Link Buying

Inviting links, without seeming desperate

It's going to require your best poker face - asking for links to your site whilst giving nothing in return... you could win, in the long run.

Phat spoilers

So, I meet with a client who runs a website that sells specialist body kits for boy-racer cars - Renault 5s, Subarus, Zafiras, etc. and things are going well, but could be better. We enter into a discussion about in-bound links and their importance and I suggest that the business owner should start getting involved in forums relating to his industry. 'But I'm already a member of loads,' he replies.

And he wasn't joking. Over the last three or so years he'd posted somewhere in the region of 5000 posts across a whole load of forums and chat rooms. Now, the beauty of forums is that more often than not they allow the user to create a profile, and one of the fields is URL. Most people leave this blank or add a link to their FaceBook/MySpace page - such a waste. Add your company website address. In the case of the company above, he sold kit parts for cars and here he was chatting on performance-car-related sites. He quickly added the URL of the business to his profile and, being dynamic, the forums updated every post this chap had ever placed on their sites with a link to his own website. With over 5000 inbound relevant links to his credit, his site became an authority site overnight with a PageRank of 7. From page 8 to page 1 in 24 hours. It brings a tear to my eye.

Beware: cash for honours

It damaged the major UK political parties and it could affect you too - there is an increasing trend for websites with a high PageRank to prostitute themselves to the highest bidder. Never mind selling a £10 DVD when you can sell your Google reputation for pounds and pounds and pounds. Google is wise to this tactic, and whilst I don't fully understand how it could possibly know that you and I exchanged a brown envelope in a service station café on the M1, it does. Buying in-bound links is a short-term fix and you'll be found out, which inevitably leads to all the punitive measures Google has at its disposal. Get to your goal through your own strengths and Google will reward you.


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