Let’s face it – Not everyone can earn high-quality backlinks quickly to their website. And if you don’t have any high-quality backlinks pointing to your website, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to climb the top rankings of the SERP.
So what can you do instead? In such situations, many website owners think about buying backlinks.
What does buying backlinks mean? Well, the concept is simple – You pay a website owner to place your link on their website. Great, right? Yes.
However, one thing to remember is that link buying can also be both beneficial as well as harmful to your website.
Don’t worry, we got you. In this post, you are going to learn why you should buy links for your website, how much it can cost, and how to buy links.
Let’s get started.
Why SEOs buy links
Now let us understand why SEO experts buy links.
1. To quickly push their rankings
SEO is a slow process game that requires a lot of time and effort before it gives you any result.
But what will you do if you want to achieve quick rankings? That’s when buying links comes into the picture.
Because Google considers backlinks as one of the top factors to rank higher, SEO experts buy backlinks from high-authority websites to achieve immediate link juice from those websites.
Moreover, it also helps them bypass the time and effort required to organically acquire high-quality backlinks.
To quick start this lot of SEOs outreach this to link building agencies.
2. To beat competitors
In this SEO world, staying one step ahead of your competitors is the only way to rank higher and gain more visibility online. That is exactly why SEO experts buy links.
You see, in industries with high competition, a lot of businesses might invest their time and efforts in SEO to achieve the top rankings on the SERP.
In such cases, it becomes extremely difficult to win the game. SEO experts buy links from high-authority websites to gain their link authority, cut the line, and achieve top rankings.
3. To reduce time and effort
Next, another reason why SEO experts buy links is to reduce the time and effort put into building natural links to a website.
If you opt to go organically without using any paid methods, you’ll have to go through a lot of processes such as creating high-quality content, promoting it, reaching out, collaborating, and so on, to gain some results.
While it is true that going organically is the best way to build links, you never know how much time and effort earning a single link is going to take.
SEO experts buy links to cut through this process and achieve results with less effort.
4. To get targeted referral traffic
One more reason why SEO experts buy links could be to get the targeted referral traffic to their websites.
You see, oftentimes it can be extremely difficult for you to earn a link placement on your targeted website organically. In such cases, SEO experts buy links.
You can contact the site owner and discuss a deal with them to earn a link from their website. This way you can get both a backlink as well as targeted referral traffic from that website.
5. To get brand exposure
As discussed above, organic link building is a slow process that does not ensure any guaranteed results. That is when link buying comes into the place.
By purchasing links, SEO experts earn a link placement on popular websites of the industries that they wouldn’t have earned organically.
This not only helps them increase their website’s authority and drive referral traffic but also helps them spread brand awareness among different audiences and earn credibility among them.
What Google thinks about buying links
When it comes to buying links, many people still believe that it is an unethical practice and will cause penalties from Google. However, this is not entirely true.
The truth is that Google is not really against all kinds of purchased links. On the other hand, it only penalizes the kinds of links that are solely purchased with the intention to manipulate search engines.
This tells us that if you receive links that give you huge unfair advantages or pass you authority that you don’t really deserve, your website might get penalized.
On the other hand, if the same paid link gives you the boost that your website deserves and doesn’t manipulate the search results, you won’t be penalized.
Moreover, Google’s senior search analyst and search relations team lead, John Mueller answered the following question:
“Are backlinks important in ranking factors? Because nowadays 80 to 90% of websites are buying backlinks which I think is very unethical.
But these websites are also ranked on the first page. Why?
This simply proves the point that if you have quality content on your website, a strong audience base, a good brand image, and some authority, you can make the best use of buying links to rank higher without manipulating the search results.
Why should you consider buying links
Okay, now that you know why others buy links and what Google thinks about it, let’s understand why you should consider buying links. What are the benefits and reasons to buy them?
1. To achieve niche domination
One of the biggest benefits purchasing links can provide you is that it can help you dominate your niche.
When you purchase links from popular and high-authority websites that are closely related to your niche, it signals both the users as well as the search engine that your website is the key player in your industry.
Along with sending valuable referral traffic to your website, these backlinks will also send strong signals to search engine algorithms about your authority and reputation in your industry.
This will overall help you rank higher for your niche-related keywords.
2. To make the right use of the right resources
If you want to run your business successfully, you must know that making the right use of the right resources is a crucial part of its daily processes.
When it comes to backlinks, building links for your website can be an extremely time-consuming task that can take the majority portion of your resources and time that you could have invested somewhere else.
Purchasing links helps you cut the time spent on building these links and save a huge portion of your resources so that you can focus on other core factors of your business.
3. For localized promotion
Let’s say you have a business that operates in a specific region and targets a specific local market. Since search engines operate all around the world, it is not easy for any website to rank higher in the specific region they want. That’s when you can purchase links.
By purchasing links from popular websites in your target market, you can get your brand in front of its audience and even get targeted local referral traffic. These websites will send you the local traffic that your website is looking for and therefore even increase your conversion rates.
Moreover, getting links from a specific region’s websites will also help you improve your authority and rank higher in that region.
4. To Promote specific events or campaigns
One of the best times to purchase links is when you are having an important event going on.
Let’s say you are going to have a product launch in a few days and you need to create buzz around it. One smart way to do this is by purchasing links from targeted websites that will send a really high amount of referral traffic to your website which can then be converted into your product’s customers as well.
Building links organically takes a lot of time and there is no guarantee on whether you’ll get the right backlink at the right time. That’s when you can go for purchased links to create occasional buzz around events that you want.
5. To get more options
Finally, purchasing links gives you many more options than acquiring links. When you go for building links organically, you don’t get full control over the backlink placement, anchor texts, quality, and so on.
On the other hand, purchasing links gives you more options over the kind of link that you want, the place where the link should be placed, the anchor text for that link, and so on.
Purchasing links is no longer all about purchasing some spammy links from a fake website. It’s about finding the right website with the right audience and acquiring your link with the right budget.
Difference between natural links and paid links
| BASIS | NATURAL LINKS | PAID LINKS |
| Acquisition Effort | Less or no direct effort | Direct effort |
| Motive | Value and relevance of content | Monetary transaction |
| Immediate results | Uncertain | Guaranteed |
| Long-term benefit | Greater | Shorter period |
| Control | Limited | Full |
| Penalty risks | Low | Possibility |
| Certainty of results | Uncertain | Certain |
So apart from the fact that one is earned organically and another one is paid for, what’s the actual difference between a natural link and a paid link? Let’s discuss.
Natural links
- Natural links are the kind of backlinks that are earned with less or no direct effort from the external website owner. These links are earned based on the value that you provide and are placed on an external website voluntarily.
- Natural links are typically earned for the quality, value, or relevance of your content.
- Earning links naturally takes a lot of time and effort before you start seeing any results.
- Since these are kinds of links that are earned based on merit, natural links tend to have a greater long-term benefit when compared to purchased links
- You don’t get full control over the kind of backlink that you receive, the placement of that link, the anchor text, and the industry it comes from.
- Natural links generally carry no penalty risks and are considered genuine by other webmasters.
- The results achieved from natural links are uncertain. There is no guarantee of the kind of link that you receive, the time of acquiring that link, the website that links come from, and so on.
Paid links
- Paid links are the kind of backlinks that are earned through direct effort and contact between two website owners. These links are earned because of the monetary transaction that took place between the two websites.
- The major motive for sending a paid link is the monetary benefit it provides to the external website owner.
- Paid links can guarantee you immediate results in terms of traffic, exposure, and search engine rankings improvement.
- Paid links can often provide a shorter period benefit to your website when compared to natural links.
- With paid links, you get full control over the kind of backlinks that you receive, their placement, the anchor text used, and the industry it comes from.
- Paid links sometimes can carry penalty risks if you don’t do it the right way.
- The results achieved from paid links are certain. There is a full guarantee of the kind of link that you receive, the time of acquiring that link, the website that links come from, and so on.
How to buy links
Well, there are a lot of methods of buying links for your website. Let’s discuss.
Paid guest posts
Paid guest posts are all about paying a website owner to place your article on their website.
The best thing about paid guest posts is that you have a lot of options to choose from. You can choose the website, the type of content, the page you link to, the anchor texts, and the placement of the link.
Niche edits
Another great strategy for buying links is reaching out to website owners who sell links on their websites.
You can reach out to website owners and ask them to place a link to your website on their page. Similar to paid guest posts, you can select the page you want the link to, the anchor texts, and the placement of that link.
Sponsored posts
Next, you can also go for sponsored posts. A sponsored post is the same as a paid guest post, but instead of keeping it secret that you paid for the post, a sponsored post makes it clear that it is paid for.
The backlinks placed on these kinds of pages involve a rel=“sponsored” or rel=“nofollow” tag which tells Google that the link is paid for. These kinds of links stop the crawler bot from crawling your website and passing any kind of page authority.
Though it doesn’t provide as many benefits as a paid guest post, a sponsored post link doesn’t include many risks and can still generate some traffic to your website.
Working with an agency
Finally, you can also work with an agency that specializes in building links to build paid links to your websites.
Going for an agency is by far the best option if you want to buy links as agencies come with a team of experts who can purchase the right links to your website and in the right way, reducing your risks of penalties.
However, you must also do some research before going for any agency as some low-authority agencies might build low-quality links to your website bringing risks to your website.
If you are looking for a trustworthy agency that can buy the right links to your website, you are on the right website. SERP Forge is a modern-day agency with a specific focus on link building, coming with a team of members who know the ins and outs of link building.
How much backlinks cost
Well, the cost of a backlink depends from one website to another. It also depends on a lot of other factors such as the authority of the website the link is coming from, the niche of that website, the amount of traffic on that website, the type of link, the link placement, and so on.
However, a backlink from a high DR website can cost anywhere from $100 to $1000.
Risks of buying links
Now you should know that along with all the benefits and perks purchased links bring, there are also some risks associated with them.
1. You can get penalties
The first and biggest risk of buying links is that there is some risk of getting penalized by the search engine.
If you purchase links with the sole purpose of manipulating the search results and earning links that your website doesn’t deserve, you can receive penalties such as a drop in search rankings, manual actions, or even removal from search results.
2. You might get no good results
You see, if you try to purchase links from low-quality websites or forums and directories, you must know that are probably wasting your money on something that isn’t going to give you any results.
Google knows when to ignore links coming from such websites and when to not pass any link authority.
3. You will not get sustainable growth
Buying links can surely give you immediate growth in your search rankings, but it fails to give you sustainable growth results.
Google is constantly updating and bringing new changes to its algorithms. This brings more risks to links that are purchased unnaturally.
4. You can waste resources
If you purchase links from any website without doing proper research, you might end up wasting all your resources for nothing.
Buying links from low-quality websites will only negatively impact your rankings resulting in a waste of resources.
Do’s and don’ts of buying links
Now let us understand what the do’s and don’ts of buying links are that you must follow.
Do’s
Do research before buying
The first and one of the most important points to keep in mind when buying links is to always thoroughly research the provider of the link before purchasing links from them.
Do focus on quality
The same point repeats every time. When it comes to buying links, you must majorly focus on buying links that are relevant to your website, come from high-authority websites, and can send targeted referral traffic.
Do keep focus on relevancy
When it comes to buying links, the relevancy of your links matters the most. You must ensure that the links that you purchase are coming websites that are relevant to your niche and are also placed in pieces of content that are relevant to your topic.
Do control your backlink
The best thing that you get with a purchased link is that you get full control of your backlink. Make use of that control and try to select the best link placement and also try to diversify all your anchor texts.
Do track and monitor
One more point to keep in mind when buying links from external websites is to always keep an eye on all your purchased links and track the results achieved from those links.
Don’ts
Don’t buy links from low-quality websites
When purchasing links from external websites, you should never make the mistake of buying links from low-quality websites that are not relevant to your website. These links can harm your website’s reputation and even bring penalties.
Don’t engage in manipulative techniques
Never engage yourself in using manipulative techniques such as participating in link schemes in order to manipulate search engine results.
Don’t ignore search engine guidelines
When purchasing links, don’t ignore the guidelines laid out by the search engine. Try to avoid any kind of tactic that violates the search engine guidelines.
Don’t rely solely on paid links
You should never solely rely only on paid links and avoid other natural techniques to earn organic links. If you want your website to rank higher on search engines, you’ll also need to keep an equal focus on earning organic links.
Conclusion
So this is it! This was the complete blog on buying links.
Now that you know what link buying is, why SEOs buy links, and how to buy links, it’s time for you to decide whether or not you should buy links.
Remember – buying links is not wrong if you do it the right way.
If you are looking for an agency that can specifically help you with buying links, you can always contact the SERP Forge team. Our team of experts uses all kinds of white-hat techniques to ensure your website receives paid links the right way. Contact us today.
FAQs
Is it illegal to buy backlinks?
No. Buying backlinks is in no way illegal or against the law. Purchasing the right kind of link for the right purpose is always a good choice. However, if you purchase links solely for the purpose of manipulating search engines, you might end up getting a penalty to your website.
Does buying links still work?
Yes. Buying links still works. If you choose the right website with high authority and relevance, and purchase a backlink that your website actually deserves, you are all set to get the most out of your purchased links.
Why do people buy links?
Well, there are a lot of benefits to buying links. Firstly, when you buy links from high-authority websites, you skip the waiting part and gain immediate results. Next, it also helps you get your brand in front of a new set of audience that you wouldn’t have reached otherwise. Finally, it gives you the best results out of least effort.
