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With the recent uproar over Google’s request that people report paid text link purchasers, and the penalties that seem to be rolling over a large number of sites that buy and sell links, there’s a bit of fear out there for the site owners that take part in this method. I wanted to give a few tips on purchasing links, and a few things to keep in mind while considering to do so.

First, before you start to think “hey, he’s right. We should report these spammers,” consider that Google does the exact same thing. Look at AdSense/AdWords. These are paid advertisements just like the ones a broker would provide, only with a higher return potential for your investment. The links from a broker will always be on someone’s site, unlike the ones you will receive with the use of AdSense. So, don’t feel bad for little ol’ Google. And when you consider that they sell AdWords to sites like text-link-ads.com, it makes you question their real motives.

Buy Links for the Right Reason With a few exceptions, one good link to your site isn’t going to take your site from page 10 to 1 in a week. If you’re going to buy a (or a few) link, then make sure you’re doing so for the right reason; traffic. Though attaining paid links can indeed help your rankings a lot, especially if implemented with finesse and thought, you run the risk of putting yourself into the mindset of attempting that ranking, and may make a few mistakes (like buying up every spot you see). Instead, focus on the site on which your link will reside, and the traffic gains you can achieve. Send this link to the page that will convert visitors (be it a sale or your linkbait page) and be sure to test it for further use/enhancements.

Most likely, these paid-for links will indeed boost your ranking, but that will take time, and you want to get the right links before reaping the rewards of this after effect.

Make Sure of Your Broker’s Integrity
Because this is a touchy subject, and there is an air of risk in getting reported, you want to make sure that the links you buy come from a broker that can keep it quiet. Make sure the site doesn’t visibly list the sites that will host the links, thus allowing the search engines to gain a target for investigation.

Also, ask others that have taken part in buying links from this broker. How was the traffic gain? How did it affect rankings? If they stopped buying links, why?

Don’t Always Link to Your Homepage
This should really fall in line with your link-building strategy all together. A massive amount of links to your homepage, with little or no links to any of your other pages won’t look very natural to the search engines. It would be a good idea to get a few links to go here, then a few to go there.

Don’t Go Overboard
You are about to pay money for these links, so don’t throw that cash away by buying up every link spot you can. Try to test a few at a time, going to different pages, on different sites. It shouldn’t take to long to find out which links are bringing you some traffic, and further plan your link buying accordingly.

Use Different Anchor Text
You’re paying for these links, might as well make use of the most desired anchor text. Having a high link popularity, but with the same anchor text across the board will throw another flag up for the search engines. This looks very suspicious to them, and are likely to hold you back a while before giving you any credit for the links.

There are a number of decent brokers out there. You can just go to Google and type “buy links” and you will see the major ones at the top (obviously that’s a good sign). I still think purchasing links can be a good idea, and we sometimes make use of this with our clients. But do your homework, and poke around a bit before jumping in. I hope these points help, and if you have any questions or ideas, you know where we are.

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