Surprising News about Buying Links

As a follow up to my last post about the myths of backlinks, I mentioned the controversy about buying links for your websites.  Well, Authority Hacker has come out with a super interesting and surprising report about their survey results on backlinks.  To check out the survey results in detail, visit the Authority Hacker website.  In this article, I’ll go over the highlights on their findings and give you my take on whether my experience concurs with theirs.

If you’re not familiar with Authority Hacker, Gael Breton and Mark Webster have one of the best training programs for creating authority websites for all niches.  They cover everything from finding the right niches, creating content, finding keywords, and building links.  The survey results, posted by Mark, come from 755 professional link builders that were anonymously surveyed.

They Do Pay for Links

74.3% of link builders pay for links

Yes, that’s right.  Three-quarters of the link builder survey participants pay for links.  While that my be surprising to you, it actually confirms my theory that, if done properly, buying backlinks is the fastest and best way to improve your search engine results.  Despite warnings from Google and others, the truth is that this strategy does work.

But, you do have to use discretion, and purchase your links from the right sources—i.e. avoid link farms.  Also, my advice continues to be that a steady and continuous increase in your backlinks is better than a massive spike—so don’t just make one huge purchase of links and think that’s the solution.  And, remember that even with buying links, you’ll probably have to wait a while to see results (see below).

If you need help finding sources for your backlinks, be sure to sign up for my free Backlinks Cheatsheet.

But, Do You Have to Pay for Links?

paying for links yields only an extra 2 links per month

This result is surprising to me and I’m not sure I totally agree with it.  Of course, your results are going to depend on many factors, and it also depends on how competitive your niche is.  And, if buying links, your budget certainly plays a part in how many links you’re going to get per month.

However, in ultra-competitive niches, getting quality free backlinks isn’t that easy.  So, despite the findings here, I would not be discouraged from paying for links.

It Does Take Time to See Results

It takes an average of 3.1 months to see the impact of a link on search ranking

As I mentioned above, even if you buy backlinks, it is going to take some time for you to see results.  In the Authority Hacker survey, the average time for the participants was 3.1 months.  That’s about in line with my experience—although, sometimes I’ve seen results sooner, sometime later.  Again, here it depends on a number of things including your niche.

NoFollow Links are Good Too

89.1% of link builders say nofollow links have an impact on rankings

I was very pleased to see this survey result.  These days especially, a lot of people are only focused on DoFollow backlinks.  And, I agree that generally a DoFollow link is more valuable than a NoFollow one.  However, I’ve also stated that the best backlink strategy is to have a diversified link portfolio—that includes NoFollow links.

I certainly believe there’s a reason that Google Search Console includes certain NoFollow links.  And while no one can say for sure, I agree that NoFollow links do have an impact on ratings—both directly and indirectly.

Social Media Does Help with Link Building

Link builders using social media build 22% more links than those who don’t

This result isn’t really surprising, but it should make social media users feel better.  With the ever-growing popularity of social media channels, it certainly makes sense that promoting your content and business through social media will net you more backlinks.

Conclusion

My biggest takeaway from the Authority Hacker survey is the confirmation that if done right, buying backlinks can be the best way for website owners to boost their search engine rankings.  This survey contained a lot of great information, so again I would encourage you to check it out for yourself.  

https://www.authorityhacker.com/link-building-survey/

And, if you’re interested in finding some great sources for backlinks, use the signup box below to get my Free Backlink Cheatsheet: