How does a website operator ensure that particularly relevant sites with heavy traffic and high user trust link to their own website? Google relies on links, among other things, when evaluating the quality of a page. But how do I get good links quickly? And is purchasing backlinks even legal, or can it entail other serious consequences?
In general, there is no law that would prohibit buying or selling backlinks. So from a purely juridical point of view, it is perfectly legal. However, this does not mean that buying backlinks entails no negative consequences.
Under certain circumstances, Google considers backlink buying as an attempt to fool the search algorithm. This is because backlinks are an important feature for Google to assess the quality and relevance of a website.
Websites that Google considers highly relevant and authoritative are especially valuable. Links from these websites have particular significance for Google. That is why SEOs pay a lot of money to place links there.
However, Google wants to use links to evaluate the quality of websites, not the financial power of the website operator. Thus, a backlink purchase is a violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines. If the search engine notices this violation, it will have negative consequences for the visibility of the website on Google.
How can I prevent being penalised for buying links?
Google does, however, allow SEOs and online marketers to want to place links on other websites. But it is crucial for Google that these links are also clearly marked as purchased links. This is easy with the attributes rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Those who use these are on the safe side and do not have to fear that their website will be penalised for link purchases.
Is the permitted backlink purchase worth it?
Those who mark links as purchased still have advantages. Even if Google does not consider these equal to “earned” links, buying such links is still reasonable. Because if these links are well-placed and linked to exciting topics, websites receive qualified traffic and increase their popularity.
This increases the likelihood of others linking to your content without financial compensation, thus steadily increasing the relevance of your website.
Buying backlinks: These 4 tips need to be considered
If you buy a backlink, you should consider the following points to ensure that you will not be penalised after all:
- Make sure that the link is clearly marked as purchased with
rel="sponsored". - It makes sense to mark the entire post as an advertisement.
- Try to avoid private blog networks. They often sell links even without clear marking. This is quickly discovered, and the sites are penalised. You will then be in a “bad neighbourhood” and can do very little about it.
- Do not buy links from professional link sellers who contact you.
Conclusion
Buying backlinks is not prohibited per se or even illegal. However, Google does not like seeing this practice and consistently penalises these links and website operators with lower rankings. Nevertheless, the possibility of buying links legally and profiting from the many advantages still exists: You just need to mark these links accordingly.
