I've been a fan of David Wallace for a while, but his rant on things that bug him about link sellers was one of my favorites. It also made me realize that I needed to write a solid post about link purchasing directly from websites under the radar of the engines. To some, this type of advice would put me squarely in the black hat camp, but I think that buying relevant advertisements from good quality sites who are certainly going to take into account who they're linking to is a legitimate way of marketing your site. If you can add to the ROI of the ad by not adding a "nofollow," it seems hard to justify adding that condition to the sale.
I'm also of the opinion that, when done right, these one-to-one link purchases are nearly impossible to detect, as compared to large link purchases through brokers or networks, which can be compromised by smart engineers. After all, if you worked at the engines, wouldn't you type in text link ads, create a fake identity, and try to get a look at all of the link sellers' networks?
Here's the general process I like to follow, using the specific example of Eden Valley Orchards (who I don't think has any SEO efforts, but I loved their grounds and am considering it as a wedding location, so it's fresh on my mind).
STEP 1: Keyword Discovery
Eden Valley needs to figure out which keywords are going to send them the most qualified, valuable web traffic. In reality, they should probably buy some ads on Google AdWords, Yahoo! & Live, and test the conversion rate (through their contact page or a visit us link or their email newsletter, along with their wine club membership). However, I don't have access to that data, so let's just assume that the term "ashland winery" is particularly valuable. They'd probably want to find a good 2-3 dozen terms and phrases, but for brevity's sake, we'll just look at this one.
STEP 2: Finding Relevant Sites
As I've noted in the past, it's my belief that some of the most valuable links, from both a traffic and relevancy standpoint, come from the pages that rank highest for the target term. Thus, acquiring links from the pages here, here, here and here are probably very good bets. I also like using the Juicy Link Finder tool, which is perfect for this kind of task. There's a ton of different ways to find good sites to provide value, but for now we'll move on - maybe a more detailed post on link opportunity discovery will be valuable in the near future.
STEP 3: Sending Initial Advertising Requests
The first request typically will be sent either over email or through a contact form. The phrasing and style of what you send is extremely important and will determine how likely you are to get a response and the receptiveness of the person to the email. Many times, you'll find a page on sponsorship/advertising/etc like this one. In these cases, it's easy to get started and the site is clearly receptive to a paid link advertisement. At other times, though, it's a bit more difficult. For example, this page - winenet.com - ranks very well at most of the engines and would be a great spot to get traffic and link value. Technically, though, they're a competitor, so buying an ad might be very tough. Here's what I might write:
Greetings from your friends 15 minutes up the road in Medford (over at the Eden Valley Winery),
My name is Rand Fishkin and I actually work in the web marketing department over at Eden Valley (OK, so technically I'm also the web designer and the guy who has to clean the glasses after tastings, but that's beside the point). I wanted to get in touch to see if we could possibly do some cross-promotion over the web. I'm hoping that you've got some time to schedule to chat on the phone this week about your website and possibly getting an advertising link of some kind.
Let me know if this is something that can work for you - we'd love to reciprocate by sending some of our site visitors your way as well. You can reach me anytime over email or at 215-649-XXXX.
Best,
Rand
That's certainly not guaranteed to work, but it establishes a relationship and it's straightforward. My guess is that since they're a direct competitor, I've got only a 1/4 chance of getting that phone call, but if I pursue this strategy with enough sites, I'm sure to get some places to sell me that ad link.
STEP 4: Follow Ups
As important as the first contact is following up. I recommend being as prompt as possible - you want to make them see that they are incredibly important to you. Treat your contacts with respect, and you're more likely to earn respect yourself. In the follow up, you'll need to establish details, including what page you'd like the link on, what format you want them to use (I particularly like to have a small image with a logo or picture and a short anchor text block beneath it), and request that they send over pricing.
STEP 5: Pricing Considerations
Pricing is a big deal - you'll only have a certain budget and you can't afford to spend $5,000 for every link that comes along. For link valuation, I'd suggest checking out my post - How do you measure a link. From there, you'll need to determine a starting point and a maximum - you don't want to go into the negotiations without these prepared. I like to first ask the party selling the link to give you a price they find acceptable - I find that 75% of the time or more, they come back with a price far lower than you were expecting (simply because folks don't realize how valuable links are). Here's how I figure it - if you can break even based on the traffic the link will send, you should absolutely buy it. If you're not quite there, but you're at least getting 2/3-3/4 of the link price from the traffic, I usually opt to go for it as well (as the link value for the search engines will end up sending enough other traffic).
On trick here - always offer to pay a discounted rate for a 1 or 2 year stint if you can afford it. Many times, site owners would come back to me and say "I'll give it to you for $100/month" and if I offered $500 for one year, they'd often accept (or at least come back with $7-800 for the yearly price). The psychology is easy to understand - the link costs them nothing, so the thought of getting $500 straightaway is very enticing.
STEP 6: Checking Value
Figuring out whether you've gotten a good deal is tough, but the best metrics to use are traffic referrals and rankings. Check your backlinks at Yahoo! - more recent and more important sources tend to appear higher (though even those in the 2-300 range for highly linked-to sites are often very valuable). Also, run searches containing the anchor text and excluding your site - if the page you bought a link from is highly ranked, chances are it's sending you some pretty good quality link love. Obviously, during a campaign of link acquisition, you'll want most of all to see your rankings rise. If they don't you might be doing something wrong (or Google's got a dampening penalty on you).
STEP 7: Evaluate & Repeat
It takes at least a few dozen link purchases like this before you can see serious progress. In the manual link building campaigns that I ran, I noticed that the delay in the links "earning" full value could be up to 3 months. It was also critical to add many numbers of links before you'd see progress, and then it would often come all at once (moving up 5 or 10 positions). Be prepared for uneven movement - some links are more and less valuable than you think, so it's just a matter of hitting that sweet spot. In my experience, you'll need a combination of trusted links, links with proper anchor text and links with high PageRank/Juice (not necessarily according to the toolbar, though it can be one indicator).
I can't say for certain, but it's my strong feeling that link acquisition in this manner, even if many of them do involve money changing hands, is nearly impossible for Google and other engines to detect. I also believe that there's no real reason they wouldn't want to count these links. The sites you're buying from are trusted sources and they're not going to link out to junk. In my view, it's very much like buying a link from the Yahoo! directory - you're paying, they're reviewing critically and listing you only if they like you and want to send their visitors to you.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you make effective use of direct advertising link purchases.
UPDATE: 2 years after the publication of this post, I wrote our updated stance on link buying and paid links. While we're keeping this article in its current form for posterity, I highly recommend you read the above post and consider risks far more strongly than I first urged here.
There's also a new marketing strategy in here: get Rand interested in you as a wedding venue and get links and free SEO consulting. Do they know how lucky they are?
Wedding-bait.
"I think that buying relevant advertisements from good quality sites"
Jesus,
I tell a client to buy links to help his/her site rank higher, not to increase brand awareness or sales/month.
Claiming all paid links are advertisements dimish your credibility.
Paid links is black hat, plain and simple. But what is wrong with black hat SEO if it works? Paid links exploit Google's biggest vulnerability.
If you're afraid to hit the other guy in the face you should step out of the boxing ring. Or as Graywolf would say, you can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs.
I like the meat of your article though.
So buying a Yahoo directory backlink for $249.00 per year (or whatever) is blackhat? Did you tell Yahoo? Or is that different? if so, embellish please ;)
Might make for a very interesting pov...hmmmm?
[edit - yep - spelling/too-fast-typing/comment-rattle/bugger-it :) ]
Of cours it is. Yahoo isn't accepting money for reviews, they're selling links. Matt Cutts would tell you different, but Google needs Yahoo! Directory to function. I also don't think its news to you that Google makes exceptions for big authority sites (e.g. bmw.com).
I haven't purchased any links but I never saw a problem with it. It is advertising pure and simple. Banner ads, link exchanges and cross-promotion all predate Google and fuck them for implying otherwise. If I were to put money into an advertisement I'd want the full value. So purchasing a link with a nofollow reference seems like a bad idea to me... I'm getting shorted in the value of the link. Also, people that know about nofollows (or know just enough) may come up with some interesting speculation about such a link on a "regular" website and that may hurt my promotion more than anything. I'd never buy a TV ad with just sound and no video and neither would you. Pretending otherwise is indeed promoting your site like search engines exist.
Why would Google activate this tactic? Fear and damage for selling or purchasing a link! Links are an important part of the internet and are what make it work. Totaly absurd. This is one of the most evil policies Google ever came up with and they really should pull it. Something like:
Anyway, buying links doesn't make you a blackhat any more than driving barefoot makes you a criminal mastermind. Some rules and laws are so dumb that not breaking them deserves a paddling.
Why do some SEOs equate black hat with immorality? Just because something is black hat doesn't mean its wrong. Cloaking is generally considered black hat but Dan Thies just came out with a reverse cloaking tactic to defend against proxy abusers. Is that type of cloaking wrong? No. What about WMW cloaking? That's not wrong in my book.
If customermagnetism buys 10,000 links with the anchor text "search engine optimization" and cracks top 10 on Google you're looking at a successful paid link search manipulation campaign. And what is wrong with search manipulation? That's what SEO is all about - to generate more search traffic by gaining positions for productive keywords.
Now, they bought a link from me on a page with zero traffic. Hardly anyone ever clicks on that link because its hidden. Is that link advertising? You need to bend logic backwards to convince me it is.
Are all paid links manipulative? Absolutely not.
What if BMW.com paid me $10,000/year to link to their home page with the anchor text "bmw", which they already rank #1 for? Even though that link reinforces their search position for that term it doesn't change their position so there you got a paid link passing juice that isn't manipulative. Why should I be punished for a paid link that doesn't alter search results?
Are all paid links advertising? Absolutely not.
Are all paid links evil? Absolutely not.
Can paid links be used for evil purposes? Absolutely - because Google's algo is vulnerable to one-way links.
Should sites be punished for buying/selling links? Absoltely not, especially if the purpose of the links isn't to manipulate search results.
Right now, Google is like a store that leaves the back door open, gets robbed every night, and then puts up a sign saying "please don't use our back door." That's ridiculous. People aren't all angels. If we know their back door is open, someone is going to sneak in there and take something. It's their job to keep the door locked. If paid links are 100% detectable and completely discounted, there would be no need for scare-tactics, paid link reports, or penalties.
I don't think BH is wrong any more than I thing blindly following the commands of Google is right. I thing letting Google know that...
...might bring Google back around to reality so they can support WHs to be succesful perpetuating the WH way.
And I wouldn't want to purchase a hidden link any more than a nofollowed one... even less as it would be less able to help me and more able to hurt me if discovered.
Love that you mentioned customermagnetism... I've been wondering about whether I should blog on their SEO tactics or if folks would just think it's me whining because I wish SEOmoz had those rankings :)
Well that's a relief! I'd hate to think of myself as a blackhat!
Rand - One problem I see here is that it is usually your competitor that reports your paid links, not the search engineers. They will routinely check your backlinks to find the paid ones. Remember that not every site has 1 million links like Seomoz ;-)
Another great point Hamlet!
Here I go again.
If you pay for a link with the single intent of improving search rank, then it is link spam. If you pay for a link with the intent of improving direct click traffic, then it is advertising.
If you pay for a link because you feel you can purchase that link in such a way as to make it undetectable to the engines, and thus reap the ranking benefit of that link, then it is still link S P A M.
Forget the Yahoo caveat. We all know about that one a a few others. Yahoo's intent is not and never was to sell pagerank though. They predate Google.
Under the radar link buyers know what you are doing and why. Google says don't do it. So go ahead, and don't bitch when you get busted, and you will, sooner or later.
Call me nutty, but why not create content for which links don't have to be bought in the first place?
eric
Eric,
Many people have been very, very successful creating content to attract links. But that's just one traffic avenue. I'm with you on your link spam classification criteria (by the way, this post expands on that idea a little bit..) but I think it's a fairly limited point of view.
Probably in some markets, the area is already saturated with kick-ass content and they might be a bit more immune to giving out links for a good piece. In these markets maybe your only option (or your only half way decent option) is to buy a few links.
I support buying links for traffic only, but c'mon.. Every once in a while slipping another webmaster a few bucks for a high PR link isn't going to get you banned.. And it might really help you BOTH out!
By the way, my link doesn't work (or more like that blog doesn't work..) Try this one. But keep in mind it's only really good for today since it links to a blog post. :)
Sorry, but Google doesn't write the rules for the internet, just their properties.
In the example Rand gives, if the link you pruchase on a site is "undetectable" because it meets that sites standards, is relavent to the site content, and is welcomed as an addition the site does not consider it spam and that's all that matters. You're paying for their time and their advertising which has always been commercially viable.
If Google "busts" people that purchase in that manner, their results would become less relevant.
I'd love to hear that from the horses mouth... Matt? You about? :)
All in all, the relevancy of the SERP's would likely remain the same. Just because a site has paid links does not mean it is an undesirable or irrelevant site.But a wholesale reduction in paid advertising/linkage elsewhere results in an increase in AdWords revenue.
"If you pay for a link with the single intent of improving search rank, then it is link spam. If you pay for a link with the intent of improving direct click traffic, then it is advertising.
If you pay for a link because you feel you can purchase that link in such a way as to make it undetectable to the engines, and thus reap the ranking benefit of that link, then it is still link S P A M."
Oh piffle! Poppycock even... Keep the spam accusations to yourself.
Say we bought links back before backrub started crawling the web, before Google was Google, before Matt Cutts got a frickin' job online, would those links still be link spam?
Believe it or not, the Internet existed pre-Google and a lot of folks did business back then. Some of them bought and sold links.
"Forget the Yahoo caveat. We all know about that one a a few others. Yahoo's intent is not and never was to sell pagerank though. They predate Google."
As does the Internet...
Google doesn't dictate policy, doesn't define spam and doesn't decide what's good or bad behavior online. They only define Google's opinion.
"Under the radar link buyers know what you are doing and why. Google says don't do it. So go ahead, and don't bitch when you get busted, and you will, sooner or later."
They know they're buying links and choosing to go under the radar to avoid ridiculous Google penalties designed to combat a problem Google created with their short-sighted Page Rank system.
"Call me nutty, but why not create content for which links don't have to be bought in the first place?"
So good content doesn't benefit from paid links...? And I suppose the best beer in the world doesn't bother advertising, nor does the best car, best feminine hygiene product, best shoe, best burger, etc?
Google can dislike what they like to dislike, but you're calling link buyers link spammers based on Google's likes and dislikes, not the likes and dislikes of the Internet community as a whole.
You're probably right Eric.
Rand, you actually answered some questions that have been nagging at me for some time now. I came to the conclusion myself that the odd paid link wouldn't cause a catastrophe. I feel safe in my assumption now. :)
You could almost add start an affiliate program to this list.
Hey Rand,
I know this is an unlikely thing to happen, but what if the company you've contacted and negotiated a link from starts to see value in selling links and creates an account with a link broker to sell links to other similar sites?
I know that a lot of webmasters and site owners probably wouldn't even realise there's such a thing as link brokers, but I just thought It'd be an interesting angle to cover just in case.
Thanks
I wouldn't worry too much about this kind of thing - that's only going to happen a small proportion of the time and doesn't give rise to a pattern that the engines would recognise - worst case it would devalue that particular link I reckon. Remember this could happen with organic links as well - someone might link to you and then later decide to sign up with a link broker.
Thanks Will... I had assumed that would be the case but thought it was worth asking just to cover all bases.
Cheers
Agreed, it would be unlikely that your new link partner would then persue other link revenue to the point of damaging the value you received.
SiteMost's comment does immediately bring to mind the importance of checking all your purchased IBL's for any changes. Although some level of dilution is going to occur, it is no fun to discover that your site is gaining off-topic similar pages because your link partner is selling links to the highest, off-topic bidder.
Although obvious, one thing to make sure of before you pay for a link is that it doesn't have a nofollow tag appended to it.
(I recall reading somewhere on Matt Cutts blog that paid links should technically have the "nofollow" attribute added to them; some webmasters may think they can "have their cake and eat it to" by taking your money, giving you a link with the nofollow tag, and then claim that you are asking them to "break the rules" by removing it)
You are correct. There are two things that really bother me about Matt stating that paid links should use the no-follow tag. The first is that there are many many many webmaster out there who are not familiar with no-follow. The other problem I see is that with no-follow you are making a change to your site specifically for search engines and not for users (in violation of Google guidelines). Now, the second point is not that big of a deal to me but it is a bit hypocritical. The first point is more bothersome though.
Say you want to buy a link purely for the relevant traffic it can provide but the webmaster does not know about no-follow (and believe me there are quite a few out there). Is it up to you to tell the webmaster that they should use no-follow? Is it right that they should be punished or devalued because they don't follow SEO blogs or trends? Uggghhh!!!
I've had success in getting links posted to pages by suggesting multiple links, with one being my main target and the others being non-competitors with a different focus. This technique works best when t's a favorites/directory/links page or they have an 'sites of interest' portion.
Simply, I'll email the site with a short blurb how I came across them while reading about [what not] and noticed these other sites not on their list one of which is the one I want included.
Again, it's a good idea to find broadly related sites that are similar to the sites interest bt won't compete for your term.
When Gatorade paid Michael Jordan to promote their product they were paying for his status, authority and credibility to be associated with their product.
Does he really drink Gatorade outside of his arrangement with them? Who knows? Who cares?
When a website owner buys a link from another website owner they are doing the same thing - they are paying to have a site bestow credibility and status unto the other site.
This is no different than the concept of spokespeople as it has existed for many years.
What Google wants to prevent is websites linking ONLY because of payment, and not b/c of relevance.
Is it not possible to have a good, relevant website still purchase a link? Just b/c a site is buying links does not mean its not still a good, relevant site in its own right. I see this as Google just being too lazy to do extra digging.
If a given website wants to cheapen its brand by linking to any crappy site that offers them money than Google should find a way to deal with that - discount the value of the links. But if a good website links to another good website I don't believe this should be discounted simply due to the money involved. Only if indeed its not a relevant link or poor website involved.
Late response but GOOD post. This is soething that I have been thinking about for awhile now. I'm glad to know it can be done.
I've had success in getting links posted to pages by suggesting multiple links, with one being my main target and the others being non-competitors with a different focus. This technique works best when t's a favorites/directory/links page or they have an 'sites of interest' portion. https://www.matchmate.ca . Some links are just not followed. The key is High PR sites which will give you some good PR.
We are still on paying for links page? I thought that and link exchange was nuked by Google.
I still get about 5 request a day to my business website asking for a link exchange, I ignore all of them
There are many cteative ways to getting links with nofollow to your site, but you have to work for them.
Hey just do YouMoz and rand will link to you, no free lunch!
With this post I will seperate my link providers in different buckets..
Many of them dont know importance of a link from there website so that should be the target in first go.These type of people can provide you link almost for free.
Then who have some knowledge of link bulding.
Finally people who are in this market and know how imp a link is.
Awesome post, really needed this advice. I sometimes find that my introductory tone is a bit weak. Many thanks Rand - good work
The last time I was selling nofollow links was back when i was hosted by searchking and yeah, i wont be doing that again in a hurry
We've had a rather disastrous experience with bought links on an experimental site. PR4 dropping to PR2 overnight is a lot of hard work undone rather quickly. Buying 500 links for $50 a month type offers are going to hurt you!
However getting authoritave links from high PR sites that don't prostitute themsleves is definitely the way to go. If all else fails you shouldn't mind paying.
It puts you in a tempting spot as a small bus owner when 30% of the revenue u make for the year come out of 2 months of that year.
Um.. 2month juice please.
Rand, It could be said paid links are similar to the prohibition of alcohol. lol
One thing I know for sure, all my efforts are going toward honorable link building by sharing info and material of value. But... what to do if i come up short?
You still have to hunt down those paid links, contact them with a proposal and posibly get shut down a few times... Perhaps the energy could be put developing linkable material.
Question
For you white hats, what if the link your getting is from a friends site giving you a huge bump, and s/he’s not charging you. Would you kind of feel in debt to um? Kind of like you want to return the favor, kind of like you owe um one.
keyword "owe"
Anyways, what I've seen from all the online gurus i come across so far is buy but dont get caught.
But I’m not in their shoes.
Man, Rand, I just missed about 3 weeks of your posts and now went back to look at what I missed. It looks like I got lots of reading to do. Every post is better then the last. I cant afford to not read them all.
Thank you for such quality information.
if a link connects two useful resources, i.e. it has value beyond the purely commercial, then it would be of little concern to the engines whether the link was bought or not. i think they have many more pressing issues to deal with before this would become a danger point.
also, you're right that such links are practically impossible to detect anyway (at least if they're done right - if a webmaster links to you from a page titled 'Paid Links to Other Sites' then perhaps a red flag might eventually go up...)
Nice post and nice area for a wedding. We had ours in the sun and snow up at Timberline (other end of the state), but Southern Oregon was on the list too. Went to school in Ashland and loved it.
One tip on long-term purchases; set up some sort of reminder for when they're coming up to expire so you can re-up without interuption. Site owners don't always keep track, or expect you to want to continue. Sucks to have a long-term link vanish unexpectedly only to be replaced by another before you get a chance to renew.
BTW, if you do land the winery as a client, I've got a great authority link for you. Free too, if you can work a in link for "groomsmen gifts" in your post... ;)
so how would an agency which handles many accounts do this sort of linkbuilding? would you include a certain amount in their monthly budget that they pay for SEO services for link purchasing? or handle it the way we manage clients PPC accounts where they determine what they want to spend and they pay for the cost of the ads and we get paid separately for managing the campaign?
As far as paid links go, we earn 15-20% of the cost of the link/ad which is typically paid monthly. Most often we receive a discount from the site selling the link(s) so we can then give the client the same price they would pay if they went to the site direct. When we do not get a discount, then we tack on our percentage.
We all know weddings are expensive (ask my father-in-law). Rand's a smart guy. He knows that by publicizing the details of his wedding he can dramatically impact the rankings of a particular venue, caterer, band, etc. I'd like to know if any savvy vendors have offered reduced rates or free services in hopes of landing his business. If not, maybe it won't hurt to ask.
Great solid post, Rand. I especially agree on the part where you compare a good paid link to inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory. There really is no difference. What is the AdWords Contextual prgram anyway? It is paid text advertisements (sometimes graphical).
As for web sites that sign up with text link advertisement brokers, I really don't see that as an issue so long as a.) they don't announce it to the whole world (i.e. placing banners identifying themselves as an affiliate, etc.), and b.) the text link brokers do a better job of hiding their inventories.
Hi Rand not sure if you remember me but we had dinner at the Chinese at SES London.
If someone sent me an email like that I would call them and not just delete it.
Just following on from what you are saying, my wife and I run a site that was a PR5 and a few months ago Google changed the way it looks at links my site dropped. I have never done any link building for it and I was told at SES it was something I had to do. (Still have not done a lot)
But my main concern is I have dropped to a PR4 after the Google links update also my traffic and sales dropped and I know I still come up for a lot of searches so I know I am not banned.
But the only links I have ever brought if you can call it that is the trade associations - child friendly sites. They all link back to me some more than others like the child friendly sites as I promote them to everyone I know and they have made me an associate member now. So yes I do pay to be a member and I get a free link but I do not see how I can be penalised for that. They are all quality companies, and as I have not done active link building or actively brought links I do not under stand why I dropped in Google.
And what are the common practices for agreements and tracking the links?
Say, you pay them for one year, but the next month they change the site layout/webmaster/their mind/whatever and your link disappears for good.
It's a risk you have to take. If the site is established, it's not usually a problem. That's why you need to do your homework before buying. I also find that the tone of the e-mail hints at whether the person is a scammer or just a regular webmaster. Trust your gut. It's right most times.
Yeah, but if the webmaster is honest but somewhat clueless, the link can just disappear after some site update. And if you paid for the link, you would at least want to be notified about such things.
You can also run software that notifies you of web page changes via email, others will specifically monitor the links you have on other pages.
Track through your referral URL analytics, and the onus is on you to ensure delivery and performance.
If you find they are not providing, then let them know. it would be nice if it was the other way around, and with the reputable link brokers it is. With most paid links it's fine, but if you want to make sure you are getting best bang for your buck, then its up to you to make sure your link is where the webmaster said it would be. - so check weekly/ monthly and at random, and unless you're Rockefeller, that won't take too much time... if you are planning on buying quality...
... or you could just threaten to paint their new metallic midnight blue mercedes benz C -class a subtle shade of lavender... but I think that might be frowned upon in some circles... ;)
I like free links better!!
Rand;Great post (as usual). I was going to ask about this in the Q&A section. Thanks.john
I think - but I'm not sure - that the search engines are just trying to prevent unfair competition by limiting paid link usage...
Not everyone (or everyones company) is as poor as, say, mine. But a competitor with a massive budget could buy EVERY link. I don't just mean some links. I mean every link, everywhere, on the whole Internet :)
OK, so I'm just kidding a little bit - but a competitor with deep pockets COULD buy tons of links if the search engines let them, and in that case I'd have no chance. (I have tiny, shallow pockets!) So it's actually cool in a way that Google is limiting/restricting use of paid links, it gives us small guys a fighting chance!
Rand, thanks for the great primer!
mmm, yes I agree to a certain extent, but you may not believe how the big brands in many cases have to struggle to maintain their brand integrity and fight for the top spots because of undetected black-hat.. and that's just natural search - the engines are all (in many cases) pretty lax about protecting the copyright names, and the brands have to send cease and desist letters to the perpetrators using their names in the paid search results...at their own cost.
As to natural paid links - extreme example, but illustrates my point - , if you owned say, Nike, and some wickedly clever black hat SEO applied every trick in the book and took number 1 spot for 'Nike Trainers', if the only way to get that back (from Nike's persepective, that does not involve google-bombing, doorway pages, hidden text, millions of 'fake' backlinking URLs etc etc etc etc (you get my drift) is for them to buy a few high quality links from related sports/clothing etc websites to retain the position that should be there's algorithmically due to exact relevance etc etc (please keep semantics out of this :), I'm just illustrating a point - and its just my opinion...) then I think they have every right to do so, and if that means they spend 1.5 million to get it, and it provides them with an ROI of even double what they spent, then it is money well invested.
For them at this point, while ROI is the bottom line, the preservation of brand integrity and position for prime brand /brand related term is more important due to the threat of brand dilution and negative investor relations, stick prices etc... the investors, they pick up on stuff like that fast and bring pressure to bear even faster, as is their right - THEY are veryinterested in the bottom line.
Just looking at it from the other side of the coin, and while the big brands seem massive, remember that the people that work at them can be fired just as easily as you or I can be. But for them, the pressure to remain white-hat, legal and brand focussed is much more intense.
(edit was an oops)
Great points f-lops-y. :)
Question: Does the paid link have to be relevant to your site? Can you buy a link on a well ranked site page that limits # of paid links but is not relevant to your site?
Florida, good question...
In my opinion and observation, nonrelevant links of any kind don't do much in the way of getting higher rankings in the SERPS.
That doesn't mean there isn't value in the link, if it is getting you traffic, but if you are paying for a link for SEO/ranking purposes, then I would stick with Rand's suggestions and search for relevant, on topic high page ranking links to get the most bank for your buck.
Relevant links are the best, but nonrelevant links are valuable too. Just ask yourself whether it fits into the "linking profile" for those Web sites.
Hey florida, links from quality unrelated sites can be helpful (think: big news sites etc.), but when it comes to buying them, as Rand says, you want to think first about the benefit that link might bring you and second about additional benefit you might get in the search engines.
In my opinion, the scale would swing towards needing the direct traffic to be worth it the less related a site is to yours.
It depends on your definition of relevant.
Bottom line a link is a link. If you own a wine shop and someone gives you the anchor text"muffler repair" you probably won't get much value. On the other hand if a mechanic links "visit this 'wine bar' while I change your oil" you are doing alright.
Awesome. Yes! These are by far the best types of link to acquire. The ones where you go directly to the source for. But what is all this talk about not buying from link brokers??? The text link buy is still very much in force and can really provide great rankings. I personally do both. These direct ones are always the cheapest, that is why they are so great. But typically if you want high PR links then you need to go to a borker.