Gone are the days when you can buy links and expect them to generate lasting search engine optimization (SEO) value. Google is too good at spotting unnatural link patterns, and frankly, most paid links are so lazy and obvious that they’re not hard to spot. For link acquisition, focus on strategies that generate lasting profit.
Do links matter?
Yes, links matter, but not as much as they used to. In 1998, when Google launched, they raced to the front of the search engine pack on the back of PageRank, a ranking system that determines the value of a page based on citation analysis. In essence, the more high-quality links pointing to your pages, the better chance those pages have of ranking.
Yes, links still help search engines discover new sites and new content, and PageRank is still an active part of Google’s ranking systems. But links aren’t the number one ranking signal they used to be, in part because they’re so easy to spam.
What is link spam?
Since links originally influenced organic search rankings, they became a commodity to be bought and sold. This worked for years, but has been of diminishing value since the days of Penguin updates starting in 2012.
Today, Google calls buying links a practice they consider spam, algorithmically detects paid links using artificial intelligence (AI), and devalues the paid links they detect. For example, Google’s guidelines indicate that buying or selling links for ranking purposes is considered spam, such as:
Exchanging money for links or posts containing links Exchanging goods or services for links Sending a product to someone in exchange for writing about it and including a link
How does Google detect link spam?
Google has long said that buying links produces unnatural-looking patterns among linking sites. These patterns are easy to identify and the links that make up the unnatural patterns are easy to devalue.
Since 2018, Google has a comprehensive classification system called SpamBrain, an AI-based spam prevention system. Not much is known about SpamBrain. Google mentions it every year in its annual reports on how much spam the search engine has detected and invalidated in the past year.
For example, in April 2023, Google announced that SpamBrain had “detected 50 times more link spam sites compared to the previous link spam update.”
This is in addition to regular link spam algorithm updates that Google releases specifically to improve its link spam detection and cancellation processes. The last of these was in December 2022, although there was a general spam update in October 2023 that also included language about link spam.
What happens when you buy links?
Well, not much, actually. Back in the old days of Penguin updates, link spam was actively punished with demotion. These days, Google just quietly removes the power of paid links in a process it calls link devaluation. Essentially, the value that the link provides is just removed, algorithmically, leaving the site with fewer valuable links to benefit its ranking ability. There is no warning when this happens, the value is just gone.
Basically, you pay for something and feel good about doing something for your SEO program, but it has zero value. Yes, buying links is easy to do and easy to track. But that paper value doesn’t translate into long-term benefits in the real world of rankings.
Buying links is a waste of resources that could be better spent on other SEO strategies, ones that actually improve your site for visitors as well as your organic search.
These days, Google reps often discourage link building, saying things like:
“Of course most of these links do nothing, we’ve spent many years ignoring this sort of thing.” John Mueller, Google Search Advocate April 10, 2023 “There are more important things to websites today, and focusing too much on links will often waste your time doing things that don’t make the make your website better overall.” Mueller, April 1, 2024 “We need very few links to rank pages… We’ve made links less important over the years.” Gary Illyes, Google Analyst, April 19, 2024
What to do instead of buying links
The money spent on buying links can be used in many more effective ways to improve your site for both SEO and visitors to your site.
Today, Google places an extremely high value on useful content written for people. This great content doesn’t just fall from a tree – the internet is full of nasty, poorly written content. It takes time and resources to create great, useful, people-centric content, and dollars previously spent on link building are better spent that way.
Great content is good for the contextual relevance of the page it’s on, but it’s also, as a whole, a marker of the quality and relevance of the entire site. It can also act as a way to get links naturally – people love to share content that speaks strongly to them. These actions can take the form of mentions or links to sites, which convey value to your site. These free editorial links are worth their weight in gold.
If you’re determined to pay for link value, digital PR is another great avenue to explore. It’s basically like regular PR where people working in digital PR agencies have contacts and connections with people in the media. But they combine this PR experience with content creation skills, allowing them to create content to pitch to their media partners to acquire mentions and links. Either way, the content creation aspect of SEO cannot be avoided these days.
Take a look at your SEO practices around link building. Consider the dollars you are spending and what it means to generate zero return on investment for those dollars. Ethical link acquisition based on content creation is the only way to go in 2024.
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