Should you still be buying backlinks?

David Reeder is the founder and Managing Director of Made Simple Media Ltd, with over fourteen years of experience in web design and development. The agency now serves clients primarily in Horsham and London.

Emily Williams is a content strategist and the CEO of Web Copy Collective. She helps business owners grow their websites and sales with psychology-backed content strategies and SEO practices.

Emily responded:

"I never recommend buying backlinks for clients. Getting hundreds of backlinks quickly is a red flag for Google, so building them up organically over time is a safer, more reliable strategy. For small businesses, journalist request sites and guest post pitching are the way to go."

David is an e-commerce marketing specialist with a resume that includes building a retail chain to 30 stores with purely organic SEO marketing to drive growth before exiting to the UK's market leader. These days David help other brands grow their revenue via non-paid online channels. He is the Co-Founder of Fortunata.

David responded:

Everyone pays for backlinks, but it just depends on how that money is spent.

While the convention is "don't buy backlinks" what we really mean is, don't buy random irrelevant links from websites you or I have never heard of, have no traffic, link out to all sorts of nefarious other sites (for money) and you'd be embarrassed to show them off.

Ultimately, if you can buy a backlink from a website, so can others. And this really plays into Google's recent spamlink algorithm updates which have got sharper at pinpointing spammy link sales practises, and not just deprecating the value of them, but even dishing out manual warnings.

We try to advise all those clients who ask - when it comes to acquiring backlinks, you want to ensure they follow some semblance of relevance to these 9 rules:

1. The website that links to you gets real and materially significant organic traffic volumes.
2. The website is relevant to your sector - If not - then at least item 3.
3. The page that links to you is relevant to your sector.
4. The page is linked to from related content within their site.
5. The page that links to you is linked and crawlable from the homepage within 3 hops.
6. The page is indexed for keywords
7. The page gets traffic (desirable)
8. The page is acquiring (or will acquire naturally) it's own backlinks.

Finally and contrary to belief
9. The link does NOT need to be do-follow.

This has been a/b tested within case studies to determine the effectiveness of no-follow links from highly authoritative sites.

So, how does someone pay for a backlink and the links be of value?

There are definitely cases of up and coming influencer bloggers in your niche who would welcome a bit of money to keep the blog running, and you can generally trust them to keep their website on track.

Sometimes it's a smart investment if they are growing their website, then you get a good backlink which turns out to be a great one. Their site grows, and so does the value of your link, but that's a rarity.

For everyone else, you invest in digital PR, outreach, great shareable social content and more. It's never free sadly.

Here's a recent guide David put together regarding backlinks on Medium.

John is the founder of Mint SEO, an SEO agency specialising in revenue-generating SEO services. Their targeted approach combined with the complimentary CRO service allows businesses to consistently and passively generate new sales.

John stated:

1. If you are an agency who buys backlinks, do you disclose this to your client?

I am against buying backlinks in general but there's 3 industries in particular where it is completely unavoidable: Casino sites, CBD, and cryptocurrency. Webmasters are hesitant to link to these type of sites because they're worried it may harm their brand image.

If we're working with a website in these niches, we're upfront during the initial consultation call where the links will be coming from and the potential risks of paying for links.

Complete transparency is the key.

2. What methods to securing organic backlinks work for you?

In my opinion, the best way to generate backlinks is with original statistics hosted on a landing pages that's optimised for journalist keywords.

It's best practice on the web to cite sources when using statistics. Hence, original research naturally acquires links without needing any form of cold outreach.

We take the time to assess who our target audience is and what issues are most important to them. We then use this to develop a hypothesis and run surveys to collect the data.

Regardless of whether the data supports or rejects our hypothesis, we've got a great narrative that explores a topic our target audience is interested in.

We type this up into a landing page on our website, leading with the key findings and stats. We then optimise this page for journalist keywords which typically contain modifiers such as: '+ stats' or '+ usage' or '+ case study'.

Google rewards high-quality, original content. So once our landing page reaches page #1, we can passively generate links from journalists or authors citing our statistics in their content.

And the kicker? This establishes your thought leadership and raises your profile with stakeholders in your target industry.

Joey Randazzo is the owner of Portland-based SEO Growth Partners, an agency with 5 full time employees and 57 ongoing SEO clients.

Buying backlinks, according to Google's documentation, is explicitly prohibited. Google says... (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)

Buying or selling links for ranking purposes. This includes:
- Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links
- Exchanging goods or services for links
- Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link

Now, here's the big question:

How does Google know which link is purchased? I personally believe they can understand if it's purchased when there are certain trends and signals from domains that can algorithmically be picked up. Sounds confusing? Let me break it down a little bit more.

Google knows the context of an outbound link. If a website links to my site, Google crawls the sentence the link is embedded within, the page the link is on, and the entirety of the domain the link is on. If that domain is blasting tons of outbound links to a wide variety of domains, Google's catching on to that.

And unfortunately, when SEO agencies "buy" links, they're usually buying links from domains like the above. Not good.

Now, if you do the following, I do NOT think that Google's algorithm will know that you're buying links and you'll reap the rewards of securing a successful backlink.

1. Build a true relationship with an industry-adjacent domain, meaning you're jumping on a call, getting to know one another, etc.
2. If it seems right, offer to pay for a link on their site WITHIN a piece of content that truly adds value to their readers

The process above is not easy. It's time-consuming and frequently leads to dead ends. However, each link using the process above is likely 100x better than a link from the traditional buying process. So getting one link per month can actually create massive SEO progress.

Because the process is so bespoke and that domain likely hasn't sent trending signals to Google that they're accepting hundreds / thousands of links in exchange for money, it's likely that Google will see that as a positive, legitimate backlink even though it was paid for.

Phil Alves is the Founder & CEO of DevSquad, specialists in software development for businesses and fouders launching innovative products.

Phil stated that:

Over the years, I’ve built my business by focusing on long-term strategies, and the same applies to SEO. I believe organic backlinks, earned through valuable content, are the only way to create sustainable growth without risking penalties.

In my opinion, buying backlinks is like playing with fire—you might see a quick spark, but it’s risky and can burn you in the long run. From my experience at DevSquad, building a solid SaaS business involves playing the long game, and the same is true for SEO. Buying backlinks may give you a temporary boost, but it often comes at the cost of credibility. Search engines are becoming smarter, and tactics that may have worked years ago are now more likely to hurt your rankings than help them.

For me, the focus should always be on creating valuable content that earns backlinks organically. When your product or service truly solves a problem and your content reflects that, people will naturally link to it. Yes, organic link building takes longer, but it leads to lasting results. The investment you make in high-quality, relevant content not only builds your brand’s authority but also pays dividends in terms of long-term SEO success.

In my view, while buying backlinks might seem like a shortcut, the risk of penalties and damage to your reputation simply isn’t worth it. In the SaaS world, trust is everything, and I’d rather earn that trust through authentic, high-quality content and meaningful partnerships.

Bogdan Krstic is the founder of Krstic SEO, an agency that focuses upon Local SEO and Affiliate SEO. 

Bogdan stated that:

I personally believe best links can't be bought - like the links I acquire through this platform - Qwoted. These are invaluable links that, besides pure SEO "juice," also give our clients more exposure and perhaps even leads, depending on the niche and the topic.

Now, having that said, buying links can be scaled; can't say that really about acquiring HARO backlinks, even though they're the best.

Additionally, most site owners, when you reach out, will mostly ask for money anyway.

I usually disclose to clients that link building is a part of our budget, but most contractors don't really care about links, nor do they know what links even are.

You have to understand your customer profile. Mine are 40+ year old tradesmen with decades of experience working in their field, who know absolutely NOTHING about internet marketing, let alone SEO.

So, I usually don't even bring it up, but they love when they get a prominent link, even if they don't know its SEO value.

Cache Merrill is the founder of Zibtek, a tech enthusiast, and a startup wizard. His journey from coding geek to acquisition pro drives Cache to help you build your dream team and bring your tech ideas to life. With him on board, the only way is up!

Cache responded that:

It is understandable that buying backlinks can make one’s hopes go sky high within a short period of time, however it is very dangerous. Google’s algorithms these days are getting more sophisticated and they easily punish people who build links unnaturally. It is a shortcut that many would like to take, but we nurture particular approaches, which do not resolve in a risk of falling the ranks on search results.

Other different ways of getting backlinks ethically and effectively other than buying backlinks:

We have had a number of wins capitalising on some of these:

Production of attractive content: Useful content like long articles, white papers and case studies not only pull in visitors but also makes our site linkable.

Establishing relationships with industry authorities through guest postings: Doing so has resulted in acquiring natural backlinks as well as establishing our credibility as technologically oriented.

Networking and PR: We try to engage industry and media contacts that promote and link to our content or audience.

Is it ethical for agencies to purchase backlinks, in that case should it be declared?

Yes. It is important to be honest with customers. If an agency buys backlinks, they must tell the costumer about both the benefits and risks. Customers should be aware that paid links may provide an overnight improvement in the SERPs but may also damage the health of the owner’s domain.

For us, organic link-building takes more time than ususal, but in the long run builds real, sustainable SEO power.

Frank Salvatore founded FlexLeads, helping local businesses to get more clients through SEO and PPC. 

Frank commented:

1) Is buying backlinks a recommended practice for SEO?

According to Google, "exchanging money for links" is considered link spam.

2) If you are an agency who buys backlinks, do you disclose this to your client?

Fortunately, my clients are all local businesses, and buying backlinks isn't necessary as it only takes a couple of high quality links for local businesses to rank well in the search engine results.

Before buying links for a client, the agency must convey that buying links is against Google guidelines could result in the client site no longer appearing in Google.

Due to the inherent and severe risks, the decision to buy links should be made by the client, and not be kept secret by the agency.

3) What methods to securing organic backlinks work for you?
Qwoted, SourceBottle and Connectively (formerly HARO) are great sources of high quality backlinks from popular websites and publications. These links aren't considered spam by Google.

Local Businesses should be very active in submitting their business information to local business directories in their area as well as relevant industry directories

All businesses should claim social media pages and profiles (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram...)

While they don't carry much weight, links from Social Media sites are free, protect your brand, and demonstrate to search engines that you're a legitimate business.

Henry Bolland provides SEO services for his clients such as George Edward Specialist Cars, PLM Events, Park Lane Memorabilia and Mill Wood Finance.

Henry stated that:

Buying backlinks has always been a strategy I try to avoid. We much prefer trying to secure genuine coverage in high-authority publications through the provision of relevant opinions, stats and quotes. 

Gary Warner is the Marketing Manager at Joloda Hydraroll, the global partner for loading and unloading systems. They operate in over 30 countries across the world and their team are experts; they’ve been loading and unloading for over 60 years.

Gary commented that:

I would say that when it comes to buying backlinks, you have to heavily caveat ‘buy’ in terms of where your budget is going.

If you’re just giving money to any blogger who offers you a backlink, then that’s absolutely something I would not recommend, especially if you don’t have a process for vetting websites based on their quality.

However, if you’re allocating budget to things like journalist requests, data studies, proper publisher/blogger outreach and create data-rich content, then you could argue you’re still ‘buying backlinks’ in that ultimately it’s the end goal of the content.

So, is it recommended? I would say yes, but you have to be careful with your approaches and understand what ‘good’ looks like based on the strategies you’re choosing.

Dawna Jarvis is a business and media strategist. 

Dawna comments that :

Instead of buying backlinks, I focus on strategies to help my clients secure organic backlinks. Some of the methods that work best for me include:

Media Coverage: I specialize in gaining media coverage for my clients, which naturally leads to high-quality backlinks from reputable news outlets and authoritative domains that Google trusts.

Content Creation: I advise my clients to create valuable, shareable content such as blog posts or by appearing as a guest on podcasts—content that people naturally want to link to.

Guest Posting: Contributing to high-authority websites as a guest writer helps build brand authority while earning relevant backlinks.

These methods allow us to build credibility and secure organic backlinks that enhance search rankings without risking penalties from Google.

Chris is a proven freelance Google Ads and SEO Specialist at Visionary Marketing, with experience managing ad budgets for a wide range of businesses, from £500 to £150k a month.

Chris commented that:

I previously worked at agencies which refused to do so, and after the first few months we would always achieve mediocre results.

Unless you have the budget for digital PR, this is 100% a necessity, and since I began buying links as a freelancer the results I have gotten for my clients, despite doing nothing else differently have been staggering.

And they just keep going up!

Ross Kernez is the CEO of SEO Meetup, a well-regarded marketing conference that gathers industry leaders, marketers, and professionals to explore the latest strategies in digital marketing. In addition to his role as the Director of Search Marketing at Mavis, the largest online tire eCommerce and retail store in the U.S., Ross oversees all search initiatives, driving growth and optimizing online visibility.

Ross comments that:

In highly competitive verticals, buying backlinks is almost unavoidable. Organic backlinks may not come as naturally, so this method helps you avoid falling behind competitors. It is important to focus on the quality of the links over the quantity.

Micah Albert is a seasoned digital marketing expert with over 15 years of experience, specializing in SEO and data-driven growth strategies. His website can be found here. Throughout his career, Micah has been at the forefront of integrating SEO into broader digital marketing initiatives for leading enterprise brands (SMB to Fortune 50). His expertise is creating and executing sophisticated SEO strategies that drive organic traffic growth and maximize profitability across various marketing channels.

Micah comments that:

#1: buying back links today is basically just buying media placement and PR with a layer of SEO that helps build authority. I don’t think we have to look at it as buying spam back links anymore. Any good SEO spends their time on quality placement so I don’t even think we have to refer to it as buying links. It’s just SEO / PR these days.

#2: there’s a few different options and it’s similar to the same options that digital marketers use for media placement. I would say there’s a strong competitive edge in having an SEO consultant help with this work because we have tools that quickly evaluate authority across websites and can sift through junk sites that claim or offer media exposure. Skilled SEO’s want placement on high authoritative website websites, and can assess quickly if sites possess this or not. That matters because the link featured on the sites is much more beneficial if the site is of high-quality. That holds true even if the link is “nofollow”. Although the page does need to be indexed and crawlable.

I’ve been an SEO consultant for 15 years. I work across enterprise brands, and in the last few years The the way that people talk and engage around “backlinks” has seem to change. During my years at Bruce Clay We actually did penalty assessments for back linking where clients were manually and algorithmically penalized for spammy backlinks. But there was a big change when Google released an algorithm they called “penguin 4.0”. Fortunately, I no longer had to worry about clients algorithmically penalized. Manual penalties remain, but we’re fare and few.

Today “toxic links” is quite a buzz word. That said most expert SEO professionals don’t waste much time using Google’s disavow tool in order to remnify things. That said, SEO PR has become another buzz word that seem to have taken off in the last year or so and like before it’s focused around links, but authoritative links that are high-quality and from media placement opportunities that drive traffic. I think that’s the big trend today is that obtaining links is socially acceptable from authoritative sites when the intention is to gain not just backing but mentions and authoritative signals that can result in traffic and SEO as well as media visibility.

Tammy studied marketing at Harvard, and now runs a $6.7M revenue business a year at the TN Nursery.

Tammy commented:

It is not mandatory to buy backlinks. Most backlinks are pure trash for link sites (PBN) or people throwing a lot of spammy content on a site to get a decent domain authority to sell links. Good content rules and reigns on Google!

No one who gets paid for SEO would ever disclose that they are not manually doing the "work" for needed backlinks, and most business owners don't know how to do proper link research to tell a good link from a bad link. Sad but true.

I would love to touch base on what you need to do to gain quality backlinks-
write compelling content - content is STILL KING:
How To's, Money, and time-saving techniques are all good and relevant and still work. Segment your audience out to your niche and professionally write the content, and the quality links will flow-

Securing organic backlinks is like what I am doing here. Offer elite, well-educated knowledge to journalists or researchers who know what you're talking about, and they will come.

Do your "due diligence" If you do buy links use the following steps:
1. Check the traffic source - opt for US traffic sites with low spam scores.
2. Don't bother with high OBL sites (tons of links sold will show this is a PBN link farm site). Choose low OBL sites and cold-call or email them to ask if they'd be interested in accepting a guest post in the niche you're a pro in.
3. Opt for niche sites and ensure they are quality sites. Check contact info, make sure the site is not a redirect site forward, and age in golden in the eye of Google. You can find tools to check a site's authority (DA, PA, UR, and Age plus backlink profiles, traffic, and more). I like ahrefs.com best, but Moz Pro, Screaming Frog, and SEM Rush are the top ones.
4. Stay clear from sites that sell guest posts. Nine times out of ten, they are PBN trash, and even though they may have what looks like a powerful DA, the PA and UR are most important for quality sites. Learn what this means and save yourself tons of time and money.

Brandon Hartman is an experienced retail professional and e-commerce entrepreneur, renowned as the founder of BeyWarehouse. BeyWarehouse is your go-to destination for Beyblade enthusiasts, offering a premier collection of Takara Tomy Beyblade Metal Fusion, Beyblade Burst, stadiums, and launchers.

Brandon provided the following comments:

Buying links never sat right with us, even back in the day when the practice was more widespread and somewhat normalized. I don't think it's a necessary evil. Just because everyone seems to be doing it doesn't mean you should. I think it even does more harm to a site if all its inbound links are sourced from blackhat strategies like this. I believe we have been vindicated over the years as Google's HUC updates started to reward more organic links as opposed to ones that are dubiously placed. Organic media outreach had always been the best thing that worked for us, and it will likely continue to do so in the foreseeable future.

Vukasin is a hard working, honest, and creative SEO & marketing strategist driven by curiosity, ambition and desire to do high-quality work. He is the co-founder of Linkter.

He provided the following comments:

As an SEO consultant with more than a decade of experience, I can safely say this continues to be one of the most controversial topics in SEO, year after year.

Outright, I'll just say I am not against buying backlinks. I don't see buying backlinks as anything different than buying advertising placement on a website.

If that is not prohibited, then I have no reason to believe that buying and selling backlinks should be and Google has no place in telling us what we do on our own digital properties.

That being said, acquiring backlinks is like any other transaction in life (I am saying acquiring on purpose here). You can always offer directly to pay for a placement or find another way to "earn" or acquire that backlink, but there has to be some form of value exchange.

Rarely anybody just gives out backlinks these days - and why would they? There has to be something in it for each party.

A lot of people resort to direct monetary exchange - but how is that any different than offering free access to a tool in exchange for a backlink, for example? (which is what so many people do these days)

They all include some form of value exchange and that's absolutely necessary.

Now, as a person who builds links all the time - you have to be super careful about where you are placing links to your website. Is the other side happy to be giving out placements to everyone? Is your backlink going to be in a bad neighborhood? What about all the other important factors? Think twice before securing any placement, no matter the method you've used to do it.

There's a lot of nuance here, but I am happy to outright pay for a placement or offer some sort of incentive and value to the other side to secure a quality backlink and I find that to be perfectly fine.

- If you are an agency who buys backlinks, do you disclose this to your client?

Absolutely, always be upfront about this stuff. I found that most clients don't give a damn, and only care about the quality of the backlinks, and not how they ended up being acquired. Results are the only thing that matters.

- What methods to securing organic backlinks work for you?

Digital PR, partnerships, newsjacking, building digital assets that work as link magnets (free tools for example), stats page link building. These are just a few.

Farhan is the CEO of OSHA Outreach Courses.

He provided the following comments:

I believe that buying backlinks is a necessary evil for new businesses. Since backlinks still play a significant role in how websites rank on search engines, they can give new sites the initial boost needed to compete in a crowded market.

There's simply no way around this if you have just developed your website. New websites don't attract organic backlinks because they don't make it to the first pages of the search results. Similarly, you can't get links for them through outreach campaigns because numerous platforms are hesitant to link to newer websites. This creates a paradox of sorts, and the only escape is through paid backlinks.

However, once your website reaches a point where it is ranking on pages and attracting organic backlinks, you should cut back on purchasing links. Instead, you should go for crafting highly-valuable content that will get organic backlinks and reach out to other websites for guest posts.

Nikola is an SEO and digital marketing expert and the founder of InBound Blogging—a company offering actionable advice on how to improve website visibility and earn income from blogging.

Nikola commented that:

One of the main things you should avoid is being penalized by Google. With that being said, I want to suggest that there isn't a definite “yes” or “no” answer to this question.

There are industries like gambling, insurance, and finance where buying backlinks is inevitable.
Paid links are typically from low domain rating sources; they are easily detected by a webmaster and can have an overall negative impact on your site’s reputation.

On the other hand, there are instances where you can buy links, as long as they provide value to the user. In the SEO realm, links have become a commodity. Site owners have realized how valuable they are. With over 74% of link builders buying backlinks, it is clear that this practice, however risky it may be, has its benefits. I think this tendency will persist for as long as the quantity and quality of backlinks remain significant ranking factors.

Ben is the CEO and Founder of SEO HERO LTD.

He provided the following comments:

As an SEO expert with 20 years of experience, I would strongly advise against buying backlinks as a core strategy. While it may seem like a quick fix, buying backlinks comes with significant risks. Google’s algorithm is continually evolving to detect and penalize websites that engage in manipulative backlink schemes, which can severely damage a site's ranking and credibility in the long term. Buying backlinks is a shortcut that often backfires. Instead, focusing on acquiring organic, high-quality links should always be the priority.

If you are an agency who buys backlinks, do you disclose this to your client?

In the rare case that an agency chooses to buy backlinks, transparency with the client is critical. If this is not disclosed, it damages trust and exposes clients to potential penalties from search engines without them fully understanding the risks.

What methods to securing organic backlinks work for you?

The most effective methods to secure organic backlinks involve producing valuable, shareable content that naturally attracts links.

Here are some strategies we use,

- Content marketing

Creating high-quality, insightful content such as blog posts, case studies, and infographics that industry influencers want to link to.

- Guest posting

Contributing valuable articles to authoritative websites in exchange for a link back to our own site.

- Outreach

Building relationships with industry websites, blogs, and journalists who are more likely to link to well-researched and relevant content.

- PR

Collaborating with public relations teams to gain media coverage that often results in high-quality backlinks from reputable publications.

- Broken link building

Identifying broken links on reputable websites and offering a replacement link to our relevant content.

Seth, President of Brandstar Digital and was a former Co-Founder and CEO of Wizard Digital Marketing, and the founder and former CEO of Rand Marketing. While Seth was CEO, Rand Marketing was named a Premier Google Partner and added to the Inc. 5000 list for growth as a privately-owned company. Seth was also named 40 Under 40 by South Florida Business Journal in 2016.

He commented that:

We do not advocate for buying backlinks as part of our SEO strategy. While some may see it as a shortcut to improving search rankings, it often comes with significant risks.

What Works for Us:

1. High-Quality Content Creation: Our primary strategy for securing organic backlinks revolves around creating valuable, high-quality content. This includes publishing in-depth blogs, articles, case studies, and research that provide actionable insights to the target audience. When content is well-researched and genuinely helpful, it naturally attracts links from reputable websites within the industry.

2. Event-Based Brand Promotion: Another effective method we use is driving brand promotion through events, whether it’s webinars, conferences, or product launches. Promoting these events like on social media or even press release often leads to coverage from industry news outlets and blogs, resulting in backlinks from reputable sources.

3. Leveraging Platforms like Qwoted: We also utilize services like Qwoted to connect with journalists and other professionals. This helps us secure media placements and backlinks from high-quality sources.

By focusing on these organic strategies, we’ve been able to build a strong backlink profile for our clients, which not only boosts search rankings but also contributes to brand trust and authority.

SEO Expert | Podcast Host | Fashion Blogger. Featured in Hubspot, Medium, Authoritas, Fiverr, and more, Celeste offers insights on the latest trends in digital marketing, communication techniques, and feminine fashion.

Celeste provided the following comments:

I’ve built backlinks for both my own site and for clients, and I’ll be honest—buying backlinks is tempting, especially in competitive industries. But in my experience, it’s a risky move. If Google catches on, you’re looking at penalties or wasted money. Still, I get why some SEOs do it—it’s quick and easy, especially when many sites demand payment for links, regardless of how good your content is.

If you do decide to “pay to play,” avoid the usual traps like Private blog networks PBNs and unnatural anchor text. These shortcuts will have you flagged by Google in no time.

For a more sustainable approach, create link bait content that naturally attracts backlinks. For example, one of my clients in a competitive B2B space didn’t need to rely on paid links. Instead, we created a killer piece of content—up-to-date industry market share statistics paired with a highly shareable infographic. The result? Tons of organic backlinks because it was valuable, data-driven, and easy to share. It wasn’t an overnight fix, but it worked, and we stayed clear of any risky tactics.