Buying links from one site does not work

Seen my competition try and catch up!

[Crush]

I have 6 people working on link development and my competition eat my dust. To try and catch up i have seen them buy a load of links from big sites and get a link placed on every page. So now they have twice as many backlinks as me but from one site. It has done nothing at all to their SERPS.

So if you are going to go and waste a few grand on that do not bother. It does not work.

[mcavill]

yeap - it seems to be unique domains that count.

I tried footer links on a couple of my sites, I gave one of my sites a bit over 25,000 inbound links, all over TBPR 4, but didn't budge in the SERPs.

[glengara]

I've certainly seen some circumstantial evidence to back you up guys, but as with most things G, it's not all cut and dried.. ;-)

[graywolf]

I have multiple run of site ads that are working.

[Crush]

have multiple run of site ads that are working.

Graywolf, maybe you also have many good inbounds as well?

[graywolf]

maybe you also have many good inbounds as well?

Yup they are all part of the mix. If all of your inbound links were run of site, recips, one way, on topic, homepage only , deep inside pages, or with the same anchor text it would look ... funny.

Sometimes I even do things completely wrong to make it look amatuer/non-seo'd. Even though I have yet to go to a pub-con I am an advocate of 'drunken style seo'.

[walkman]

"So now they have twice as many backlinks as me but from one site. It has done nothing at all to their SERPS. "

how long ago was that? It may take time to fully work.

[martinibuster]

drunken style seo

Yes!

Don't listen to your head. Just go with your liver.

[graywolf]

how long ago was that? It may take time to fully work.

Everytime I have used this recently it has ABSOLUTELY set off the sandbox/quarantine/lag time penalty. Some are out, some are still in.

[Crush]

Everytime I have used this recently it has ABSOLUTELY set off the sandbox/quarantine/lag time penalty. Some are out, some are still in.

Looks like I could be in for a nasty surprise then

[walkman]

"Everytime I have used this recently it has ABSOLUTELY set off the sandbox/quarantine/lag time penalty. Some are out, some are still in."

is this for all links, or just sitewide links (with huge number of pages)?

[viggen]

So i place on my forum footer some links of my biggest competitors and they all suffer a penalty? I can't believe that...

[walkman]

"So i place on my forum footer some links of my biggest competitors and they all suffer a penalty? I can't believe that...
"
I don't buy that either, BUT the link's value might be sandboxed for a while to discourage buying and selling. Basically you will not see any benefits right away

[graywolf]

BUT the link's value might be sandboxed

I've been saying it for a long time "links are sandboxed not websites". The probelem is when you have a new website all of the links are new and therefore sandboxed so the net result is the same.

is this for all links, or just sitewide links (with huge number of pages)?

I haven't figured this part out yet. While I'd like to believe there is minimum number you need set off the sandbox, I can't prove or disprove that either way yet. A sitewide link from 50 pages has set it off for me.

[walkman]

"A sitewide link from 50 pages has set it off for me."

in the sense that you didn't get any benefit from that sites' links only, right?

Did everything else remain the same?