Why you shouldn't be paying for backlinks

Don’t risk paying for backlinks

The business of selling backlinks is a big one. There are companies reporting very large revenues that rely entirely on it. Ironically, some of them even use Google Ads to promote their services (I’ve always found that annoyingly amusing).

Furthermore, you’ll find hundreds of SEO ‘experts’ that tell you to do it. Why would they do this? Well, for a start it’ll make their results look a lot more impressive! You’ll be saving them a headache whilst paying them and being hit with the double-whammy of having to pay for backlinks.

Paying for backlinks is a terrible idea and you shouldn’t do it. You should distance yourself from anyone that recommends it.

Alternatives to paid for backlinks

Focus on organic backlinks

There might be some exceptions where the backlink and purpose is valid, such as an industry recognised directory or membership scheme, or a larger national directory such as Yell.com and similar.

Focus your time, energy and resources (including money) on generating high-quality, original and engaging content for your readers. Doing that has almost always proved to be the best way to build good backlinks that you’ll never pay a penny for, let alone rent on monthly basis!

Google has a page on which paid-for backlinks can be reported. I mentioned this in another blog about spam backlinks where I touched on the subject of paying for backlinks.

Increase paid for backlink penalties

Paying for backlinks needs to stop

The process of paying for backlinks goes against the foundations on which Google says SERPs is built. Searchers should see sites that are there because they’re the best place to find the information or item they want, not because they’ve paid for a link. Companies that buy backlinks are better off putting their money into Google Ads or other digital marketing efforts if they want rapid results.

I don’t think Google are doing enough about paying for backlinks. They need to put their foot down much harder, even with their new impetus.

Reporting paid-for backlinks

In researching an SEO strategy for a client, I discovered a competitor company was paying for backlinks and, from what I could tell, had probably been doing so for at least 18 months.

That type of abuse should be shut down within weeks, not months and certainly not years. Suffice to say, I reported the links and, approximately 10-12 weeks later, their website suffered huge drops in Google SERPs. Whether they knew it wasn’t permitted or not isn’t my problem.

My duty is to my client and to ensuring the world of SEO is as clean as it can possibly be. If I rid it of a bad practise or someone exercising one, I’ll do it without apology.

Feedback on backlinks for SEO

Your experience of backlinks

I always like to hear from readers. If you have been paying for backlinks, let me know what your own experience is. Will you continue doing it? I’d also be interested to hear if you’ve stopped buying backlinks or feel you’ve been given poor advice in the past.

Chris Shaw, leading independent SEO consultant in UK

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