How to Buy Links for SEO and Not Get Caught!

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By Shalom Issenberg | February 18, 2008

So buying links is illegal and punishable by death via the mighty Google sword! In actuality buying links is OK as long as you don’t get caught.

Let me start by stating some obvious ways of getting caught.

Buying links on DP and similar forums, especially when the domain selling links is openly referenced.
Buying site wide links on a splog network or link-farm with identical IPs or other connecting footprints (whois, template, interlinking, etc.).
Buying links with placement on a page labelled as “sponsored links”.
Buying links among other sold links that are not relevant.
Buying links on a page that also links to the “Link Seller”; Like many of the publishers using Text Link Ads placing their TLA affiliate link on the same page. DAH!
Plus many other obvious mistakes that are too basic for me to even imagine.

So how do you buy links without getting caught?

Don’t do any of the above!
Vary your anchor text. Mix it up with a blend of generic anchor text like “click here” and variations of your targeted keywords.
Always buy links on relevant pages that link out to other relevant links.
Check out the linking practices of the other link buyers on your prospective page. Make sure they are not doing things that might get a human editor to audit their links.
Get links embedded in actual page content and link out to authority sites in the same space.
When in doubt, hire the people who know how to do it effectively. Don’t use “directory submission monkeys” and other “spammy” linkers. Pay for a real brokering service that will cherry pick and broker links manually. Prices for a good link broker can be scary. Services like SeoLinkIn or Jim Boykin’s ninja team will cost about $250-$300/hr. on top of the actual link rentals. Obviously this might be worth it for some and not for others.