Cheap one-way link buys - the new plague in SEO??

Hi all. I have been experimenting with buying one-way links from cheaper providers - Indian based - Costs around $100 for 20/25 PR2+ links theme category. Service seems ok - Does it really benefit SERP? Below are a few points and I would like responses from peoples experiences and thoughts on them.

I developed my own link checker application. This tells me IP address, PR and whether the link is still active. Over 4 months I generally have seen a 25% drop off in links. I then have to email them again. Send them Excel report. Then wait and wait and hopefully they will replace them. If you buy one way permanent links - Go through and check the status of them - Then post what loss rate you are getting after 4 months?

To get the 25 links on theme, I usually have to go back and fourth with them - they usually - place 10-20% off theme - then another 10-20% on PR0 or PR1 - sites. I feel this can actually bring down rankings. You can go from a nice clean site that has only quality inbound links - then to have some crappy neighbourhood links in the mix as well. Lots of times they get away with pages that have heaps of outbound links also - basically like getting a .0005 PR boost

Timeframes always seem to lapse. You get a timeframe for delivery of the service. No updates. Then you usually have to chase them and ask when will the job be finished? They respond and give you a date for an update to be given. This passes, you contact them again and they give you some links. They are always apologising, sorry, we will do yours quickly - We will get it done ASAP - Sorry we are hiring more staff at the moment - I will personally make sure this gets done for you - Any of these sound familiar?

All and all I am debating whether any of these services are actually worth it. Really in my mind and with my experiences over the past 6 months it’s over. $100 can buy you some nice links (I usually pay for 6, 12 month or permanent links) from individual sites or quality directories. Keep that up every month and you should have some really nice inbound links and naturally build your site. You get to screen the quality of the site first - then decide if you want to buy. You can make sure that all links to your site are nice and themed well and you usually have direct contact with the web admin or owner of the site.

Let me know your thoughts? Am I wrong with cheap one-way link buys or is this the new plague in SEO?

 

Don't buy one-way links, it is too much of a hassle UNLESS your advertising with a website which has a good amount of traffic related to your website.

Also, don't you think it's annoying that you have to be monitoring the links quite frequently? I also think that most people take it down after a while because PayPal rarely grants online based products, in this case links.

Also, if you're getting too many links too quick, Google will know and probably will ban you, so be careful as well!

 

This form of link buying is just another option for SEO. It's not the be-all end-all technique for link-building, but it does get you a good number of links at a relatively inexpensive price.

It should be one of the tools in your SEO toolbox.

 

All agreed sixty6 - thats why i think they are the new Plague. I have hit top 10 on G* for brand new sites (less than 2 weeks old) - with only a few quality inbound links - I believe these cheap one-way link services are total time and $$ waste.

 

Question is Will - If they drop off are they worth it? If they are low quality are they worth it? Time spent reviewing them, monitoring them? Is it worth it? Will bad links actually dilute the quality backlinks you have? MSN seems to like having a million links - G doesnt seem to care - it wants quality. Therefore its a Quality v Quantity issue - These days its seems to me more about quality less about - quantity.

 

Yeah, it seems the only time you should be buying links is if you have a brand new site and need a quick jump start.

 

Good point Bliz - but hopefully you should have a few sites in the portfolio that get indexed regularly - a link or 2 on them and bang you are in the SEs within a few days at no cost

 

Agreed, but sometimes its nice to get a few more links from some sites that are on totally different IP blocks - helps kinda mix it up a bit.

 

I have no problem paying 75.00 for 25 one way links. I might check again in a year and see how many are still there. Even if it's half, you paid 6 dollars or so/link. That's not better than paid directories (assuming the directory link is better quality) but it's a nice addition IMO.

 

Agreed again, that's why I rent 3 Virtual Private Servers in 3 different continents - You can buy links from many different IP sites also.

From my tests I have not seen real SERP benefit from the sites that I paid for cheap / low quality "permanent" links in google or yahoo. Which is 75% of the market. Really my question still is - does it really boost SERP this way? Or is it better having a Pro select quality links and buying less of them?

 

imho this plague is created by Google itself by making Page Rank public

 

How big an effect are you looking for? When I pay 75.00 for 25 links I'm not expecting #1 rankings for online casino. For example the last site I used it on I spent 75.00 on 1 way links and paid 30 for submission to 300 non-recip directories. Now while I wait for the domain to age a bit I'm making 100 bucks a month from a PR 3 site with some search engine traffic (only MSN and Google, not Yahoo) and has gotten 33 uniques this month from the various link pages and directories I paid for. I'll take that every time.

 

The effect I am looking for is a higher SERP and long term site success. Doing this in the most effective way both in costs and time. This is why I am trying to get peoples stories about there Success or lack of with bulk, cheap one way links buys.

Nice Jim - Sites are supposed to make money - depending on how much time you spent on creating the site sounds like a good return. Really what I am asking, if you just did the directory submissions (i think these work well for the $) - and spent that 75$ on buying a few quality links from some well choosen sites that you know in advance before you pay the $$. Would you be in a worse position and not be making the $100 a month. Would you have lower PR? Or could you have a PR4 site making $150 a month? (SEO god only knows the answer to that one )

 

I went for a trial a couple of weeks ago (just 10 links). Just checked them and two were missing. I thought this would happen and was why I only went for 10. I got in touch and the links were added to other lower pr pages, but I certainly wouldn't pay for 100's.

 

Golly - it seems your time would be better spent producing content that people want to link to.

 

Exactamundo! That's why I love creating WordPress Blogs

 

Getting a good PR doesn't require new content (which is in my opinion a bit sad). Like it was stated before, it's easy to get a good ranking in google just by getting already high PR to link to you.

 

It is easy? How much do you charge and where do I sign up?

 

Sign your name on a sheet of paper, put it into an envelop /w 500$ and I'll give you the secret.

 

I suppose getting the site online cost me about 100 bucks. Then I spent 105.00 on the "marketing".That 75.00 could have gotten me say 5 months worth of links from a decent sports site, I suppose. Probably not better enough to make a big PR differnece, but like you said, who knows? Before I do that I'll turn to a few paid inclusion directories (the on-time fee ones, not the annual ones).

Regarding long term success, what I'm looking for here is to keep the site in the green for a couple of years before I reallly get to work on it. Having been indexed for a couple years will make whatever I do with it later, easier.