Paid Link Marketing – Gasp!
I know some of you swoon in shock at the idea of the Diva endorsing paid links – a Google mortal sin. I’ve intentionally avoided any mention of paid links for over a year. But I’m about to open the door – so get out the smelling salts.
Just about everybody buys links. Honest.
If you can afford to be “pure” and “holistic” (actual words used in conversation at a conference lunch table) in your link building, hurrah for you, but most web site businesses can’t afford to be so pure.
It typically takes YEARS to build up enough freely given links to amount to anything close to what competitors can amass in a number of months via paid links, all the while looking “natural” or at least “natural-enough” in the eyes of Google.
Aaron Wall talks about the value of paid links in his blog article How Much is a Link Worth (to YOUR Business):
Some of my friends have affiliate sites that do anywhere from 0 to 10 leads a day at ~ $30/lead. They rank well enough to get good traffic, then their rankings slip. And they keep bouncing back and forth. Buying just a couple strong links could take a $150/day average earnings and boost it to $300…thus yielding a monthly return of $4,500.
As Aaron explains, even a couple of high ranking links can give a huge boost to your rankings. I don’t know about you, but not one really high ranking site has offered me a free, followed link lately. I promise you, buying a link or two is not the equivalent of selling your soul to the devil. It’s called…marketing.
Disclosure: SEO Diva doesn’t have any paid links – for real. It’s not meant to be a money-making blog, and although I’m always up for more readers, I spend my money elsewhere.
Bring the comments on – this should be interesting! 
Tags: aaron wall, inbound links, link building, links, paid link marketing, paid links, SEO, seo diva
The problem is that some people will always buy links as the chances of Google catching and then punishing them sufficiently is so small. And whilst there are people doing this it makes it extremely difficult to compete in many industries unless you join them and start buying links yourself. As we speak I’m sure that Google is trying its best to resolve this paid links problem – the current situation is far from ideal.
@Small Business – you’re right, people will always buy links, and that’s why the small business person has to do so also just to compete.
One good thing is that Google used to give props for quantity of links, but quality is counting for more now. I think that makes it easier for the little guys.
I can’t see that paid links will ever go away. It’s marketing, pure and simple.
Hi Kay – Any suggestions for a good paid link for Real Estate?
Westboro Real Estates last blog post..5 Surefire Ways to Turn Off a Buyer
@Bill – I’ll email you…
This has been around for some time and will definitely stay. Only way to counter is to, like what you said, place more emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Has Google addressed this issue recently?
well i agree that paid links has served as the problem but one thing is sure that it can’t be cured until people stop buying these links….
I agree, it can take a very long time to build up links naturally, which is why people turn to paid links. But im sure google is aware of this and taking steps to address it.
I suppose TLA is the most popular paid-links marketplace. It does have some fairly high profile websites (including authority websites like newspapers and magazines)
I evaluate paid links this way: if a page is a PR 5 and a link is going to cost me $x per month; how much time will it take with my natural link building to gain the value of a PR 5 link? How much is that time worth? Can I outsource the link-building? What if Google finds out that’s a paid link, how quickly can I replace it?
I say buy the link if you’re on the bubble but not as a primary strategy. Also, don’t let them put the same link-text on every page of their “Interwebs”. =P
SEO Orange Countys last blog post..5 Things for Blogging Survival
Will the google accepts the paid links or any other strategy is we have to use
Something must be done for paid link purchases, It makes people jump even without PR. I have seen a website with PR0 and is ranked on top amongst millions of pages. The guy is a serious link buyer.
Personal Blogs last blog post..End of an era, Sourav Ganguly the best Indian Captain so far
Look if a site like cnn, myspace, facebook etc would allow me to buy a backlink from them for a reasonable price I think most of us would take up on that offer especially if it means an immediately page rank and unique visitor bump.
http://www.techNmore.com
Never bought or sold a link myself. No plans to either as far as I know…and not just because of the Google wrath, I could care less.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Contest Over: Prizes Coming – Link Love First!
If you look at Google’s motives surrounding paid links, you’ll see that Google is based on the “PhD” mindset. In order for their bots to be able to “judge” the “quality” of a web site’s “content”, they use incoming links as an indicator.
Google LIKES the fact that it takes YEARS for a site to establish itself with one way incoming links.
With this in mind, you can BET that Google is doing everything within their power (read: anything money can buy!) to hunt down and destroy these “paid” links.
If you’ve figured out a way to buy links and elude detection up until now, stay on your toes and know that the engineers at Google are positively OBSESSED with finding a way to catch you! When they do, it won’t be pretty!
Kathy @ Virtual Impaxs last blog post..Social Media Warning: I am Rubber – You are Glue …
If a paid link opportunity is intriguing enough, I usually evaluate the other links on the site to see if they’re related to the site I’m pursuing the link for. If there are a bunch of unrelated sites that could be easily recognized by Google, then it’s too risky.
Paid links are usually my last ditch effort for a customer. If the end of the contract is coming up, and they’re demanding results, the white hat has to come off.
@Roger – I haven’t read anything recently.
@zncustombuilding – and they never will…
@Computer Desks – they will always try to find paid links, which is why most are under the radar now.
@Pallab – TLA is a good company to work with.
@SEO Orange County – I totally agree with you. I don’t like “Interwebs” at all. Stricly one-shot deals.
@Personal Blog – the guy knows what he is doing – PR doesn’t mean anything, especially if you’re on page 1!!
@Wes – definitely!
@Dennis – when you’re selling something, and being on page 1 of Google means thousands of dollars…you buy links!
@Kathy – Problem is, most people don’t want to wait years to make money. I have noticed that the quality, rather than quantity of links is starting to count for more, which helps the little guys.
@SEO Services – I agree.
@Name Badges – I think we’re all a little “gray hat.”
Umm, no actually I don’t, sorry to disappoint lol.
Perhaps I am the whitest (hat) man on the net, but if it’s wrong I just don’t do it, nor do I advise others too.
This is not a slight against others, it’s just me
Dennis Edells last blog post..Is Your Online Reputation Solid? I hope so, It’s All You Have.
As some have said, it takes “years” to get a good ranking and that’s how google wants it. This has been disproven time and time again, even by google themselves.
I haven’t done the link buying, maybe I’ll have to test it.
What about tnx.net?
Tertiuss last blog post..Testing a hosting provider before you commit – 4 steps
@Dennis – if you can do it without paid links, that’s great. I have a few sites that have made it there on their own, but it depends a lot on competition and also how much time you have to develop natural links.
@Tertius – this bullet point on their site for advertisers concerns me:
“Prices of links are the lowest on the market. For as low as $11 a month you may get up to 10,000 static links to your website.”
For one thing, you get what you pay for…$11 is too cheap. Also, you don’t want 10,000 links suddenly showing up, and the quality of those links can’t be good. I’d pass on this one!
Paying for advertising and good Will is just good business.
I buy links sometimes and see nothing wrong with it. If someone is starting an online business they should be able to go and freely market it instead of having to wait around for two years for traffic to come around.
Though someone above mentioned ‘$11 a month you may get up to 10,000 links’. I would be interested in where I can find that kind of deal.
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