Brian Chappell

Thinking about buying links? 30 tips to save you from failure

By Brian Chappell on January 24, 2008

In case you have wondered why I do not post many topics on links, it is pretty simple, it’s the bread winner. Link building is the most time consuming part of any optimization campaign and simply spilling all the beans just isn’t an option. However, with that said, I am feeling rather nice today and thought I would share a little with you.

If you are thinking about buying links then I would highly suggest following these best practices. I am not going to get into all the hoopla of is it ethical and will my site get penalized drama that has been going on since early last year, a lot of other people cover it pretty well.

DO NOT: Buy links in groups or blocks.
DO NOT: Buy links in footers
DO NOT: Buy links on irrelevant sites
DO NOT: Buy all your links on Blog platforms
DO NOT: Buy all your links from forum signatures
DO NOT: Buy all your links from .edu sites
DO NOT: Buy all your links from .gov sites
DO NOT: Buy all your links from link farms
DO NOT: Buy links from large networks all sitting on the same C Block IP
DO NOT: Go through a broker to buy your links
DO NOT: Buy links on sites that have a bunch of your competitors on them
DO NOT: Buy links and use the same exact keyphrase too much in the anchor text
DO NOT: Buy links that all point to your homepage
DO NOT: Buy links that are located on the right sidebar or left sidebar
DO NOT: Fret over the Toolbar Pagerank
DO NOT: Purchase links around stop words such as advertisement, paid, partners, etc.
DO NOT: Email Matt Cutts after a link buy indicating where your links are

DO: Buy links in middle of the page content
DO: Buy links on pages that rank, simple as that, if they rank they more then likely will help (thanks for catching that Gab)
DO: Buy links on pages that have recent cache dates
DO: Buy Links on pages that are similar in theme to your site
DO: Buy links on old, established pages that have a lot of trust and authority
DO: Buy links and keep them there, the longer the better. Links are a long term investment.
DO: Contact site owners directly and negotiate accordingly
DO: Buy links that point to interior pages
DO: Buy links from time to time and let them link to your site how they would want to, so it is natural.
DO: Buy some links that have the entire URL as the link, this occurs naturally so it helps.
DO: Buy links on brand new content that has never been crawled before
DO: Buy links in places that get lots of clicks, the more traffic a site gets the better.
DO: Buy links around content on a page that is highly similar in theme to yours
DO: Vary everything, key terms, acquisition rate, placement etc.

If the links can pass a human review then they will more then likely do the job. Google is catching on (finally) and it is getting harder to make movement up the boards. However, purchasing links is still a very cost effective practice to see quantifiable results with.