If I buy a few high PR links, is it all that bad? I was thinking about buying some here on DP from other members, maybe like 5 max Will Google flag me for for this? What about textlinkads.com? Is that a no-no?
General consensus is that you should steer away from big link buys where you get promised 1000's of links overnight. We experimented with this and went from a PR4 down to a PR2 with an experimental site. If you get a few high quality paid links (look at listing in yahoo directory) from reputable, relevant authority sites with high PR it won't hurt, but make sure they're not being prostituted.
Avoid buying text links, regardless of their quailty. Google has been cracking down on paid text links, they do this by penalizing the site selling the text links. Meaning, they remove their ability to pass on SEO\Pagerank value to their outbound links. Which would make your investment a "waste". Yahoo! is not a paid directory; the fee is for quick review of your website and does not guarentee inclusion.
But how does Google really know if I buy a link from someone's site? I mean, maybe the guy is sellin' just a few..
google is more wrong than you think. i've maybe bought 3 links ever but the whole idea about not allowing link buys is rediculous it would actually make more sense for them to promote buying links
Ya, lets promote the manipluation of search results. Lets make it so whoever has the most money will appear in the top a search results. Get real, the whole concept of buying text links is for people who have low quality content websites and\or are affiliate marketers or MFA. We care about relevance in search results, not who can pay the most money to appear on top.
Buying links is not that bad. Try to get links from sites related to your niche and don't buy tooo many links as this can raise the flags but buying few is okay. At the end, it's the quality of the content which will help to increase traffic.
Google hate paid links, so I guess they are bad "If you get a few high quality paid links (look at listing in yahoo directory)" Yahoo is not a paid directory. You pay them only to review your site, and it is not guaranteed that your site will be accepted.
No one really knows how Google does, but Google do know how to spot a paid link You can do quality in-content link exchange instead of paid links.
Paid links pointing at your site is a negative signal when your site is under manual review. While Google will not penalize you for links pointing at your site that obviously has nothing to do with you, if they have enough circumstancial evidence to suggest you put them there, you may be in trouble.
It really depends on how you acquire links... If its coming from known "link sellers" who only aims to take advantage of the opportunity to earn profit and manipulate SERP rankings, I suggest that you should stay away from them...
No it's not bad to buy links, in an ideal world no one would buy links or manipulate search engines but the fact is people do, and to keep your place in the SERPs pages you have to compete as well. Now SE do have ways to track link building activities but if it all looks legitimate you wont get caught. Just don't buy 1000 links and have them all appear on the web overnight, and remember it's not the volume that counts it's the quality. I can get 10 good backlinks and rank well than a site with 1000 useless links.
look at their site and evaluate how your link will be presented. if they use a wordpress plugin for selling links, Google knows. overall though, the only people who won't like your link buying are at the people your site ranks above. Just know what you're getting and realize you COULD get burned.