Will Link Buying Get a Site Penalized?

Getting penalized by the search engines. For marketers who invest a significant amount of money and time in generating revenue online, this can be a nagging concern.

Here are some questions I get frequently:

Will the search engines know I bought links?

For the unsophisticated link buyer outsourcing this task, this is probably a yes. I’ve seen link building done on sites where the link builder used their link exchange networks to build link popularity. These networks are hosted on same class C IP addresses (not just unique sites). Other low quality links include poor placement on webpages, lack of randomization in surrounding text, or lack of text link variation. With links just as with many other products, you get what you pay for.

So, how do I avoid detection from the search engines that I’m buying links?

A smart link builder will build links on different class C IPs, with placement of links within content-rich, theme-relevant pages and not links pages, randomize surrounding descriptive text, and vary text links. With all these measures in place, it makes it extremely difficult for the search engine to isolate bought links.

Should I buy links where the webmaster places links in a sponsored section?

Some webmasters prefer to place paid links in a sponsored section for fear of getting penalized for selling links. The truth of the matter is, the site belongs to the webmaster and he/she can do whatever he/she chooses. Text links were not invented by Google, Yahoo, or MSN. They’ve been around long before then. Links if purchased on relevant sites, can be thought of as good advertising and drive qualified visitors to the site being linked to. A smart link builder would get the benefit of search engine credit and qualified click-through traffic.

If a link is placed in a sponsored section, it’s possible that the search engines devalue the link somewhat. Still, search engine credit is being passed to the site. The proof is in the pudding. Sites with links placed in a sponsored links section still rank well.

I’d like to buy 1000 links at one go to rank high quickly, is this a good idea? How many links is too many?

We live in a gotta-have-it-now society. Unfortunately, this isn’t a very healthy way to grow a site. In fact, it could work against you in new ranking algorithms. Search engines like Google prefer a natural progression of links. Growth where spikes and dips in inbound links happen on a irregular basis show an unnatural pattern of link growth. Like the links themselves, anything that looks unnatural should be avoided.

For someone looking to buy links, it’s advisable to build links on a monthly basis. So, the 1000 links can be spread out over 12 months and each month would have about 83 links.

In general, a site should not gain more than a 50-100 links a month. The newer and less established a site is, the lower the starting numbers. With established sites having thousands of natural looking backlinks already, the number can possible increase beyond 100. Still, building that many paid links should be avoided if possible.

In summary, here are the criteria to establish if a link is good:

Links must not be a part of a network where all sites point to each other.

The link placements should also appear as natural as possible – think about how others would link to you if they were to write up something about you.

The majority of links should be placed on unique class C IPs. This is the real power behind a link because it is much harder to accomplish without real work.

Links should be placed in content-rich pages. Even better, have an article with anchor text embedded within the relevant content about the site.

Pages where links are placed must be theme-relevant. Co-citation as Jim Boykin explains determines the relationships links have with each other. It’s in these relationships that the link value is derived.

Links should be derived from a variety of sources and not just plain text links. This is because inbound links from text links really appear to be a very unnatural link progression. In performing search engine optimization for clients, I always recommend a diversified strategy of text links, high PageRank links, articles, pre-sell pages, and press releases along with a good dose of on-page optimization and webpage content to balance everything out. This ensures a quality optimization program that will maintain a site’s rankings for a long time to come.