Should you Buy Links?

It is a common practice to buy links. It is possible to make your site look a bit better to SEs by making it appear that you have quality links in. But is it a good idea?

My philosophy is that if you plan on being in business or having you site for a while it is best to not do something in the short term that may damage you in the long term. Since Google is considering putting a hammer down on link buyers and link spammers, you may want to think twice about purchasing links. See SEO: To Buy Links, or Not to Buy Links?

Matt Cutt even tells you how to report spam or paid links in his blog entry "how to report paid links."

It maybe a better idea to begin a link campaign with your associates, clients, fellow webmasters and so on and get real links in. And links in do matter-----very much so. If you feel like you have been doing everything right, like having good content and you covered the basics and did your keyword research and are still not climbing up the rank ladder it may very well be because you need more quality links in to your site. Last question to ask yourself is if you have done everything but nobody seems to want to link to your site, than maybe your site is not as cool as you thought it was and it is time to revamp.

If you would like to read a bit about the other side of the coin see 7 Reasons Google's Paid Link Snitch Plan Sucks.

Photo "borrowed" from webpronews.com.