Special Note: Buying the wrong kinds of sponsored links can have serious SEO consequences. In some cases, the links will have no value whatsoever and are a waste of money, but in other situations you could damage or eliminate your search engine rankings if you engage in obvious link buying tactics. Even if you’re just buying links for traffic, you could be hurting yourself in the search engines. When in doubt, consult with an SEO professional.
Aside from the content and composition of your website, the number and type of inbound links to your website plays a huge role in search engine rankings. Google even patented its PageRank algorithm, which clearly indicates the importance on links to your website from other sites on the internet. Originally, the quantity of inbound links had a greater impact on rankings, but now the trustworthiness of every website that links to you plays a greater role in your search engine rankings. Almost all of the top sites on search engine rankings got there by way of good inbound links and good content, in that order.
Unfortunately, inbound links aren’t easy to get. It can be difficult to convince anyone out on the internet to give you a free link, especially since experienced webmasters have been approached with multiple linking schemes from people who offered worthless directory links in exchange for good ones. You can get a certain quantity of good links from vendors and customers, and you can build a presence by commenting on relevant forum, writing a blog, or doing something newsworthy. For the average site owner, this can be quite time consuming, and a lack of link building experience can lead to some rookie mistakes that significantly reduce the value of the acquired links.
People in the SEO field also buy links because they work. In fact, an optimization company that didn’t recommend link acquisition to a link-poor client would probably be considered negligent. Despite Google’s warnings about buying links, many of which are valid, it is difficult to get ahead without venturing into the gray market of link buying. Most of the sites in the top 20 search results for big terms, outside of Wikipedia and Google, have used one or more versions of link buying to get ahead. This could include reciprocal links, text link ads, sponsored postings on blogs, sponsored postings on forums, and even directory submissions. For instance, you have to “buy” a link on the Yahoo directory, even though your are technically paying for a site review. Other directories, including Business.com and Best of the Web (BOTW) also will check out your site to make sure it is legitimate, before posting your link. Even though you are technically paying for a link, there is an editing component in the process, and if your site is no good then it will get rejected. References from human-edited directories help search engines determine which sites are trustworthy, so paying for a site review and link is worth the money.
There are ways to acquire backlinks in a search engine friendly manner, and there are sites that can help you get those links. Web.com Search Agency is one of them. We have an experienced team of link builders who can build your online presence by getting relevant links from sites in your field. We can make sure that you are listed in relevant directories, and that you get references from other important websites. This is a bit different than the classic “link buying” model where text link brokers would place your link on just about any site that had space open. The old model is usually easier to detect by search engines, but it can still be effective in some cases. As with any SEO practice, link buying depends on your comfort level, since some clients are more willing to push the envelope in link acquisition.
As a final note, you should keep in mind that links are just one of several dozen factors in proper search engine optimization. Normally a link building project is accompanied by extensive keyword research, site design changes, tag and content optimization, and navigational changes designed to help search engines read all of the important page on your website and classify it in the best manner possible. Over time, many sites will start to get unsolicited external links and they will be able to move away from sponsored links completely. Sites with interesting features, tools, and updated attractions also will find that they get a steady progression of natural links. Therefore, your long term goal should be to create a site that keeps people coming back, but in the meantime you may want to consider buying enough links to get the critical mass necessary to get the ball rolling.