Is it ok to pay for backlinks? Is that worth the money? Those are the most common questions and we will answer them today. But before we do that let’s talk a bit about the backlinks so you can understand their importance. First of all, a backlink is a link from some other website to that web resource. They are also known as inbound links, incoming links, or even one-way links.
The importance of backlinks
So we have learned that they represent another website’s traffic coming to your own site. You can see just how beneficial that can be for you. That additional traffic can help you rank higher in search engines for example – Google or Bing. The higher your rank is the better. You will have more chances to be noticeable and closer to the first page on Google and that is the name of the game nowadays. As you can see backlinks are crucial for your SEO.
Free backlinks
You can create free backlinks of course and there are ways to do that. In fact, it’s not as hard as some would think. You can always ask for a backlink or you can use your social media profiles – there are so many possibilities. Now it’s important to know that not all backlinks are equal and some are worth way more than the others, and then there are broken backlinks and toxic backlinks. Those are the ones you need to avoid.
Broken backlinks
In simple terms that’s when your links simply don’t work for whatever reason. We are mentioning this only because you can get results from them and you can benefit from broken links on other websites. You can simply offer to replace the broken link with your own content and that can bring you some additional traffic. You will see all about that on the link we left you in this text.
Toxic backlinks
Toxic backlinks are very problematic and even punishable by Google. It’s important to get rid of them if you have any and to stay clear from them in the future. We at Link Department have the resources for you to get informed more about them and to learn how to remove them in case you have any.
Is it ok to pay for backlinks? Is it worth it?
Now let’s get back to our main question. The answer is yes! And the best of all is the benefit you will be getting. Any SEO expert will include paid links into your strategy because that is a common thing to do for a reason. Paying for backlinks on the other hand can get pricy very quickly especially if you are collaborating with SEO agencies. The prices can range between 50 and 500 dollars for a single backlink. That is a big specter as you can see. Before we continue talking more about prices we should mention that paying for backlinks is forbidden by Google.
Google is not a big fan of this practice
Yes, this is forbidden by search engines. Google considers this practice to be spammy and buying backlinks is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. That means you can be punished by getting a penalty from Google. But, that’s only if you get caught and that is not an easy thing for them to do. They do this simply because of their credibility and of course, such links manipulate the natural order of search results and that is the main reason why they are not a big fan of this. Now that we mentioned that in fact, you can get a penalty for this action if you get caught we can continue talking about budgets and how much you should pay for backlinks.
Budget for backlinks
It’s hard to say how much should you pay. This is your website after all and you know how big of a budget you are handling. If you do not know ask people working in accounting just how much you can afford monthly for this. But know that this practice can bring you some great results. If you research this you will see that some agencies are offering prices from 10 dollars and then we mentioned that it can get quite costly – up to 500$ actually. This all depends on what kind of backlink do you want to buy and whom from. There are even websites like Fiverr that can offer you great backlinks for only five dollars but since it’s hard to determine authenticity we suggest you avoid that sort of practice even though it is very cheap. The risks are too big.
Hiring an SEO expert to help you with the budget for backlinks
This might be the best course of action. The SEO expert will be able to determine the value of backlinks and to advise you best. He or she will also work on other strategies and that way you will be getting the best result. It’s great to have your in-house SEO expert but if that’s not in your budget right now you can work with SEO agencies for a short period of time. That is ok too.
Taboo
For many to pay for backlinks is taboo. Some experts won’t admit they do this and most of them do. But this practice became taboo because of Google and its guidelines. Since it can result in a penalty this needs to be done in secret. Buying or selling backlinks is forbidden like we mentioned a few times so make sure that if you plan to do this don’t get caught. Paid reviews with disclosure and official sponsorships are exceptions. Those are fine so you can do this as a part of your SEO strategy and you will be just fine.