Inbound link is very important for SEO and a lot of members here may try to purchase some links. However, you will need to check carefully when you purchase. Here are some of the things you will check. 1. PR, of course you need to check it. You can get it from Google tool bar. The next few will be more important 2. use link:domain.com in google to check for backlinks of the site which is selling links 3. use yahoo site explorer to check for backlinks of the site which is selling links 4. search domain.com in google to check for the cache in google. There can be cases that you find the site is PR 4 or 5 when you check 1. But when you check 2 there is no result. For 3, there can be no result or just 10 to 20 inlinks. Do you think a PR 4-5 site will be like that? The cache in google is totally different from what you see in the site. The contents (not layout design) can be totally different (in some cases the contents shown in google cache is in a different niche from the site). If you detect the above problem, you'd better save the money and do other important SEO works!
No need to check site PR. U need to check that page PR from which u r getting link......... Does it matter? For ur information i wanna tell u this not the right way to check the backlinks of any site. By this u cud take idea from which sites any site getting links. it's command linkdomain:www.domain.com -site:www.domain.com By this u cud check back links without duplicacy................. This is not right way to check Google cache........... It's command : site:www.domain.com I think u forgot some other important info to keep in mind when u buy links and do link exchange. These are: 1. Number of outbound links to that page. 2. Not get more than one link from any site. If u get then Google wud consider all links from one site as a single link. 3. Always check C Class IP of the sites from which u r doing link exchange or buying links. If links sites have same C Class IP then google wud consider all links as one links form all sites. 4. Don't buy or do link exchange from link farms sites. Means sites those have only links and does not have any content. I think these all are important steps when you buy links or exchange links. If there are more plz suggest..........................
Thanks schgrv for correcting it but it is still very important to check the backlinks from yahoo site explorer. From there you will know how yahoo is viewing the site. You are buying link mainly for google but it will at the same time affect the ranking in other search engines. So it is always good to consider yahoo as well. When you check the backlinks in yahoo, if it returns nothing. That will mean that the site might have been penalized by yahoo and it is better to stay away from this site.
Actually what you are saying here relates to checking for fake page rank. Anyway, for your info, google doesn't encourage paid links anyway and if you are found engaging in those activities, the sites will get penalized. Do it at your own risk.