Is renting links a good idea?

[barryhynd]

I've been having some discussions with an internet marketing company over the past few weeks regarding a linkbuilding campaign. I asked them to quantify the number of think they felt they could acheive in a twelve month period which they did but part of the proposal indicated the links were rented.

Is it just me or is this a bit of a nonsense? You aren't actually building anything here as as soon as you stop paying them I would assume the links would disappear? Is buying links a good idea and shousld it be part of your link building strategy? How do you find the sites that rent links?

[Power Lunch Club]

What is a link building campaign? And how does it work?

Gordon
PLC

[Gordon N]

Link building is a major element of Search Engine Optimisation. It is a means of increasing 'pagerank' but only if done correctly, and using effective and relevant sites.

Basically, if you manage to get a link on a site with a greater pagerank than the page on your site that it links to then some of their rank rubs off on you! There are certain points that should be noted about link building...

1] Don't add too many too quickly, search engines see it as spam!

2] Be selective in what sites you link from.

3] Where possible place a keyword rich 'deep' link to a page within your site rather than the homepage itself.

4] Keep track of what links you have placed where, and maintain them (if for example you alter your site, don't leave a dead link on the linking site!)

Over time I have gathered various hints and tips for link building, and I am in the middle of implementing my own campaign. Link renting does exist, but in my opinion unless the price is right, the site has a good pagerank and their content is relevant to your site - I am not a big fan.

There are some paid directory listing that would be worth a look if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket - Yahoo! ($299/year with a PR8), Best of the Web ($200 with a PR7) and a more affordable Clush ($20/year and a PR7).

This is a service that I offer as part of my web marketing services, (what a perfect example of a deep link that didn't cost me the earth!)

Regards,

Gordon

[barryhynd]

Originally Posted by moraywebsolutions

Over time I have gathered various hints and tips for link building, and I am in the middle of implementing my own campaign. Link renting does exist, but in my opinion unless the price is right, the site has a good pagerank and their content is relevant to your site - I am not a big fan.

There are some paid directory listing that would be worth a look if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket - Yahoo! ($299/year with a PR8), Best of the Web ($200 with a PR7) and a more affordable Clush ($20/year and a PR7).

Help me understand the above. If buying links is a bad idea then why is it a good idea to pay for entry into directories? Are they not the same thing? I would have thought a well anchored link from a relevant (whether it's rented or not) would outweigh a directory listing. I dont understand why these directories carry the weight they do due to them being human edited, there's a flaw in the system being the people who somehow manage to make a decison as to what goes in and what doesn't.

[Gordon N]

Originally Posted by barryhynd

I dont understand why these directories carry the weight they do due to them being human edited, there's a flaw in the system being the people who somehow manage to make a decison as to what goes in and what doesn't.

My understanding is that they carry the extra weight partly due to the fact that they *are* human edited. This in Googles eyes means that the content is managed and relevant to the page topic (ie not an automated free for all anything goes type page). An added extra is that due to them being a manged resource there are less broken links on the page, which believe it or not can actually have an effect on not only the directory page but any site linked from it! Some paid sites (other than directories) also rank quite high as they are 'nearly' free of spam entries, if you are paying for a link you are only likely to do so on a page relevant to your own site/content matter - otherwise whats the point?

I must stress though these are only my opinions, and will vary widely amongst different designers and consultants. This is a subject with a secret book of rules that only the search engine big boys know!

Gordon

[ScottJ]

Buying links is like doing 90 on a motorway in your car to get to a very important meeting.

If you don't do it you see everyone else speeding past you to get there and make money and you may lose out and feel frustrated at others success.

If you do it, you can get there quicker and make money, however if you get caught by the Google police for speeding you will never make your meeting, never mind being a bit slow/late you'll regret it and saying everyone else does it is no excuse.

So as long as you have a snooper and are careful its fine but it can go horribly wrong.

[alanbold]

Too much emphasis is being put on renting or buying links in my opinion, yes links are important but content is king, especially new, relevant content. If people spend time adding new, relevant, good content then this will attract inward links, as will both online and offline marketing of your site/business.

[Brian McIntosh]

How easy is it to add new content though? In businesses that have a dedicated webmaster that should be quite easy but for the one man band, and I include myself in this, it's a lot more difficult because of the hundred other things that have got to be done during the day.

[TomB]

I suppose the way to look at it thought is that the website is your brochure for sales so you have to make time to add content.

My portofolio always suffers when I am busy but I need to update it as as i do new pieces of work i need to put them in to advertise how wonderful i am

But i agree with Alan, i don't like this whole buying and renting links thing. If people like your site they will link to it, stumbleapon it, put in in blog posts, link to it in forum signatures etc.

And why do they like it, because you have great content, and you have great content cause you make time to do it

if only it was that easy

[ScottJ]

It is simply not enough to have good content, it's business and you have to market yourself aggressively,

Looking at the top 10 searches for things like loans, furniture, credit, bingo - these sites do not spend all day building good content, they spend large amounts of money on marketing to specifically generate links/interest.

Build it and they will not come, Content is not king.........
(correct at time of going to press, subject to change )