Should You Buy Links?
If you buy links, you should be extremely careful how you go about it.
For one thing, Google is not keen on this. Read about it here.
The reason why I'm writing this post is because I've gotten yet another unsolicited email from someone who is most likely a spammer making fast money off unsuspecting, naive web owners who might have a dim idea that more links should help their rankings.
Take a look at it. I've blanked out the contact information to protect the guilty.
Buy Links Email Evaluation
This link building offer should set off deep red flags in your SEO alert system. Let's evaluate it, shall we?
First, the email is a gmail account. I have an add-on in gmail that shows me if the sender has a Google Plus account. This person does, and has a grand total of 5 followers. There is no profile information, and the picture is probably a fake from a free stock photo service for all I know.
The grammar is very poor. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this person does not use English as a native or first language. Anytime you get an email solicitation that reads like a drunk 3rd grader crafted it, the hair on the back of your neck should be standing TALL.
Instead of quoting me Google Page Rank, which none of us can see anymore, I'm now seeing Domain Authority. While this is all fine and good, it's a variation on the old subjective judgement from webmasters as to whether or not a site is worthy of linking to and from. Don't get me wrong on DA; it's a fairly decent indication, but it shouldn't be used as a stand alone measurement of whether or not a website provides good information.
It's not clear if this person is offering to write paid guest blog posts, which is a sticky, kind of gray area where Google is concerned, or if it's a paid review, which is definitely a no-no with Google.
Finally, we get to the best part - the cost per link. Go back and read Google's take on buying links. This is a clear violation of what Google recommends.
If I have to pay you for a link, it better be an authoritative, relevant, complimentary site. For example, I could pay for an online ad in either the Washington or Baltimore Business Journal. I could do online advertising in the Washington Post.
But these are links that Google will pretty much IMMEDIATELY recognize as bogus, paid links strictly to make a page rank higher, and in the end, I will have paid for no results, and possibly even for the privilege of getting a manual penalty from the Google Web Spam team, so no thank you, really.
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Until we meet again, stay safely between the ditches!
All the best to you,
Nancy McDonald