How to Choose The Best Paid Links

The first thing I should point out in this post, is that buying links for SEO purposes is against Google’s web master guidelines and so if you do decide to buy links for this purpose there is a risk involved. Google is not against buying links to generate traffic but recommends that paid links should have a “nofollow” tag on them to prevent search engines following the link and Page Rank being transferred. If you would like to look at whether buying links works or not, please read the post entitled “Buying links for SEO does it work?”
Right now to the business of how to chose a good link to buy.

Factors that determine what makes a good paid link:

1) The ranking of the site –not just in Google
When buying a link you need to assess the overall reputation of the site. Previously, Page Rank was a fairly good way of determining this. It is however my belief that Google places less importance on Page Rank now than it did previously, and that the visible Page Rank you see on your screen can often be a long way off the Page Rank Google actually has for the website. I would still take into account Page Rank but consider it as one of several factors. I would also look at the sites back links in Yahoo, check the sites Alexa ranking and see if the site is in the Yahoo and Open Source directories. If you use Firefox and buying links is going to be a regular occurrence, you should consider installing SEO for Firefox, which will help you see these statistics far quicker. Please be warned though, that this tool does slow Firefox down. For thorough instructions on how to assess the SEO welfare of a site visit the post entitled “How to check a web sites offsite SEO health”.

2) The relevance of the site
The relevance of the web site you are linking from makes a big difference as to whether or not you should buy a link from that site. The days when a link from a completely irrelevant site with a high Page Rank would shoot you up the rankings on your key words appear to be long gone. Look for sites that have a similar theme or topic to yours and that share some keywords. Try to remember that page links should bring your site traffic as well as just extra search engine juice. Traffic from paid links is no longer a bonus; it is a must as explained in point number 5.

3) The quality of the web site
Links from good quality web sites will be far more useful to you than poor quality ones. You should check to see that the web site has plenty of text on it that is original to that web site, that the text is of a good standard and that the site is regularly updated. You can check for duplicate content using this tool http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php.

4) The positioning of the link on the page
A links position on the page will affect the usefulness of that link to your web site not only in terms of traffic but also in terms of the search engines. The ideal position for your link is the middle of the page amongst the main content and surrounded by different content on each page that the link appears on. It is rarely practical to be able to buy links like this (which is why they are so valued). Other good positions for links are at the top of the page and on the side above the fold. It has often been suggested that the perceived position of a link, from a search engine’s point of view, can be manipulated using CSS. I personally believe that Google has now developed ways of reading CSS styles to an extent, but I can’t prove this. The fact of the matter is you would be hard pressed to find a Webmaster who will sell you a link on a decent web site and alter his style sheet for you, so the Google reading CSS debate becomes rather a mute point. If however you’re interested in the Google CSS debate check out http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002788.html.

5) Will the link be useful to people
I guess you may be thinking “Does this really matter if I only want the site for SEO?” The answer to this is yes it matters and it matters a lot, link popularity now seems to be having a bigger than ever effect on Google search rankings so having a link that is actually useful to people will not only bring you relevant traffic but will also boost your search engine rankings.

6) Can a search engine follow the link?
Obvious I know, but you would be amazed how many people overlook this when they buy links. You can guard against this by making it clear from the start when you buy the link that it must be crawlable by a search engine spider. Common problems include “nofollow” tags on links and links going to your site via a redirect page.

Hopefully you have found this article useful. If you would like to read more about buying links, check out “Buying links, what if?”
And “Buying links for SEO does it work?” . As always comments and questions are very welcome.