Cheap backlinks: are they worth the efforts?
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Recently I tested if buying cheap backlinks (also known as incoming links, inbound links) would be worth the money and efforts in order to improve search engine rankings.
It seems that generating backlinks is the number one search engine optimization strategy, since they give an indication of the importance and authority of a website.
Buying backlinks however is against the search engine policies, because it’s an artificial way to gain better rankings. But since everyone seems to do it, I wanted to test whether it would be worth it.
So, I headed over to sites like Fiverr and ordered three cheap backlinks gigs:
1. Edu blogs backlinks
2. Dofollow backlinks from authority sites
3. High PR Dofollow Blog Comments
Before I go into details, let me emphasize that these guys DO deliver what they promise. So this test ís not a complaint about gigs. It’s about the results of those efforts.
Most of them use cheap backlink software which doesn’t enhance the quality of backlinks, but that’s the way it works if you go cheap.
Also, as I said before, buying backlinks is not a policy that search engines approve of. That’s why I used an old, unused domain for this test, so it wouldn’t harm my premium domains that I cherish.
So, how did that work out? Well…
1. Edu blogs
I got 10 URL’s from Edu blogs where I could publish my own content, including backlinks to my site.
I thought this would be a great service, as I had to publish quality content. Search engines do not object to that. And a link back to my site in the bylines is very common too.
Turned out however, that 6 of the 10 links changed their login procedure after 3 months. I wasn’t able to get back there without showing a physical evidence of being a member and my articles were deleted. Duh!
Still got 4 blogs on an edu domain, but don’t know for how long.
So, although this way of building cheap backlinks is my favorite, it’s unsecure and therefore not reliable for the long term.
2. Dofollow backlinks from authority sites
I got some extra links with my order. They all worked when I got them. The PR varied from 1 to 5, but that was for the domains, not for the pages.
After 2 months, only 35% of them are still alive. The rest has disappeared. Into the blue skies. All efforts to promote 65% of these URL’s were in vain.
3. High PR Dofollow Blog Comments
I ordered 30 cheap backlinks in the form of blog comments.
I checked out only 3 of them and got in a deep rut. Hundreds and hundreds of links on the same page and the anchor texts there clearly showed you don’t want to be part of it. Gambling, porn, casino’s, you name it.
I stopped checking. Spam all over the place.
Conclusion of this test: cheap backlinks aren’t worth the money, time and efforts. None of the links I got did show up in the search engines until now, 3 months or more after ordering them.
There are far better ways to build backlinks. A great explanation can be found at Link Building 101
So, what’s your take on cheap backlinks?
Post your comments below.
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“Cheap backlinks: are they worth the efforts?”
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Although I have never tested this, I am not at all surprised with your findings. I do sometimes look on Fiverr for links, but I cannot believe that you can get loads of quality links for just $5. Like the saying goes, if something seems to good to be true, then it usually is. I would personally rather buy one contextual link on a proper blog for $5, or even $10.
I have been working on the web for 3 years. I still do not understand a lot about back links. I keep reading and reading everyone’s opinions. I have read more than 100 blogs about back links. I have paid for back links, How does one know if a back link is really a do-follow or a no-follow? Things I don’t understand. I don’t even understand how long these back links last for. So it just seems like a crazy amount of work trying to get back links. A matter of fact, I never see an increase in people coming to my website with all the back linking I have done. How much back linking does one have to do.. So confused…. Thanks for your article, sorry for venting, but your article made me feel like venting. I don’t know if Cheap back links, book marking or anything else is really good. I do know my website is a PR5 and I still don’t know what that means, and MY PR5 is not from backlinks. I got a PR5 from my website about 8 months after I had the content uploaded. So go figure, i know people who have spent a lot of money on back links, way more than I, and still they can’t get their website past a PR3… Now The question is, How do I get to be a Pr6, Pr7.. Ok. i’ll stop.. thanks again..
Like I said above: the number of (quality) backlinks may indicate, that you have a great site. You can find the backlinks on Google by just typing link:languages4free.com and you’ll see 11 listed.
If you use Firefox, you can install ‘add-ons’ that display PR, backlinks etc. like http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/ and http://www.seoquake.com/. A link is NOfollow if it contains the ‘rel=”nofollow” argument. Add-ons like Searchstatus allow you to color them.
PR still may be an indication of quality, but not as much as it used to be. High value content is king these days, as it allows the search engines to display great results in their SERP’s (Search Engine Result Pages).
Makes sense?
I wholly agree with you. Even though inbound marketing is necessary, there is no purpose in buying backlinks. As you mentioned in your experience, a lot of those backlinks vanished after some time. Now if you would have done the same service yourself, the result would have been 100 percent better.
I have dealt with Fiverr.com people. Most of the time what they offer is gibberish.
You bought backlinks from fiverr. Well You bought and you got the links as per their words(as you mentioned in your post) but that’s not the same case with everyone(atleast it was not with me) and Honestly If I say.. I don’t like to buy the links because the problem is with the time duration or say latency time till which the link lasts. You have enlightended the case of the buying backlinks is not Good for the site’s health. Although the no. of links matter but now the situation has changed much more. As we all know that the search engines now prefer the semantic indexation with the social relevancy hence Now I am damn sure people would not be having the intend to buy those crappy links!!! Well Nice experiment though. thanks!
Hi Case – My initial reaction to buying links on Fiverr was “How can somebody build a 3 tier, 1000 link pyramid for $5?”. So I bought 2 gigs from two different suppliers.
As you noted, both suppliers over delivered. So my question about how can somebody do it so cheap remains. I appreciate that the links are going onto mass spam accounts created for the purpose, but posting them and pinging their RSS feeds is still more work than $5.00.
And the quality? It doesn’t matter what percentage of do follow links they advertise, the result is about 20%. And the quality is horrible. I never heard of a single bookmarking site they used, and I would not want to have my business (List Building) associated with any of the sites.
My conclusion is to stay away from these types of backlinks and continue to build niche relevant links through blog commenting and selective social posting (not spamming!).
Most of the time it’s software Michael. Fill in URL and keywords and hit Enter. 40 seconds. How does $5.00 sounds now?
The way I see it, you get what you pay for, it’s true everywhere – especially when it comes to SEO.
Although, that being said I’ve purchased some Quality gigs on Fiverr recently, so that’s not to say that you can’t get good results by paying peanuts, because you really can.
I think the social bookmarking gigs might work best and be less likely to be deleted, although you can’t beat having .edu links pointed to your site.
But I would say it’s maybe not best to purchase huge amounts of links at the same time .. balance it out .. or have some pointed to a buffer site, not your money site.
I just recently had an issue with “Cheap Backlinks” I recommend you stay away from them.
The company I used decided it was a good idea to use black-hat methods to spam my link on low pr forums, some of which had very questionable material on them.
Needless to say I’m not very happy about it at all.
I wrote a short article about it on my website.
I urge people to do their own backlinking and actually find communities that are similar to yours and provide as much value as you can and avoid being spammy.