Buying text links

Good? Bad?

[tml89]

What are everyones thoughts on buying links as part of a link building stragety. They are non recpricol, so thats good. But can things go wrong? How many people buy text links? Pros. Cons?

[Shock]

I have never purchased a link before, most of the time they are over priced. In fact, I have never bought an advertisement and I am still getting very good traffic daily.

My stradegy is exchanging links with websites, and submitting to websites for plugs.

[martinibuster]

I have never purchased a link before, most of the time they are over priced. In fact, I have never bought an advertisement...

Hmm... Good is good. Cheap is good. Good AND cheap is great.

That's all I'm saying so I don't set off a land rush.

[creative craig]

I read a post on some ones blog recently where they stated it is bad practice to tell the world how you gain your links, if only I could post the blog where I read it ;)

[gmac17]

i have bought links before. The problem is, you really don't know if it helps you, because the organic listings fluctuate quite a bit.

I do think that G has some sort of filter to stop people from buy mass quantities of links and flying up the serps overnight.

[ryan26]

Go ahead and spend some money on paid links. Just don't be an idiot about it.

Ryan's tips to avoid being a paid link idiot:

- Do a FULL analysis of a website to see for yourself where they got their power. Check their backlinks. Check to see how many pages they have indexed. Check the Wayback machine to see potential previous incarnations. Check EVERYTHING!

- Stay within your topical area if at all possible.

- Avoid run-of-the-site links.

- If you're doing multiple buys then you should be using multiple anchors. Always shuffle your cards.

- Remember: Toolbar PR (TBPR) is only a small indication of a site's net worth. Don't be hustled into buying a PR8 when the PR6 is 30% of the price.

- Use less competitive terms from time to time and use the quicker turn-around to judge reaction from the engines.

- MEASURE YOUR RESULTS! Track referrals and the impact on your anchor popularity for your target term. If your paid link isn't returning any value then why does it exist?

All of those points will help the cause of one simple goal - avoid giving the engine a pattern to follow. Giving the engine a pattern gives them an extra level of control that belongs to you.

[rytis]

Spend the money to buy something to your better part, and spend a day searching webmasterworld for "buying links" and similar ;)

R

[Matt Probert]

Buying a link, as a text advert on a popular site can be very profitable. Buying a link which is part of a massive link farm page is a waste of time and money.

Matt

[neuron]

They are non reciprocal, so thats good.

Exactly what does that mean? One way links are only marginally better than reciprocals as far as PR goes in a properly constructed link directory. However, if you only link out to sites that add value, provide a benefit to your site visitors, then even that argument does not carry much water.

it is bad practice to tell the world how you gain your links

Yes, it probably is not a good practice to divulge to your site visitors and/or your competition how you gain your links, but that's a whole different ball of wax from discussing how we get our links in this forum, which is and always should be site non-specific.

i have bought links before. The problem is, you really don't know if it helps you, because the organic listings fluctuate quite a bit.

I would almost never pay for a link that I did not expect to bring enough traffic to justify it's expense, and traffic through a link is measurable. The exception would be a cheap really high PR link, but that too would be measurable, at least in resultant PR.

I do think that G has some sort of filter to stop people from buy mass quantities of links and flying up the serps overnight.

Google has always had a link spam filter to stop link farm links (100's or even 1000's of links from a single domain from counting), but why would they filter a single links from many different domain? That would certainly put a kink in their results. If a site gets a single link from 1000's of different domains, that site has done something worthy of note, no matter how it got them, and Google will rank it accordingly.

The best thing about buying links is the temporary leverage it can give you during a reciprocal link campaign. Buy some high power links to raise your PR to PR7 or PR8, then you can offer links from a high PR site with high PR pages. This makes it a lot easier to get 1000's of good quality links from other sites. You then terminate the bought links but most of the reciprocals you obtained will remain, and they'll be of higher PR and from better quality sites than the links you could have obtained had you not bought the temporary links. In this way you can leverage the value of the bought links into a long term benefit for your site.

[This is my first post in about six weeks. That's right, I'm back. Dunahnunahnunahnunahnunahnunah]

[mrhazelj]

I think buying links that are relavant and/or themed can do good. but i think you should mix them with reciprocals. I don't even call it link popularity anymore, i call it link authority. the more authority, the better. you could outrank someone who has 400 junk links and you could only have 20 real good ones.

[AjiNIMC]

buy links , take this note,

1) How do you came to know that they are selling links, if you know, Google's Interpol dept also knows.

2) If it is only a link then ok but if it is links from many pages, donot get to the same page with same anchor text, please donot ask why, All I can say is it not worthy.

3) Many links from one site can sometimes be considered only one link(need to get links from different C Class IPs)

Enjoy
Aji

[mrhazelj]

I agree with the c-class theory, as it seems to be a pretty valid one. it really depends on who you buy from. it's probably safer from link brokers because the good ones usally don't publish ip adresses publicly. anyone can ask though but i highly doubt anything is really being done like that.

[creative craig]

How do you came to know that they are selling links, if you know, Google's Interpol dept also knows.

Many link brokers work on behalf of sites selling links. They post the general theme of the sites and then you contact them for more information, this should ensure that Google and any of the other search engines do not find out about the obvious link sellers.

[Brett_Tabke]

Lets not forget that text links are a great form of advertising. I buy them all the time (I loath banners and never had any luck with ppc engines).

[Marc_P]

I bought 3 packages from a text links brokerage firm in november. I bought links on sites that should have been highly relevant to what I do. They sold me a PR7 package, and 2 PR 3-5 ROS packages. After I discovered where the links were placed, I realized they GROSSLY underdelivered in both quantity of links and PR.

I contacted them for an explanation, they said they were terribly sorry and that they would take care of it. I have contacted them by various means about 6 times now and there never was a reply of any form. There is no phone number on their site, so I can't call them. I checked the whois info on their main domain and am pondering calling them there today.

I would say watch who you do business with, not all firms are reputable. In retrospect it's probably best to call them and establish some form of relationship before buying.

[Receptional]

Buy links primarily for visitors, not search engine rankings and you will be on to a pretty good thing IMHO. When I say "buy", I really mean "get by hook (not) by crook" but do base the success on traffic from the link not on changes in the serps.

I am not saying link schemes don't work. But I am saying try the safe stuff first and do any risky "testing" in a controlled environment if you want to go below the radar.

[Nawaralsaadi]

I have been buying links for a couple of months now, we have had good return from this strategy in terms of targeted traffic and higher SERPs (except for google so far after their last update), I believe buying text links is much more cost effective then PPC especially if you are buying PPC for competitive words, my advice when buying text links is:

-Always ask to see the link first and try to find out where your link will be placed.
-Avoid packages (my experience is that they pack a lot of low quality sites together which can not be sold easily interpedently).
-Avoid pages with over 20 outbounds, many people build pages today just to sale Page Rank, make sure your advertising in a real site.

If sites are selected carefully, and links placed clearly, you will have the added benefit of rising pagerank, better SERPs and targeted traffic.

Remember that quality links require quality sites, if you are aiming to buy a link from a quality PR7 or PR8, you’d better have a quality site yourself.

I see buying text links as legitimate and cost effective marketing strategy especially if you limit your buying to relevant content websites.

Nawar

[ownerrim]

"Avoid run-of-the-site links"

I've always believed this...but I know a webmaster who runs a very high PR public service site with over 2,000 pages. The site funds it's charitable activities by two means: donations, and by offering run-of-site links to other sites. I checked the sites that get these run of site links. All have pr 6 or pr 7, and I'm guessing a big chunk of this pr is the result of these run-of-site links on this 2000+ page site.

Thoughts?

[rover]

Track referrals and the impact on your anchor popularity for your target term

Sorry if this is really obvious, but what does "impact on your anchor popularity" refer to?

Is it possible to track the anchor text from a link to your site?

[I_Brian]

Buying links so far seems fine, but as above, the primary reason for advertising has to attract human visitors first, who then can convert into income via your own products/services/advertising.

Buying links simply for search engines can end up building a house of cards, and an instable way to develop traffic. Google Sandboxing means you may be unlikely to see any advatnages for months.

I hear people advise against Sitewide advertising - I say go for it, and ignore single link advertising.

1. it will make your ad more visible to users of that site;

2. because sitewide's absolutely do still have SEO advantages over single page (though in a diminishing manner);

3. because a lot of single page advertising is very over-priced for what you are actually getting.

2c. :)

[mrhazelj]

i just like buying themed links for traffic and serps. high quality sites are out there and so are good text link brokers. I always ask to see the url of a site to make sure it has was it says it has. I'm not real worried about the sandbox myself. i know it will happen but oh well, I still got my day job(s) :). i'm just looking a the end result in tageted traffic and serps in time.

[glengara]

I tend to take the Groucho view, I wouldn't buy text links from anyone who's selling them :-)

[clearvision]

Text links are what people click on!

I wouldn't buy text links for SE popularity...this is a never sure thing. I have seen some sites high ranked and others not and they are linked from the same page.

If the audience of a site is who you would like to reach and the site ranks high in the multiple search engines...WHY NOT buy some real estate on their site! It has been very profitable for us. Basically you are buying ad space.

1. They are getting your target visitors...quick way to make them your own. Capitalize on their search engine success.
3. Be a wise link shopper...( as said before) avoid the link farms & mass directories where you will never be seen etc.
4. I like run of site links...it exposes you to more visitors.
5. Never agree to long term advertising until you have tested it out for your self.
6. Remember why you are buying the link...do you want higher search engine ranking ( always iffy) or do you want to get some of their traffic. Make sure you can profit from the expense.

Just MHO

[mrhazelj]

the only way i ever see buying links working for seo reasons if you have on page seo already done (kw density, title, etc, etc) and the right anchor text and the authority of a site. As I stated i try to buy links from sites that sell 15 or less links per page. I personally check that before I buy. I also check for unique c-class(3rd set of ip adress numbers) and I check thier backlinks... everything is checked befor i buy anything. If I can't check, i won't buy it, period. BUT, i also do link exchanges. mixing them both (one way and reciprocal) is the way i'll go from now on.

[tenerifejim]

The first text link I bought was on the front page of the number one site for the main keyword I chase. I got a PR jump a few weeks later from 4 to 5 and they are also now my number 1 referer (apart from Google and Yahoo).

I guess I got lucky, but when I get the option to do something similar again, I go for it.

[JuniorOptimizer]

The less you spend out, the more profit you make. Most of the links being sold today are not worth the money. And for the guy earlier up who can't contact the cheesy text link broker, charge it back.

[Marc_P]

Yes I think I will charge back. I am giving them one last chance to redeem themselves this morning with a warning email which basically says get in touch with me before the end of the day or face the consequences.

[walkman]

"Lets not forget that text links are a great form of advertising. I buy them all the time (I loath banners and never had any luck with ppc engines)."

Brett, and if you send your site to G to check it out, you think they wouldn't say anything (provided you aren't Brett of WebmasterWorld)?

[clearvision]

Why would a link broker be better than locating individual sites for buying text links? (which is what we do). Not for Search Engine Op, but for quality text advertising.

Why would Google poo poo that?

[Marc_P]

Update: They did not redeem themselves on time, they never tried to contact us, so this morning, our lawyer is working on a nice letter for them.