You have proposals to write, meetings to attend, strategies to devise and posts to blog – where does building links work into your daily routine? I want to know.
If your work week is anything like mine, you probably don’t spend time building relationships with PR execs, journalists, bloggers, and webmasters across a mind boggling range of industries in the hopes that one day this relationship will results in a link for a client. Many of the link building blog posts I read do promote relationship building in the real world to facilitate link oriented relationship building online, a logical strategy.
But unless you are a full time link builder, I can’t see where SEO consultants have the time to do this. The clear answer is have someone with link building knowledge do the work for you.
Queue the “Gasp! Buy links?!”, look of shock, and head shaking. I’ve bought links and I know many SEOs (who would be horrified to be named) who have done the same. What I can’t agree with is this attitude that paid link building is for the cheaters and spammy SEOs.
The preconception that buying links is dishonest and “cheating” the system prevails, it’s ingrained by industry leaders and SEO blogs that genuine organic links are the only answer for strong “long term results” (is anything long term in SEO?). In my experience buying links can aid in jump starting a new campaign, so if it’s a cost effective use of my time to have someone else link build for a fee – why not?
And I’m not the only one doing this, I just feel like the only one who will admit to it. Major companies like Text Link Ads wouldn’t be popping up at industry events if their target audience wasn’t responding like we do – so let’s shake off this holier-that-thou façade.
When it comes to putting down £ for links, I think the best way to go about it is avoid the major link selling companies and go straight to the webmasters and bloggers. This still takes time, but if you have a decent client site and a bit of £ is involved, chances a webmaster will return your email improve greatly.
The big danger is buying spammy links, often from foreign agencies. But I have worked with some small Eastern European link building consultants who got some great links with high PR.
What do you think about buying links? Whether it be through an agency with a backlog of sites or an independent link consultant – I think the activity warrants a better reputation than it has. So starting with me, I buy link building services; I’m proud of it because it means I better optimise my day to focus on more important consulting activities.
Chelsea Blacker is a London based search consultant currently working at Base One Search With a background in SEO & PPC cultivated at Promediacorp in NYC, Chelsea focuses on engaging B2B brands in social media and online PR. If you want to further procrastinate from getting on with your real work, check out her current Marketing Pilgrim post You Know You Work in Search When… or say hi to her on twitter @ChelseaBlacker
Purchasing links is not something we have undertake ‘yet’ or hired a company to link build for us.
But I have to agree with you, time is valuable and link building is too time consuming.
I can not see what is wrong with hiring a link building agency to do this work for us in the future.
I can not see how it is different in hiring a copywriter, a marketeer or sales agency to help promote our business on the web. As long as it does not damage mine or my clients businesses and the agencies I work with are ethical and trustworthy.
Great article. Rand at SEOMoz stated a ways back that ‘manual link building’ is one of the top ways to build links. He went on to state that ‘manual link building’ entailed contacting a webmaster of a highly relevant site and asking them to link to you while providing some sort of compensation for the link. Where I come from, thats called a paid link, and trust me, its highly effective. What I dont like is how he walks the fine line saying he doesnt buy links but does manual link building. Either way, link building is ESSENTIAL to SEO and the only way you will see increased rankings in SERPs, so in my opinion, yes, it is absolutely worth your time.
I prefer doing all my link building personally rather then outsourcing. You never know who will be handling your links, and they dont care about your business as much as you. They can start getting some real crappy links and wasting your money which is why I find it more rewarding and efficient to do it myself.
As someone who definitely admits to buying links, I am also glad to see someone else admitting it. I’m tired of the attitude that link buys are all shady exchanges. A good link is a good link, and if I have to pay to get it…so be it.
Julie, thanks for your support! I do appreciate it.
Kudos to you for coming out and saying you buy links. Many are afraid to do exactly that, but contact companies like ours on a daily basis. As you explained in your post, many don’t have the time to build relationships, work through the tedious process of finding link opportunities, and stay on top of the changes in the industry. That’s when individuals really have to evaluate the value of their time and whether or not it’s time to get a link building services company on board.
Wanted to also point out the point in your post about avoiding large link selling operations. This is completely true: do your homework before acquiring a link builder. If you have to ask yourself wow is this too good to be true, then it is. Selling massive amounts of links is something that spammy companies will do, something we do not do here at Vertical Measures.
Interested to see who else is willing to step up to the plate and say they too buy links.
Link building is def worth your time if it’s done correctly!
Buying backlinks is certainly an easy way to get the back numbers up. Is it the best method to get good quality links. Is Google interested in quantity rather than quality, I don’t think so.
If your clients are happy for you to buy links then I guess that’s ok but for me you’ve gotta build them manually.
Hey DB, I’m interested in your pov. Tell me, in the average week how much of your time do you spend link building manually yourself?
Hello Chelsea,
Can you please e-mail me the name of the eastern European link building companies? I need such contacts for my SEO services.
Thanks! :)
I think link building is extremely useful. It brought my new domain from a PR0 to PR4 in only 2 months, and it’s brought in so much traffic I can’ speak any more of it!
Great article. Buying link has their advantages but the best approach is manually submitting links to free sources.
@bloggerden : What was you main strategy? Buying or building? and any tips for the beginner?
Whether you hire a link building firm to develop links for you or buy them directly from webmasters/bloggers, money is changing hands. So if I were to look at holistically, it is a paid link not matter how you are getting it. As long as one stays away from trouble, it is the way to go. Unless you have plenty of time at hand to do it yourself.
It’s definitely good to hear so many people in the SEO world admitting to buying links. It does seem like our industry is filled with those “holier than thous” to whom you were referring.
Link building is absolutely a valuable use of time, but probably a better job for a subordinate as opposed to people at the top.
Great read Chelsea! I think there is a fine line between Google’s penalty for paid links (which are obviously blatant from text/link brokers) and from reciprocal links and manual link building as you discuss. We’ve ventured into all varieties of paid (the good and bad) over the past 5+ years. Sometimes we advise clients on a best practice/solution, and they want to take the risk. Due to some wonderful and understanding clients, we find middle ground and test the boundaries – at times.
As long as we continue to employ ethical standards, I feel there are times when exceptions can and should be made to the fear/stigma of “paid links”.