Purchasing Links

[bober]

Hi Guys, I recently watch a video by Matt Cutt & he mentioned it's ok to buy links from valid sources. (pretty old video so I don't really know the stance on this now).

I've been searching the net looking to purchase links but there is just too many service providers & I don't know who to trust or not?

Advise, link company recommendations, previous experience with this would be appreciated, thank you

 

[mneylon]

I thought Google were completely against people buying links???

I would be surprised if they'd changed that stance, so if you have a link to that video please share it

 

[bober]

Can't remember where I watched the video (i must have read into the video wrong, on your basis of Google being against this) I also found this Article from Google Blog about purchasing links.

I found interesting that one of the topics against not being aloud to buy links is that keeps the small online business's down because larger organisations have the resources to link build

 

[link8r]

Hi Guys, I recently watch a video by Matt Cutt & he mentioned it's ok to buy links from valid sources. (pretty old video so I don't really know the stance on this now).

I've been searching the net looking to purchase links but there is just too many service providers & I don't know who to trust or not?

Advise, link company recommendations, previous experience with this would be appreciated, thank you

Its against the Google ToS to buy links with a view to increasing PageRank / Ranking in Google. It's also very easy to spot (by other SEO's) and you risk your reputation.

 

[bober]

Yep just read up on the T&C's about link building. On another similar topic would I be right in saying that a site needs 150 links for Google to see it as a valid / trusted website?

 

[Satanta]

As long as the purchased links are nofollowed, it's ok to buy them. As David says, it's with a view to manipulating rankings that it becomes an issue. A good example which illustrates it is Barry Schwartz's penalty for the relatively popular site seoroundtable.

As for "150 links for Google to see it as valid/trusted"... where are you reading Glen? Wherever it is, stop! It's not down to the number, it's down to the links in question and the trust and authority they pass to you. If you've a million spammy links, do you think that would help you look 'valid' or 'trusted'?

 

[bober]

It was so long ago I can't remember. It was when I was first making my site, I read something along the lines that 'with a new site you need to gain 150 valid links to be considered an 'official' site online - your not just another hosted site on the net that actually does nothing. It shows your active online.

BTW, thanks for the link - I think that quy has a valid point.

 

[Satanta]

I read something along the lines that 'with a new site you need to gain 150 valid links to be considered an 'official' site online - your not just another hosted site on the net that actually does nothing.

There's no threshold like that and, even if there were, it's to do with the quality of the links rather than a specific figure (e.g. if I got a link from your site it wouldn't carry the same weight, trust or authority as a link from Blacknight or PrimaryPosition's [or any other more established] sites).

I can understand someone throwing an off the cuff remark (e.g. "You only have 5 linking domains, you really need more than 50 to compete in that niche mate"), but remarks like that shouldn't be taken as literal figures or used as rules of thumb (e.g. my random comment there turning into "You need 50 unique linking domains to rank").

BTW, thanks for the link - I think that quy has a valid point.

One worth keeping an eye on. Some good content pops up on SEORT from time to time and Barry (@rustybrick) is pretty good at aggregation of up to date developments in SEO.

 

[bober]

Good stuff, thanks for the info & resources - really appreciate it

 

[link8r]

Checklist SEO Glen - it doesn't work

 

[zxn]

Everybody states that Google is strongly against purshasing links.
But I think, it's OK to hire a SEO specialist to make a few hundred backlinks to your site...

 

[HubberZero]

Google doesn't see it as illegal, but I would suspect that given the market trend for how much scamming goes on with buying links they look at it with suspicion. I would recommend showing caution in this area. In my opinion, I would rather spend the money building the links myself then buy them, do you realse there are plenty of place where you can get backlinks from sites without "renting" them?

 

[greatar4]

I thought Google were completely against people buying links???

I would be surprised if they'd changed that stance, so if you have a link to that video please share it

I don't think they change their stance on that issue. First, Google was not completely against Buying links, they were against buying links that pass page rank. They require you when buying text to include the rel="nofollow" tag. They want you to buy text links for advertising purposes not to manipulate the search result.

That's why they require to include either one of this when in your links.

• Adding a rel="nofollow"http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=96569 attribute to the <a> tag
• Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file