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I have an engraving site where I am looking to increase traffic/ sales. We do local engraving services and sell engraved products via eCommerce.  Perfectindesign.com It seems to me that locally I can't compete since most search terms are washed over with every local directory in and around the city that are selling there memberships. So I thought I could compete nationally via the 200 products we carry. I have used site explorer to go through my competitors links.  My findings show that other then their twitter accounts and dmoz listing most everything else are paid links and lots of them. Keeping in mind I have 45 root domains with 411 links to my site. Three competitors links data.  I probably shouldn't name them right? competitor #1 1k root with 13.9k links competitor # 2 147 root with 16k links competitor # 3 427 root with 28k Should I just start buying these links that range from $10-50 per link or is this a waste of time? Are these truly my competitors or am I comparing my tiny site to the major leagues?