A brief history of link buying
From the very beginning of the web links have had an inherent value, driving visits and raising awareness to increase revenue and deliver improved branding. It’s only been in the Age of Google that their true impact on search engine rankings has been better understood.
Simply put, links (and particularly targeted anchor text links) can have a major impact on rankings. It’s no surprise that a marketplace for links emerged with those sites with deep enough pockets paying to artificially boost their presence on search engines.
Google quickly realised that the level playing field it had created could be ‘gamed’ by buying links en masse via trading sites or by dealing directly, so it changed its quality guidelines to advise against buying links, reserving the right to penalise those blatantly selling or buying.
It also began proactively discounting the value of obviously bought links and its web spam team focused on improving the algorithm to reduce their impact.
Did they succeed?
Google’s certainly made some headway in its battle to deliver genuinely authoritative results but there aren’t any quick fixes. In the meantime the link trading industry has gone underground, with businesses and their agencies now making deals directly with site owners or via less obvious link-trading networks.
Given how important getting links has become, it’s easy to understand why businesses continue to choose buying links as an ‘easy option’. Link buying is so prolific in certain industries that it’s almost a pre-requisite for achieving top rankings.
I’d argue we’ve reached the point where the cost of buying links and the associated risks mean that it’s time for the industry to turn its back on buying precarious positions.
The end of history - just say no to link buying
The risks associated with link buying are clear but outright bans resulting from link buying are unlikely due to the potential for competitors to buy links to negatively impact on their rivals. However, those sites selling links that are exposed often have the benefit of their links diminished and the money spend on buying them wasted.
Being exposed is also likely to result in search engines taking a deeper look at a site’s backlink profile making it even more difficult to hide a trail of bought links. The more they notice the more they can negate the benefit and the more a site will suffer. Google has even started sending warnings to sites using its Webmaster Tools of potentially risky link buying or selling.
The risks are clear - if you’re happy to drop out of the rankings at some point perhaps you’ll think they’re worth it.
But it’s not just about the risks - it’s about costs too:
- Budgeting to pay for buying links
Alongside the costs of hiring an agency to consult on SEO, the additional media spend needed to buy links can represent an unexpected and often sizeable financial investment
- Rolling renewal costs
Most times you don’t buy links, you rent them and, as with any type of rental, you either renew or give up the service. The escalating cost of link renewals will have to be considered and even if these are prioritised by the benefits they might have had (e.g. direct traffic, domain authority, PageRank), it will be additional to all of the new links that are being bought
- Maintenance required to check that links are live
Links can easily be taken off a site and the space resold. Sites have no real impetus to keep the link online for any length of time, other than the potential for a renewal, so bought links need to be checked on regularly - an extra administrative hassle
- No direct ROI
Unlike paid search or natural rankings, it’s often difficult to attribute direct ROI for bought links. Direct referrals, i.e. visitors who click on a bought link are trackable but as links are often bought for an intangible benefit on natural search rankings, it’s often impossible to determine the value of all but the most high profile bought links.
The bottom line
Bought links can improve search engine rankings and will continue to work until the engines find a range of new ranking factors to make them less effective. High-profile sites will often bounce back in the rankings - eventually - but it’s a risky strategy to invest in buying links the efficacy and longevity of which are becoming increasingly difficult to quantify.
The lack of transparency and difficulty in demonstrating a clear ROI, plus the initial and on-going costs, represent a strong argument for finding a better way to do link development - a way that is focused on earning rather than buying your way to the top.