Buying Links for SEO
Look at it from a business perspective point of view. If some search engines look at it from an advertiser’s point of view, then maybe that’s how you should look at it too. In the last two months, we have had (and continue to have) an increasingly higher number of clients and people that contact us to buy one-way links from other sites.
So the question is: Should you do it? Is it ‘safe’ to do it in this conjecture?
So how do we go about doing it?
You should approach the subject of buying links the same way you would approach any other business proposal or transaction: with careful planning and attention to the small details. You should sit down and plan carefully the way you will do this. You probably have some sites in mind you would like to contact in an effort to see if they will link to you for no fee.
Back to the basics of linking
Before I answer that question, let’s go back to basics. Why do we need links in the first place? Can’t we just have a site with no outside links that will still rank high?
Here’s how Google ranks Web pages:
Google ranks websites on their value of merit. One of Google’s algorithms that does just that is the Page Rank™ algorithm, named after one of Google co-founders, Larry Page. In its most basic form, Page Rank™ calculates the number and quality of incoming links to any given website.
As far as Google is concerned, a link from site A to site B is viewed as a ‘vote’, which means that if 300 sites link to site B, that site must be more important than if it only had 5 or 10 inbound links.
As a result, the more links you would have pointing to a given website, usually the better that site would be perceived in terms of quality of content. Since the past 3 or 4 years, a great number of webmasters and site owners have participated in what is called “reciprocal link exchanges”, which, as the name implies, does just that: “I will put a link from my site to your site, if you do the same”.
In essence, there is nothing wrong with that. However, since Google’s two major last updates, in November and January, reciprocal links don’t seem to have the same impact as they once had, at least not from a ranking point of view.
Since then, it would appear that one-way links (from A to B and not B to A also) are receiving better rankings.
Which reopens the debate on “are buying links ethical?” Look at this analogy: if a website or portal carries a number of advertisers with links on its homepage, all pointing directly to those sites, isn’t this link buying? It sure looks like it to me. Viewed in this manner, then I think its safe to say that buying links is now an acceptable practice in the Internet age.
So how do we go about doing it?
You should approach the subject of buying links the same way you would approach any other business proposal or transaction: with careful planning and attention to the small details. You should sit down and plan carefully the way you will do this. You probably have some sites in mind you would like to contact in an effort to see if they will ‘lease’ you some links.