4 Critical Things to Remember When Buying Backlinks
Including backlinks in your website’s content can give your web traffic a real boost, and can also help you climb up the Google rankings. The right backlinks can also increase the authority of your website and help you to stand out in your particular field.
However, this time-honoured SEO method needs to be done with care, or it could end up backfiring and actually reducing your website’s appeal.
If you have decided not to use a reputable backlink marketplace and to source backlinks yourself, here are some vital things you need to remember before you make any backlink purchases.
Avoid low-quality and spam backlinks
It’s crucial, when buying backlinks, to only use high-quality backlinks to what are known as ‘authority sites’. Backlinking to poor-quality websites – or, even worse, spam sites – will not only fail to benefit your site, but it could also lower your authority. Google has sophisticated techniques when it comes to analysing the links used by websites, and if spammy material is detected, at best the links will be ignored, and at worst your website could slide down the rankings.
Here is a few examples of the sorts of sites you should be using for backlinks (those deemed to be authority sites in the realm of SEO):
- Reputable media outlets such as the BBC.
- Any site with an address that ends in gov. or edu.
- Trusted sites from your particular field or industry – it’s important that you try and backlink to sites that are related to your content, as this will also help boost your ranking, whilst irrelevant content could actually cause you to slip further down.
Don’t use backlinks from personal blog networks
Backlinks to personal blog networks are a major no-no in the SEO world, as Google views these kinds of links as a form of manipulation to improve your website’s ranking. This can land you with a penalty, and if Google manages to shut down the network that you have linked to, you will also lose your links – and all of the money you used to buy them.
Avoid “unnatural links”
If you have stumbled across a website that is offering links for sale as ‘advertising space’, these may seem tempting but the truth is, they are to be avoided like the plague. As with backlinks from personal blog networks, Google views these sorts of sites as a form of blatant manipulation; a tool used purely in order to rise up the rankings. As a result, the search engine giant describes these ‘unnatural links’ as being ‘a violation of our guidelines.’
Use natural anchor texts with your backlinks
When you have purchased backlinks that lead to reputable authority sites, it’s important that you use them wisely. Natural integration into your website’s text is vital, not just to help your site appear more authoritative, but also so the text flows freely and is good-quality and readable for your viewers. Intelligent, interesting, highly readable content is as important as anything else when it comes to boosting your website’s profile and attracting more traffic.