Any website owner who has been around for a while will be familiar with the concept of backlinking. This is the practice of one website linking to a page on another website so the latter can get more traffic and better search engine rankings. This is usually a one-way hyperlink, though eventually, it leads to a more collaborative partnership of giving peers within the niche a boost when they need it.
However, we must add that building organic backlinks is not an easy task, though it is a method that is actively encouraged by search engines. Thankfully, you can also buy blackhat backlinks. In the following sections, we will break down what that means and what you should know if you are buying backlinks.
What Does Blackhat Mean?
Black hat refers to a type of hacker in coding speak. On a spectrum consisting of black, white and grey, hackers are categorized according to the degree of illicitness of their hacking activities.
While that sounds dangerous, we must clarify that ‘blackhat’ does not necessarily have to mean one is hacking into a banking system to steal money or something similarly sinister. Black hat, especially when it comes to backlinks, means that one is using a loophole to rig the system and boost search engine rankings.
Having said that, while blackhat backlinking may not be as grave as bank robbery, it is certainly a practice that is against the rules, though not illegal.
Buying Blackhat Backlinks
We understand that at times one must resort to buying backlinks because organic backlink building may take a lot of time and energy—two types of currencies that are crucial when you are trying to make a business work.
Buying blackhat backlinks can be a quicker way to get to your goal or it may simply provide you with some more time to build organic backlinks. The following are a few things to keep in mind:
Vet the Site
If you decide to buy blackhat backlinks, it is important to vet the site you are paying for links. Run a thorough background check to see if the site has any past penalties or any suspicious track record. Ensure the site is an authority voice in your niche.
Start Slow
Do not pay for links in bulk. If you have a large yield of low-quality links, that is fodder for search engines to derank you. Try not to have more than 10-25 percent paid links in your link profile.
Avoid Link Farms
Work with a reliable service to buy high-quality links. Do not trust link farms as they will only generate links in bulk but will not get you a good search engine rank because the bulk link activity will be considered suspicious.
Wrapping Up
Building organic backlinks takes up a lot of time. It means sending pitches to authority websites in your niche and asking them to link to your website. Sometimes that pitch may work, but more often than not the results are not immediate.
There are a few disappointments before you have an active link profile. If buying backlinks can give you some extra time to work on your organic link profile, there is no harm in using that opportunity responsibly.