In an ideal world, there would be no need for search engine optimization (SEO). You produce content just like everyone else and the best one gets the top spot in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Unfortunately, things are not that simple. And with billions upon billions of web pages all around the globe, competition gets tougher every day. Buying backlinks (a major component in most every serious SEO campaign) is a very effective way to get higher SERPs. It is also one of the easiest Offsite SEO techniques you could implement with a small budget.
Things to Check Before Shopping for Backlinks
Just buying any old backlinks will not do. You need to have quality backlinks that will give you the maximum return on your (hopefully small) investment. Here is a checklist you should use before buying backlinks:
1. Decide on your budget first
It may look easy and attractive at first, but if you are not careful buying backlinks could cost you an arm and a leg. Therefore, it is crucial to set aside a budget for buying the links before you get started. And it is very important to stay within the budget.
2. Look for quality and not quantity
PageRank is a logarithmic algorithm. This means that getting from one PR stage to another is exponentially difficult. So try to acquire backlinks from sites with the best PR possible within your budget.
3. Do your math
You probably have your own preferences and hence should do a little math before going about buying backlinks. Lets say you can get a quality PR6 backlink for $100, but your requirement makes you settle for 4 PR4 links for the same price.
4. Shop for deep links / Avoid site wide links (aka surface links)
Site wide links are a strict no-no from the SEO perspective. They are only good if you are interested in advertising products or services. The reason is pretty simple: Search engines look for your link on every page of the site and try to give relevance to it, but it is very difficult for search engine spiders to find relevant connections between the home page of your website and the linked site on every occasion. Therefore, go for deep links when it comes to SEO. (Deep linking means that the link in question points to a specific page or image on a site, not just to the home page.)
5. Look for sites that have limited slots available for backlinks
Its is better to pay a premium price for getting a backlink from a site that has limited slots open than getting a cheap link from a site where 100s of links are displayed. Remember: Importance gets distributed in a weighted fashion across all links.
6. Avoid buying from community forums
You might find sellers promising you hundreds or even thousands of backlinks for just $5 – $10. “Avoid deals like these at all costs. They cause more harm than good”.
7. Buy backlinks to individual posts rather than your home page
It is more relevant for you to acquire backlinks to your best posts rather than your site’s homepage. Always remember, backlinking is pretty much the opposite of advertisement. It is the search engines you are trying to please. Therefore it is much better if the backlink points to one of your best posts because you stand a greater chance of having relevant keywords within this post than on the homepage which in all likelihood will show a mix of things.
8. Throw <alt:> tags into the deal
Find out what keywords you want to target and then use them as <alt:> text in the deal. Thus the search engine spiders will get a better understanding of what your site is about.Your page will get more relevance for these specific keywords.
9. Keep a landing page ready for your backlinks beforehand
Write a detailed post with a good amount of keywords (which should be the same or at least belong in the same niche as your alt tags) and keep it as a landing page for your backlinks.
10. Buy links only from sites within your niche
If you have a blogging tips website, then how much will a backlink from a medical site help you? Not much, right? So isn´t it obvious that the search engine crawlers apply the same rule? Therefore, avoid sites outside your niche as much as possible.
11. Acquire backlinks for a longer period of time
It takes time for the search engines to update their databases. Having a large number of backlinks will not make your site more popular overnight. Give it some time. Roughly four months is a fair estimate. The rest depends on your budget. But definitely avoid anything less than two months.
12. The following points are pretty straight forward
- Avoid dropped / expired domains
- Avoid black-listed sites
- Avoid link farms (sites that are only built to sell links)
- Avoid footer links
Finally, use common sense before spending your hard earned money. While buying backlinks may look easy and attractive there are a few things you need to look out in order to avoid going broke. But if you are judicious and remember the above tips your blog or website should rank considerably higher within a couple of month. If you would like to share your experiences, please leave a comment.
Good luck!
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