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Buying Links:
Good Search Engine Optimization,
or A Bad Idea?

There's buzz in ecommerce, webmaster and search engine optimization circles about link buying. Why? It seems to help with page rank and getting a good position in search results.

If you're busy managing your online business or Web site and don't know much about search engines, page rank or optimizing, click here to get a little background.

Otherwise, let's talk about paid links...

There are some good search engine optimization strategies that use paid linking and others that are sure to take your money and bring you grief. If you're thinking about paying for links, find out which one you're getting involved in.

One version offers an updated version of the link farms of the past, these are sites that exist only for search engine optimization purposes - to get a high page rank to sell links to sites that want to pump up their PR. Eventually, they'll get identified and lose their PR for using spam techniques. You'll have a link not worth anything, but that's the risk you took when you paid your money.

There are other sites that are really good sites, but the owner's decide to go ahead and make some money after years of effort... and who can blame them? They'll sell a link from their site to anyone, if the price is right. The links may not be relevant to their topic, but some of the more unscrupulous search engine optimizers, or those who don't know any better, won't care. Eventually, Google will notice that the links on the site don't make sense with the content, sound the spam alarm and there goes that hard earned PR and the benefit of the link that you've already paid for.

Then there are paid links that are not spam. People have been paying for links for years. This is called advertising. You contact a site that gets a lot of traffic and covers a topic relevant to your site. A link from their site to yours makes sense from a business stand point and it also adds good information for the users. They don't want a link back from your site, but they will let you add an advertisement to their page. You pay your money and get your link which results in an increase in traffic - because the sites have a common topic - and if you've done your job right you'll see an increase in sales and profits. Good search engine optimization and a good ad campaign!

So the bottom line for you is that buying links makes good sense... if the links are on a relevant site that will add visitors who will be potential customers. Paying for anything else is not search engine optimization... it is letting yourself get scammed. Your choice, you decide.