Should I Pay for Backlinks?

If you are building a website, whether you are just starting or you've had a struggling site for a while, there are things that you can do to improve your SEO rankings and gain more site traffic—one of the most essential things to build high-quality backlinks. 

The issue is that many people have trouble building a good network of backlinks. It's not that it's not possible, but it can be difficult. On a side note, if you have no idea how many backlinks your site has or how high-quality they are,  you can do backlink analysis. 

This will analyze what is going on with your site regarding the number and quality of backlinks. If you are having trouble getting backlinks on your own, you might be tempted to buy backlinks. So, is this a good idea? Should you buy backlinks? 

Buying Backlinks – A Double-Edged Sword 

Although it has become less popular over time, buying backlinks is a practice that many still engage in, and yes, it's a double-edged sword. We'll explain why. Buying or paying for backlinks is dangerous because of Google's webmaster guidelines and other search engines' guidelines. 

If Google Catches You

Google frowns upon paid and sponsored links. The issue is that paid backlinks have nothing to do with quality or authority. If you pay for a backlink, there is no reason to assume that the article you are linked to or that your own site is valuable or authoritative.

The reason people backlink to you is not due to quality but simply because you paid them. Google is not stupid, and it knows this, and therefore, if Google catches you buying backlinks, they may destroy you in terms of your SEO ranking or even take action against you. Either way, the chances that buying backlinks turns out bad are relatively high. 

If Google Doesn't Catch You 

If you buy backlinks in the right way, Google might not detect it, and we emphasize MIGHT.  For instance, if you pay a blog to add a guest post with a backlink to your site in it, and the blog post is actually a high-quality one with good value, Google may see it as a simple editorial post with a backlink. 

There is no real way for Google to know that you paid for it, at least not in that sense. Therefore, buying backlinks is something that you may consider if you are confident that Google won't figure it out. 

That said, it's a dangerous game to play, and we don't recommend it. There are plenty of ways to get high-quality backlinks, and at no cost to you. It's not worth risking paying for backlinks only to have Google bring the hammer down on you. 

Better Ways to Get Backlinks

There are much better and safer ways to get backlinks, ways that won't endanger your SEO rankings if Google catches you. All of the ways we are about to mention won't (usually) cost you anything at all. 

One of the best ways to get backlinks is to know people in the industry who run websites or authority sites with content related to your own; simply ask them to add backlinks to your site. Even if you don't know many people, you can always reach out to various authority sites to ask them to add some backlinks to your site.

If authority sites don't want to add backlinks for nothing, you can offer to write a guest post for their site, in which you will add a backlink. Another way to get more backlinks is to take advantage of your social media. Put your site URL in the description on your social media page, and you can also link to your site in individual posts. You can try to become a guest on podcasts and then ask the podcast host to link back to your site. 

Final Thoughts

There are many ways to score some high-quality backlinks to your site without having to pay for them. Moreover, it's just too risky to try buying backlinks for it to be worth it.