Should I buy links to improve my search engine rankings?

Ah… the old link buying debate – it never seems to go away.

Before I answer the question, I’ll put a little context around the importance of links pointing to your website. I know many of you already understand why they’re important to your search engine rankings, but it’s always helpful to do a little SEO 101 for those who don’t.

In its simplest form, a link to your site from another is a signal to search engines that your website is ‘popular’. If I like the content on your site I’ll probably link to it so I can share it with others. If lots of people like the content on your site, they’ll probably link to it too.

Search engine robots follow all these links and (all things being equal) will reward your content with a higher search engine ranking position.

For some sites, their content can be, shall we say, a little dry, and not many people are inclined to link to the site.

So it can be tempting to purchase links to improve the in-bound link count, and therefore improve search engine ranking positions.

It’s a highly dangerous practice though, because search engines like Google have declared war on those who buy links from other websites – citing that paid links are not genuine “votes” or links. They’re deemed artificial and placed for one reason – to improve the search engine rankings of the target site.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team has said that paid links are only okay if they’re “no followed” – in other words search engine robots are explicitly instructed not to carry any link “weight” to the site being linked to. So in summary, you can buy links to get traffic from another site without being penalised if you “no-follow” the links. Here’s Google’s explanation in more detail.

For many years, it was difficult for search engines to detect paid links, but their algorithms are getting better at detecting them and discounting paid links, potentially making the whole exercise pointless anyway.

Google’s also asking the online community for help in detecting paid links and there’s a form which you can fill out to report paid links if you detect them yourself. I’ve personally used this form on more than one occasion!

Last year, one of the biggest link building companies in the world, We Build Pages stuck its head up a little too high and was cut down by Google’s spam team, who (apparently) launched an investigation into the back-link profiles of its customers. The fall out that ensued almost brought the company down, as (allegedly) many of the links “built” for their customers were in fact paid for.

There are companies which offer paid link placement such as www.textlinkbrokers.com – and they do their best to keep the sites who are offering links in exchange for cash a secret. But seriously, how hard is it for a search engine spam team to create an account, buy a few links here and there and detect who’s actually offering links for sale?

My advice is to stay well clear of paid links and use standard, ethical link building techniques so you can sleep well at night.

Chris Thomas heads Reseo, a search engine optimisation company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.

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