Although I am not an advocator of breaking Google’s guidelines, there are times when many SEOs (and myself included) will either give in to temptation, or if the niche is particularly competitive, simply have no choice but to divulge into a little bit of link buying to stand a chance of competing with websites that are ranking highly on the basis of an aggressive link buying strategy.

Over the past two months I’ve conducted a little experiment of purchasing a small number of links for two websites, using an extremely stringent procedure to ensure that a) the money was not wasted and b) it would be extremely difficult for the links to be 100% classifiable of being paid for. 

The results were pretty impressive!

*Please note for confidentially and other obvious reasons, all of the information, such as the website and targeted keywords have been removed!*

Conclusion: Paid Links Can Have A Positive Impact
They certainly do!  Although buying links are against the guidelines, there are countless websites ranking highly in competitive industries on the basis of their link buying policies.  Purchasing quality links (especially with targeted anchor text) can really boost your rankings in Google.

Here are a few takeaways and tips if you are going to indulge in some link purchasing:

Avoid Obviously Paid Links
If you’re going to break the rules, be somewhat discreet about it.  I would avoid buying links from websites that promote the fact that you can have a link if you are willing to part with your cash and all text link buying networks.  Phrases such as “sponsored”, “advertisers” or policies that include “paid reviews” or “paid posts” should send the alarm bells ringing in Google HQ and should be your cue to look elsewhere.

Keep It Relevant
You should only look to buy links from highly relevant websites, for example if your website is about Cats, look at other Cat, pets or other relevant websites. If you happen to find an unrelated website with a tempting GooglePage rank of 6 or more, move along, relevancy is the key!

Mix It Up
If you are buying links, you will want to keep it as natural looking as possible.  Vary your anchor texts (you should always be able to specify what anchor text will be included in your link if you are paying for it!) and destination of the link (i.e. your homepage and internal pages).  Also the placement of the link should be varied, aim for some links to be in the main body of the page content, some at the top, some below, also a few relevant links in the sidebar of a website will help to keep a natural looking link profile.

Be Creative
If you have found a great looking website that you would like to purchase a link from (if you can’t see a reason why they would link to you otherwise), it’s not always the best idea to rush in make an offer.  Sometimes webmasters will be a little put off by this and refuse your requests.  Other website owners though, especially enthusiasts or hobbyists will be more than happy to link to your website if you can offer them something (maybe a new header image or logo), or even make a donation to their chosen charity.  Every case is likely to be a little different, so you will just have to be patient until you get used to approaching people!

This article is written by Jonathan Walker an SEO consultant from Wales, with over five years experience in the industry.  Jonathan’s enthusiasm and passion for SEO has recently lead him to begin offering SEO Training in Cardiff.