Link Brokers Yes or No?

[wearehappymedia]

We have a client who has asked us to talk to link brokers to speed up the back linking process. Although I've been aware of them for ages I have never openly discussed the possible use of 'buying' links or engaging in that part of the industry. Do they have a place in SEO and if so what is the MOZ communities thoughts?

[BradsDeals]

My response is a big fat NOPE.

If the client isn't happy with the speed of back linking, then it's time for an education session in which you stand up as the expert they hired you to be and explain exactly why it's a bad, bad idea.

• Brokered links are often not contextual, which means they're not actually all that helpful.
• They tend to come from low quality sites, which means they're not actually all that helpful.

And that's just if you don't get caught. Getting away with black hat tactics is an intense, highly skilled, full-time endeavor. It's not a quick and easy way to anything. So even if you are willing to go there, given your inexperience with shady link building tactics, it's still a wretchedly bad idea since you've got no idea how to not get caught.

Best thing to do is to build a content and outreach campaign that builds links in an above-board manner that no one can take issue with. Believe it or not, that's actually probably easier than anything that link buying would steer you into.

[TomRayner]

John makes some good points.

It's worth communicating those risks to your client and make them fully aware of what such activity could end up doing to your site.

Now, occasionally, you might get a client who is happy to run the risk - they're happy to try and test and live with the consequences.  While I would usually steer them to try other avenues first, it could be that they're looking to run a test with a disposable domain.  So something like a link broker could come into play.

But then why would you want to use a link broker?  If they're publicly selling links left right and centre, how good are the links going to be? What controls do you have in place? What other sites are on there? What if the broker takes the money and runs?

So in that case, you not only have the penalty looming large over the website, but also the fact that you could literally be throwing money away.

Sometimes trying new tactics can be rewarding - but link brokers? Cons always outweigh the pros, in my opinion.

[ClaytonJ]

The below link is from google direct. Buying backlinks is an unacceptable practice.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en

The community view would be not to do it.

There are so many ways to get links with a little bit of effort, it is far smarter to head down that path. Plus and most importantly it lets you sleep at night. If you go down the dark side of a PBN etc. it will only be a timing issue until your site is penalized. Google is undertaking manual penalties it is doing whatever it can to thwart the practice. Some SEO companies will tell you they "outsmarted google"... 10,000 stamford graduates -v- a guy why just left his job as a security guard... I know who I would back.

Hope that assists...