As a widely used search engine, Google gives its best to preserve its reputation. In general, it mostly refers to keeping the high-quality of the information it shares with the users. To do that it needs to make a selection of the sites they present. Contents that provide misunderstandings or misinformation of any kind should be removed. And, it really does matter what ways a site uses to reach the top search engine positions. That’s why, over the years, Google developed effective strategies that can help in detecting the problematic sites, and removing them from the engine. But what are the right ways to work on the site’s reputation? And what is Google’s stand on link buying? Let’s find out.
About the backlinking
The more your site is mentioned online, the better your ranking will be. However, not all online mentions bring the same kind of merits. This is one example of when quality should be prioritized over quantity. In fact, it really does matter what kind of sites you create backlinks with, and how you do that. Creating a good backlink profile is half of your work done.
Sites that have been working on their ranking position by using the so-called black hat strategies are exactly the ones Google wants to avoid. And, Google’s stand on link buying is based on the negative attitude towards these obviously bad black hat strategies. Although, of course, no site would admit paying for links, nowadays it’s not so difficult to determine whether or not everything is done the right way. Namely, Google has a set of pretty clear and strict rules when it comes to gaining online traffic, and the best thing one can do is to follow them consistently.
The link quality
All the SEO experts in the Link Department team will agree with the fact that not all links are the same. If you want your site to be successful, you’ll need to choose only the best ones for it. That is because links to a certain website are one of the crucial signals search engines such as Google use to determine the site’s credibility, and thus its ranking position. However, it is also important to take care of how you get them as well.
Natural backlinks
The safest and the far the most efficient way of promoting a site. This kind of link-building strategy is specific in many ways but most of all because the website owner does not take part in generating them. It depends only on the content quality. When another website owner decides your content is useful and reliable, he links to it, and you get the natural backlink. Although it takes time to show results, in the link-building process, natural links rate highest. They are definitely the ones that Google will never consider questionable.
Paid backlinks
On the other hand, paid backlinks are something completely different. This relates to giving money in return for a link. Their primary purpose is to manipulate the search engine and the search engine results. Such links usually have no value, and won’t help the site’s promotion at all. In fact, once Google finds out a site has something to do with the so-called link farms, it will immediately disregard the website, and that will influence its ranking position. What’s more, in many cases it can lead to earning serious penalties.
Although website owners do know and understand the negative impact these kinds of links can bring to their sites, most of the owners still use them. What’s more, it seems like a practice in the industry. Especially when they can get a bunch of links for a really small amount of money. Plus it seems like an easy way to get what they want.
So, what is Google’s stand on link buying?
Link buying was popular, and effective many years ago, that’s for sure. However, nowadays, things changed a lot. The manipulative links violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and they’re something Google explicitly speaks against. And, even though, today it is still possible to buy links for a website, web owners are aware of the consequences it leads to. Most probably it will have a negative impact on ranking, and the website will be penalized. Thus they tend not to rely on that kind of strategy when it comes to gaining top-ranking positions.
Google highly recommends avoiding link buying. What’s more, they point it out as an absolutely non-effective way to work on the ranking position. However, it is also true that Google never stands that all the so-called link schemes definitely have a negative impact on ranking. What Google does say is that they can have it. This kind of restrained statement simply comes from the fact that there are still some link-building strategies involving the money exchange, that still cannot compare with the link buying schemes.
The safe ground
Now when you did figure out the basis of the rules that you should follow if you want a site to be successful, you surely understand that you’ll need to employ some other strategies for boosting the search engine ranking. The smartest way is to lean on the already tried link-building campaigns and create links that will be of high quality. And no matter how available and promising the market of selling and buying links may seem, keep in mind Google has mastered the bad links detection and gives its best to destroy them.
By analyzing Google’s stand on link buying, it’s clear that Google disapproves of them. It’s natural that everyone would seek the fastest possible solution for reaching the desired goal. However, the fastest way is not always the smartest. In the world of link building, paid links, although fast to get, do not guarantee a high ranking. What’s more, on the contrary, they usually bring punishments. So, be smart and don’t play with Google. It’d be better to follow the rules.