Link building is an integral part of search engine optimisation (SEO) and will help build your online reputation.
Search engines give higher page ranking to sites that have a large number of relevant links pointing to it. A high number of links is seen as an indicator of popularity but there are several things you should be aware of and consider. This article looks at the merits and pitfalls of link purchase.
Should I Purchase Links?
Way back in 2007, Google updated their algorithm and started to penalise sites that blatantly purchase and sell links in an attempt to manipulate page ranking. Recent algorithm updates and Google thinking maintain that stance and continue to drive out sites that actively purchase links.
The stance against link purchase is that they are bought simply to spam search engines and there is no added value or merit, in terms of content relevance. From Google’s perspective they could be pointing results to content that is irrelevant and dissatisfying users and as we all know the Big-G is not just biggest, but also leads customer satisfaction.
How Does Google Tell If You Purchase Links?
Google just “knows” if you blatantly purchase links! Google has become so sophisticated that it can detect trends, analyse if the links bought by a site are not relevant or if links are springing up in too many places at the same time.
Choosing to purchase links through black hat SEO often means that your site could have a very high growth rate of inbound links. The very nature of link building is that it is a very slow, methodical art, purchased links will give your site an unnatural growth that is easily detected.
Don’t Purchase Links Before Looking At Google Webmaster Guidelines
Bottom line is to stick to Google webmaster guidelines on whether to purchase links. Google states “don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”
Further to this Google clearly suggests that “… some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.”
Link Purchase – Not All Bad News
Google is clear to state that not all paid links violate their guidelines accepting that link purchase and sale is “a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such.”
Google further suggest adding an a rel="nofollow" attribute to the <a> tag and that you should consider redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file.
Have You Seen Blatant Link Purchasing?
As well as having algorithmic capabilities to detect link purchase, Google also has the facility to allow internet users to report any link purchase abuse and invites users to help maintain the quality of search results stating that they will “use your information to improve our algorithmic detection of such links.”
The WebMarketing Group can help build your links through white hat SEO. Contact us now on 0845 555 5040
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