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Link Buying: Is This link a good investment?Tyler Banfield, 01-31-2007 |
Buying quality links can be one of the best ways to increase your web site’s search engine ranking.
If you're just getting started, submitting to Internet Directories (both free and paid ones) is a great first step. You need to realize and appreciate the importance of continually building quality fresh links to your website. Link building is not a one-time project.
As far as Link Buying goes, there are certain things you should pay close attention to.
Unfortunately, people waste a lot of money on links that are not as useful as they think. Before purchasing any links, make sure you evaluate the following criteria:
1) Relevancy
This is the most important factor in making a good link purchase. If the site is not relevant to yours, don’t waste your time. Gone are the days when buying a link from a random web site with high PR would skyrocket your SERP rankings.
While the web site does not need to be an exact match to yours, it does need to at least fall into the same general category.
2) PageRank
Although Google warns web masters that they should not obsess over PageRank, it is still a useful general indicator for the quality of a web site. You should not only look at the PageRank of the home page, but also the inner pages (especially if your link is going to be on one of them). For example, a link on a PR3 page from a PR4 directory would generally be better than a link on a PR1 page from a PR5 directory.
3) Number of Outbound Links
Contrary to some people’s belief, purchasing a link on a page with a high PageRank that has tons of other outbound links is not a good investment. Not only will this link carry very little weight, but in many cases, Google can identify that this is a “bought” link and discredit it completely.
4) Anchor Text
A link with the anchor text of your choice is worth more than a link with general anchor text or anchor text chosen by the web site owner. Anchor text carries a significant amount of weight in Google and other search engines, so obtaining a link with the keyword rich anchor text of your choice can be quite beneficial.
5) NoFollow
This is a dirty trick used by some dishonest web masters. Before purchasing a link, you should check the source of the web site. If the owner uses rel=”nofollow” around any of the other paid links, don’t waste your time! Buying a link with a nofollow tag is literally worthless.
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Update: Over the last few months, working with clients here at SoftwareProjects, we are finding link buying is becoming less and less effective when it comes to building visibility in the organic search results. Google and many other search engines, are now identifying sites that are "selling links" and automatically disqualifying those links.
The end result is that a client might be paying $500 a month for a quality relevant PR6 link and yet gain absolutely no link-love from the search engines.
We're finding link bait, social networks and content generation are far better way to gain search engine visibility.
If you're just getting started, submitting to Internet Directories (both free and paid ones) is a great first step. You need to realize and appreciate the importance of continually building quality fresh links to your website. Link building is not a one-time project.
As far as Link Buying goes, there are certain things you should pay close attention to.
Unfortunately, people waste a lot of money on links that are not as useful as they think. Before purchasing any links, make sure you evaluate the following criteria:
1) Relevancy
This is the most important factor in making a good link purchase. If the site is not relevant to yours, don’t waste your time. Gone are the days when buying a link from a random web site with high PR would skyrocket your SERP rankings.
While the web site does not need to be an exact match to yours, it does need to at least fall into the same general category.
2) PageRank
Although Google warns web masters that they should not obsess over PageRank, it is still a useful general indicator for the quality of a web site. You should not only look at the PageRank of the home page, but also the inner pages (especially if your link is going to be on one of them). For example, a link on a PR3 page from a PR4 directory would generally be better than a link on a PR1 page from a PR5 directory.
3) Number of Outbound Links
Contrary to some people’s belief, purchasing a link on a page with a high PageRank that has tons of other outbound links is not a good investment. Not only will this link carry very little weight, but in many cases, Google can identify that this is a “bought” link and discredit it completely.
4) Anchor Text
A link with the anchor text of your choice is worth more than a link with general anchor text or anchor text chosen by the web site owner. Anchor text carries a significant amount of weight in Google and other search engines, so obtaining a link with the keyword rich anchor text of your choice can be quite beneficial.
5) NoFollow
This is a dirty trick used by some dishonest web masters. Before purchasing a link, you should check the source of the web site. If the owner uses rel=”nofollow” around any of the other paid links, don’t waste your time! Buying a link with a nofollow tag is literally worthless.
--
Update: Over the last few months, working with clients here at SoftwareProjects, we are finding link buying is becoming less and less effective when it comes to building visibility in the organic search results. Google and many other search engines, are now identifying sites that are "selling links" and automatically disqualifying those links.
The end result is that a client might be paying $500 a month for a quality relevant PR6 link and yet gain absolutely no link-love from the search engines.
We're finding link bait, social networks and content generation are far better way to gain search engine visibility.
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