We've got a keyword that we've targeted and we would like to buy some one-way links to try to optimize for this. We've done a bunch of the other stuff (e.g., submitted to directories, done link exchanges, press releases, etc.) and now we want to step it to the next level. I've got a few questions: 1. How important is it that the links that we're buying are from related sites? There aren't a ton of other sites that are directly related to the keyword we're looking to optimize (other than our competitors who likely won't link to us ) so I might have to go outside of our circle. Is that OK? 2. What is the most efficient way to buy links? Ideally we're value shopping, looking for the best-priced links we can find for the cheapest prices. What are the best sites for this? Any other innovative options for this (e.g., EBay, Craig's List, etc.)? 3. What about buying links from blogs? Blogs seem to be money these days in terms of SEO street cred. However it doesn't quite seem proper to pay people for blog entries about us. (Maybe for a link on their blog though...) Anyone had any luck with this? I'd love to hear any strategies people have for this. Thanks!
1. I would not recommend you do. With Adsense and now Analytics, google is becoming better and better at ascertaining the contextual meaning of a webpage. My own rule of thumb is that if the users of that site won't find your link useful, don't bother. 2. Easy sources to find - searching for your primary keywords (and sifting through top 100 results on both Yahoo and Google), checking backlinks of your competitors, and searching on technorati (or icerocket/blogsearch/etc) for blogs related to your topic.
Buying links isn't always necessary. Article submission sites are a good way to build links. Write an article and submit to some of these sites.