Why Am I Being Told To Purchase Links?

[paulnb]

Hello everyone,

I am in the midst of developing a link strategy for an online business I am with. Being very new to the world of Linking, I am hoping for some input from the very knowledgeable people here.

My problem...

The majority partner within the business in question is insisting on paid links. Purchasing links on sites that are relevant to our industry (alternative health, we sell a unique health product). Whether they are on a doctor's site, or say an athletic association...it doesn't matter, the partner insists on paid links.

I, on the otherhand, want to develop content (800 - 1200 word articles) and then submit them to blogs and other sites to utilize. These articles would be exclusive to the site, as we have a staff of content writers. I would then embed contextual links. Blog owners would be compensated in addition to receiving quality content. Of course, I would insist on an NDA.

Obviously Google does not hold much weighting to paid links, especially when a particular site is not unabashed about advertising the fact they sell links. I can not see how a paid link strategy would be better than syndicating content containing contextual links.

If a site does not "advertise" the fact they accept paid links, I assume the filters still catch this? If the anchor text and site are relevant to the site where the link is purchased...is this okay? Obviously purchasing a link on a site containing numerous others in the same long scroll link format is effective for generating traffic, but what about ranking?

I am slightly confused...what type of argument should I present to the majority partner? Am I correct on my assumptions?

Any help will be appreciated.

Paulnb

[Hostnetric]

Paid links can give you a traffic boost to your site quickly if they are on sites that are related to your topic. This can have a beneficial immediate effect to your bottom line and can result in your site becoming popular.

You are right in thinking that paid links do not carry as much weight at natural links.

You should run a mix of both your idea and his. The article submissions, a company blog and other expert material that people will read and use virally on the net will help you build your serp rankings and eventually your traffic flow.

The paid links can also result in natural link backs as well if you provide a good product and also quality content that others would find helpful. People will visit your site and link back and suggest it to others also resulting in natural links to your site.

So my arguement would be that you conduct a mix of both strategies.

There are many other strategies that people use and there are some really smart SEO people on these forums that can give you even more information and advice on this than I can.

[Cornbread]

I wrote an article on marketing your web site that you might want to read. There is no right and wrong, you should do both. Paid links have gotten a bad name, but there is a misconception there. When you submit your site to a lot of the best directories you are not paying for a link, but you are paying for an opportunity to have your site reviewed by a professional editor and they don't accept all sites submitted. Those directories are actually recommended by Google. They definately give you a quality backlink from a trusted source. They (Google) just doesn't want to see the automated, massive link farm submissions to manipulate the rankings. But those strong directories won't accept your site if you don't have quality, original content, so that should always be your first step. Write good content for your own site and then promote that site.

[bogs]

google devalued pain links: Google Webmaster Help Center: Link schemes

[Webfu]

Like everyone else is suggesting, I would do both options you presented. You've probably been told to buy links because producing good links for a website on your own is an over whelming task for just one person to handle.

If you're buying paid one way links be careful not to get linked up on crappy websites. Quality is better than quantity in the link building game.

[Cornbread]

Originally Posted by bogs

google devalued pain links: Google Webmaster Help Center: Link schemes

Here is a quote from your link, " In addition, submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites."

In case you didn't know, Yahoo is a paid link and when they say "industry-specific expert sites" they are refering to authority type directories like v7n.

[Alfredito]

Originally Posted by Webfu

If you're buying paid one way links be careful not to get linked up on crappy websites. Quality is better than quantity in the link building game.

Couldent agree more.

Also, dont buy 50 high pr links at one time... thats not good, buy 1-2 per week, and keep on publishing articles and opt' your meta tags.

[css25]

Originally Posted by Alfredito

Also, dont buy 50 high pr links at one time... thats not good,

Oh, I did not about that. Any more explanation about that? Thanks.

[Alfredito]

Originally Posted by css25

Oh, I did not about that. Any more explanation about that? Thanks.

Well, the reason to even buy links is cos google like to see your site in other sites too, it makes your site look more powerfull to him.

But he likes the links to be netural and not paid. so if overnight google will see that you got 50 brand new pr7 links, he will know something is not right and can ban you for it.

but if you buy just 1-2 links per week, google will look at them at netural links - as long as they are not under "sponsred links" which is also not so good, you wont get ban for it but you also wont get the full effect you are paying for.

[peter_d]

You might like to read Ralph's interview. Good advice is to "build consistently".

I'd also argue that a high percentage of links are "paid", cash being but one form of payment.
Which begs the question - how does a machine determine if a transaction took place?

[Alfredito]

Originally Posted by peter_d

You might like to read Ralph's interview. Good advice is to "build consistently".

I'd also argue that a high percentage of links are "paid", cash being but one form of payment.
Which begs the question - how does a machine determine if a transaction took place?

Great Article !!