Should you ever pay for backlinks?
Enviably able SEO consultant. Less able pilot / chef. Undiscovered ‘Jamie Vardy’. Liverpool fan (until next two decade famine begins).
If you want to improve your Google ranking, you’ll need to secure a wide range of high-quality backlinks from other sites. But building links is hard work, and securing them isn’t guaranteed, which is why it might be tempting to give your site a quick boost by buying some.
But is buying backlinks a good idea, ever? Is it even safe? Here’s what we know.
History of link building
Google introduced its PageRank algorithm in the late 1990s. PageRank worked by assessing the quality and quantity of links pointing to a webpage to determine how useful it was, and how much prominence to give it on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
From then on, securing backlinks from reputable sites has been a crucial strategy for visibility online. To begin with, it was common to edge ahead using techniques like directory submissions and reciprocal linking on blogs. Then, in 2012, Google announced a crackdown – the ‘Penguin’ update.
Penguin marked a huge shift, steering digital marketers away from trying to artificially push up page rankings, towards more organic, strategic approaches: things like guest blogging, producing useful content and fostering genuine relationships (i.e. digital PR).
No matter how many tweaks Google makes to its PageRank algorithm, backlinks have always been a dominant ranking factor. In a recent survey by uSERP, 67.5% of SEO professionals said backlinks have a big impact on search engine rankings, while 30% termed it a moderate impact.
Google’s opinion
Google’s stance is clear: don’t buy links to try and increase your ranking in search results. Exchanging money for links is a breach of search guidelines and can lead to penalties.
In Google Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines), there’s a section on what it terms ‘link spam’:
It’s not just Google that takes issue with the practice, which is seen as manipulating search rankings. As this article by Forbes highlights: ‘Other search engines including Ask, MSN, and Yahoo!, which mimic Google’s link-based search rankings, also discourage buying and selling links.’
The risks of buying backlinks
Not only is buying links costly, it’ll also undermine your credibility and search engine rankings.
There are plenty of people out there offering to sell links, notably on freelance marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Many of them do a good job of making their service sound legitimate, but be very careful. The links you’ll get will be very low quality, often automated, and placed on spammy websites.
Google considers paying for links to be a ‘black hat’ SEO technique – an attempt to manipulate the algorithm, an action that’s of no value to web users, and a violation of its guidelines. In other words, you’d be cheating the system, and it’ll take a very dim view of your site.
In response, Google will either discount the links, meaning they won’t have any impact on your search rankings. Or one of their many (human) reviewers will impose a penalty, meaning some of all of your site won’t show in search results for an indeterminate period of time.
Is it illegal to buy backlinks?
Is it safe to buy backlinks? Is it illegal? No, you wouldn’t be breaking any laws. But purchasing backlinks in the way that we’re discussing here is unethical in Google’s eyes and may harm, rather than help, your position in the SERPs. As well as making your site less visible, it could put any revenue you are making from website sales at risk.
How to acquire genuine backlinks
While buying backlinks outright is a no go, there are other – and better – ways to secure high-quality links. Think long-term strategies, not too-good-to-be-true shortcuts.
Digital PR
A digital PR campaign is a white-hat link-building technique – totally above board. It means using your expertise to produce high-quality content that’s genuinely useful or insightful. It has to be good enough that other relevant, reputable news sites, with editorial standards, want to link to it.
If that sounds like a lot of work, it is. That’s why businesses often outsource it to specialist digital PR agencies who understand what’s involved and how to get the best results.
There are plenty of reasons why digital PR works (we counted 12) and the results speak for themselves.
To take just one example: Lincolnshire-based Almond Financial was ranking well locally but struggling to compete for more lucrative terms. Our content campaigns and thought leadership advice secured over 50 new referring domains, including the Financial Times, Pensions Expert and the Daily Record, plus a 171% increase in clicks from searches of target keywords.
Improved Search Engine Rankings
With improved search engine rankings, the website is more likely to appear higher in search results, which can lead to increased organic traffic. High-quality referring domains can also bring direct traffic from users clicking on the backlinks.
Increased Organic Traffic
With your brand placed in quality online publications, you can reach a wide or highly-targeted audience. The coverage alone is invaluable, and it will sit on the website for months, or even years, so when potential customers are searching, your name could continue to crop up.
Blog outreach
Another option for legitimate link building is guest blogging on other sites. You pitch your content to another site, who may be willing to host it if they believe their audience would find it valuable. Once your content gains visibility, it can attract more backlinks over time.
Do backlinks matter anymore?
Backlinks are an invaluable way to improve visibility online – but don’t take shortcuts.
The imagined short-term gains you get from buying backlinks could lead to long-term losses. Google would far rather you focus your time and effort on quality content that increases your reach naturally.
To talk to one of our digital PR experts and find out how we can help, get in touch.
Find out more about how SEO and Digital PR can help you achieve your marketing goals.