The days of offering someone a free guest post and receiving a link in exchange are all but gone. Now you have to buy backlinks most of the time.
Unfortunately, most website owners now understand the value of a backlink. And the vast majority of them are looking to cash in.
It’s something our link building agency encounters daily.
But the question is…
Should you cough up the money and buy backlinks?
Short answer: Yes, but you must know what you’re doing.
Do it correctly and you’ll reap the rewards.
But if you do it incorrectly, you’ll waste a lot of money (and even get in trouble with Google).
So let me show you the right way to buy backlinks in 2024!
What Will I Learn?
Buying links is when you pay someone else to insert or add a backlink from their website to your website.
The goal is generally to pay for a link from a high-authority website to boost your own website authority and increase your search engine rankings in the Google search results.
This is usually done in two ways:
Buying links is more common than you think. If done correctly, paying for links is a great way to increase your rankings.
But there are some things you need to be aware of first…
Let me be clear:
All link building is against Google’s guidelines.
That also includes buying dofollow backlinks.
Google only wants you to earn links “naturally” because they consider those links as endorsements of your website.
That means that Google is actively on the hunt for people buying dodgy and spammy backlinks in order to manipulate their algorithm.
Make no mistake: Google link penalties do happen.
The truth is that Google penalty recovery is hard work.
Google takes penalties seriously and has a dedicated team of people who hand out manual penalties to website owners caught building low-quality links.
If you think you’ve been hit with a penalty, we recommend getting real experts to take care of it for you.
Search Logistics has a team of Google penalty recovery experts with an excellent track record of helping clients recover.
You can also use our Google penalty checker tutorial, which shows you exactly how to identify a Google penalty.
I didn’t tell you all this information to scare you off buying backlinks.
Quite the opposite…
But you need to understand the risks involved when you buy quality backlinks and manually build links in general.
Yes, you should buy high quality backlinks. But you need to understand that you get what you pay for when it comes to link building.
If someone offers you “cheap backlinks,” they are most likely:
The last thing you want to do is end up on a guest post farm that links out to every site willing to pay them a few bucks.
Your goal is to build links from quality websites that Google trusts.
Buying backlinks from these types of sites is often a balance between offering a mix of compensation and value.
That can mean an expertly crafted guest post + editorial fee to have the content placed.
Remember:
Buying backlinks is a standard practice in the SEO industry.
But you must approach it carefully and ONLY buy high-quality links on real sites trusted by Google.
SEOs buy backlinks because links are crucial for improving search engine optimisation.
Backlinks signal to Google that your website is trustworthy and content is credible. Think of a backlink as an endorsement.
The more links (endorsements) you have from trusted, high-authority sites the more Google will trust your content.
More trust = Higher rankings.
But that’s not all…
Backlinks offer a ton of other benefits to your site:
The bottom line is this:
Backlinks are a valuable and essential part of a good SEO strategy. That’s why SEOs are willing to pay for them.
Backlinks cost $50 to $500 per link, depending on:
The average price we get quoted for a good link is around the $250 mark.
Sound expensive?
Remember that with backlinks, you get what you pay for. Just a handful of links can mean the difference between your content ranking 10th or 1st.
When you reach out to a website for a backlink, they usually quote their highest price.
Just because they say a price doesn’t mean you have to pay it. We always negotiate the price and look to build long-term partnerships with the website.
It’s not uncommon for website owners to drop their prices as low as 50% if you tell them it’s not within your budget.
Website owners charge for backlinks because they know how valuable they are.
The website owner spends time creating great content and building their site’s authority. It makes sense then that they would want compensation for giving you a backlink.
And not all websites are created equal…
The quality of a link from a website comes down to a lot of factors:
Quality websites won’t just link out to anyone – Even if you offer the payment. They usually only link to other real sites that provide value within the industry.
These are the types of websites you want, but they often charge more for a link.
The biggest risk of buying backlinks is if Google identifies you are purchasing low-quality links from spammy sites to manipulate their algorithm.
There is also a risk that buying links does nothing for your website, and you end up wasting money.
Let me explain what I mean.
The most common issue with buying links is that the backlink has zero effect on your rankings.
What that really means is you end up wasting your money.
Google usually ignores backlinks from low-quality websites. Even if they get indexed, they have little to no effect on your rankings.
Think about it:
If Google doesn’t consider a website to be quality, why would a backlink (endorsement) benefit your website?
Remember that buying a backlink is an investment in your SEO. Make sure you buy backlinks that will give you a return on that investment.
Manual Google link penalties do happen – But much less than you think.
It’s easy to find tons of stories online of people getting penalised for buying shady backlinks. This might make you think that most websites that buy backlinks receive a Google penalty at some point.
But that’s not necessarily true…
Some of the biggest websites in your niche likely buy paid links at scale every month!
Receiving a Google penalty is always a risk when it comes to link building.
But if the backlink looks natural within the content, how would Google know you paid for it?
The key is to follow strict guidelines and understand the best practices.
Not all link building methods are equally valuable.
Some get better results than others. Below is a list of methods you can use to buy links safely and a couple to avoid as well.
When you buy backlinks, you need to be confident you are only buying them from quality websites.
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again…
When it comes to buying backlinks, you get what you pay for. Quality backlinks aren’t cheap. Don’t get suckered in by cheap deals that promise huge results.
Avoid these two link building methods below.
Buying backlinks on marketplaces like Fiverr is the fastest way to get yourself a manual Google penalty.
Let me explain:
Most cheap backlink services that sell links on freelance marketplaces simply have a list of spammy domains that have “good” domain authority metrics.
These kinds of links look great but they have manipulated the key domain metrics to look better than they actually are.
The reality is that Google knows these domains are spammy and low-quality.
Google will either ignore these types of links or worse…
Manually penalise any website that buys a link from that domain!
It’s just not worth the risk.
If you want to outsource your link building, hire trusted link building services with a reputation for building quality backlinks.
A PBN (Private Blog Network) is a group of websites that builds links and passes the authority of those links to a single website.
Think of it like a cartel of websites that exist to pass link equity onto any site that buys a backlink from them.
This is considered a pure “black hat” SEO tactic used by dodgy guest post services.
PBN backlinks are usually very cheap and have good domain metrics. But Google can easily detect PBNs today, so the links are all but worthless.
Watch out for PBNs and ensure you only buy links from real and relevant websites with verifiable organic traffic.
Now that you’ve seen the methods that don’t work for buying backlinks – Let me show you the ones that do.
Keep in mind:
Just because the methods below can benefit your SEO doesn’t mean they are entirely risk-free.
Use the following methods carefully and ensure each link you build looks completely natural on the website.
Niche edits (also known as link inserts) are backlinks inserted into existing content that Google has already indexed.
The website owner edits the content and adds your link. That’s it!
The benefits of paid niche edits are:
The biggest benefit of niche edits is that because the page is already indexed in Google, you can see the link’s impact on your rankings quickly.
If you choose the right page for the niche edit, you can also attract some sweet referral traffic.
Who doesn’t want that?
The biggest downside of the link inserts is finding the right websites to get placed on. You really have to do the work to ensure you get a great link from a quality site.
The last thing you want is to get listed on a niche edit link farm.
These types of websites have good metrics but link out to any and all sites that are willing to pay. Being associated with a link farm website can really damage your SEO long-term.
Guest posts are the most used link building method on the planet.
And for good reason…
Guest posts have stood the test of time as a dependable link building strategy.
Here’s how it works:
You pitch a piece of content to write and publish on someone else’s website. Then simply add your link in a relevant part of the content.
The owner gets a nice piece of fresh content and you get a link.
Win-win, right? Not so fast…
Most website owners will ask for an editorial fee to go along with the content. This is the paid part of guest posts and it’s very normal.
The biggest benefits of guest post links are:
What we love about guest posts is that you have more control over the whole process.
You select the website, write the content and choose where the backlink is placed. You can also select the anchor text to maximise the link’s quality.
The downside is you have to spend time writing the post, which is time-consuming.
But it’s a small price to pay for quality control!
Sponsored content is the safest way to build links – But they also carry very little weight in terms of link equity.
Let me explain:
Whenever you place a link to another website, Google wants you to help categorise that link for them by tagging it with an “attribute”.
In 2019, Google updated its link attributes to include:
Nofollow, Sponsored and UGC links don’t add any SEO value. ONLY Dofollow links will benefit your SEO.
Google will know you paid for a sponsored link and it won’t pass any link equity.
What’s the benefit, then?
A sponsored link still gets clicks from users and grows your brand’s visibility.
The truth is that building links is hard work.
There are so many things to think about. And the consequences of building bad links can be severe.
That’s why so many website owners (and even SEO agencies) choose to outsource their link building needs to trusted link building services.
That way, you can focus on growing your business while letting the pros take care of the links.
Who do we recommend?
LinksThatRank builds the highest-quality links of any link building service we’ve seen. They also regularly publish their case study results so you can get an idea of what to expect from their services.
Here’s an example of a recent case study below:
Pretty crazy, right?
Every backlink that LinksThatRank builds passes a 23-point quality control process and is manually reviewed by a member of their team.
That means you only get backlinks for real websites that improve your SEO!
Check out their services here.
Buying backlinks is common in the SEO industry.
The truth is that buying quality links that look natural to Google can really boost:
This strategy has been around for years and continues to work today.
But you need to have a strong process to identify quality websites worth buying backlinks from.
You also need to focus on quality control to ALWAYS make sure the links look natural within the content.
For a lot of people, this process is too overwhelming.
That’s why many website owners outsource to link building services like LinksThatRank.
LinkThatRank have a reputation for building quality backlinks that will actually improve your SEO.
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