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Does Google not care about bought backlinks, or what?
I’m working on an SEO project for a client in a fairly niche area, though the top keywords have a high difficulty rating. I’m conducting the usual competitive research and I’m noticing that the top organic competitors have a HUGE amount of quite obviously paid for backlinks. When I look at the referring domains, hardly any are legit, and yet, these sites are having massive organic success. So, what’s the deal here? How is google doing such a terrible job of spotting these tactics and penalising the sites accordingly? Anyone else noticed this?
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1 Reply
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It’s been this way since SEO started… I used to build massive PBNs for agencies in 2008 mainly focused on gambling and insurance, lots of them still rank well with the PBN still active.
Think about it like this, how can Google tell that the backlinks are paid? if the rate of acquisition, content / hosting footprint and the sites aren’t in known sketchy neighborhoods.
If you don’t have a big brand, unique offering or lots of money for PR/cross channel campaigns it’s the only way to rank for very competitive terms.
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This might get some pushback but I believe most of the fear around bought backlinks is unfounded FUD. As a general rule, if Google likes the site, they’ll trust the links from it. If it doesn’t, it’ll ignore them. The “bought” aspect of it only becomes an issue when Google detects a pattern of typically “paid” signals in links FROM a site, in which case it might decide it doesn’t like the site anymore.
You’ll rarely find a case of them actively penalising sites that bad sites link to anymore (that way lies “negative SEO” and malicious link campaigns), although those linked-to sites may find they’re losing the advantage if Google decides it doesn’t like the sites that they’ve acquired links from.
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They don’t care. People have been saying for years that “those sites will eventually be penalized” – but it never happens and most likely never will. Buy those links yourself and enjoy the ride.
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google doesn’t really know which are paid links, i dont think there is any negative penalty for paid links neither are they going to be of much help.. they might be ranking due to other factors..
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If you search Google for “buy guest posts,” or “purchase backlinks,” you’ll see the Ads are filled. They don’t know if the links are purchased or not, and they don’t care. If it’s a shitty link it won’t help anyway, so only purchase from reputable linkbuilding companies.
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Most of those links are probably spam links, and the website most likely didn’t create or want them. I wouldn’t worry too much about them, as I bet you’ll have similar links in a few months without wanting them either.
It does feel like Google is using backlinks as a ranking factor less these days and leaning more heavily on Ai.
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Google has no idea whether someone paid for a backlink or not. Also, recently Google with some of these recent updates have gotten goofy ie hacked .edu sites are ranking, horribly put together sites with no backlinks and short copied content are ranking, I think things will probably settle back in a few weeks but right now its a mess
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Occam’s razor is that Google isn’t considering the links at all. Google largely shifted away from a “punitive” policy to a “ignore” policy for stuff like links years ago. Even more so now when basically any site in existence will have their content scraped, spun and thrown up on low quality domains. If all the sites have these crappy backlinks, they’re not giving those domains any advantage over one another.
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Isn’t it obvious? If Google had a rule of penalising any obviously paid backlinks, those competitors could use their large budgets to send the backlinks to your site and other competitors, knocking you out of the way.
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I’ve had clients who were penalized by Google for their backlinks which had been purchased and were garbage. Not exactly the same but similar, I also have YouTube clients who lost their channels because of buying site “promotion” that sends traffic.
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SEO is backlinks.
Sties that ranks at the top have backlinks.
Authority comes from backlinks.
I have run an SEO agency for 14 years. 99% of what we do is build backlinks.
In over 99% of cases, the way we got our clients to the top was by building backlinks.
In less than 1% of cases there was a problem with their content.
My agency owns a large portfolio of authoritative blogs. We use these to rank our clients. We do not do “guest posting” or “link outreach.” We control 100% of the links that we use and verify that nothing shady goes on. Most link sellers are scammers and liars.
When building backlinks or a portfolio of authoritative blogs to use for backlinks, everything must be done correctly. Most people do it wrong, and this is why most backlink sellers get no results and penalize their clients.
Real SEO is rather expensive. Any of these “1000 backlinks for $5” offers are 100% scams. Most people think it’s about the number of backlinks. It’s not. A single backlink can cause your site to outrank another site with 1000s of backlinks.
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Google could easily be ignoring them and the links that actually are helping the site rank are not being ignored (and you’re not seeing them).
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It’s the job of the people you buy them from to make them look organic and find good sources. It’s not worth it to spend money on links if you aren’t paying for quality.
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I’m offering guest posts with do follow links if you do a good article and images and video. Pm me. I’m also willing to do swaps.
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Google’s stance on purchased or “bought” backlinks is clear: it considers them a violation of its Webmaster Guidelines. Google places a strong emphasis on natural, high-quality backlinks that genuinely reflect a website’s authority, relevance, and value to users. Here’s why Google doesn’t favor bought backlinks:
Quality and Relevance: Google’s algorithms aim to provide users with the most relevant and high-quality search results. When backlinks are purchased, they may not reflect genuine endorsements of a website’s content. Instead, they can be manipulated to inflate a site’s authority, which goes against Google’s principles.
User Experience: Backlinks should guide users to useful and informative content. Purchased backlinks often lead to irrelevant or low-quality websites, which can negatively impact the user experience and lead to dissatisfaction.
Manipulation: Buying backlinks is considered a manipulative tactic to influence search engine rankings. Google continuously updates its algorithms to detect and penalize such practices. Websites that engage in this behavior may face penalties, including a drop in search rankings or even deindexing.
Unpredictable Outcomes: Even if a website appears to benefit from purchased backlinks in the short term, there’s no guarantee that it will continue to rank well. Google’s algorithms are continually evolving, and tactics that work today may become ineffective or even harmful in the future.
Instead of relying on bought backlinks, digital marketers and website owners are encouraged to focus on natural and ethical link-building strategies. This involves creating high-quality content that naturally attracts links from authoritative and relevant sources. Additionally, outreach and relationship-building with other websites in your niche can help secure valuable backlinks.
In summary, Google does care about bought backlinks, and engaging in such practices can lead to detrimental consequences for your website’s search engine visibility. It’s advisable to follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, prioritize ethical and organic link-building, and invest in creating valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks.
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