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Question:
Should I buy a link on a page with a Google PageRank of 7? I have a chance to buy one for $100 / month. Do you think it would help my site enough to justify the cost? I want to be sure I'll get my money's worth.
Submitted by Alex W.
Answer:
Hi Alex. First of all, Google is strongly against the purchase of a link simply to boost PageRank. If they find out that you did, they'll penalize your site and the one that sold you the link.
It's perfectly acceptable to buy an advertising link on a high-traffic web page. A link in a good location on a page that gets a lot of traffic can bring in a lot of targeted visitors, subject to these conditions:
- The page that you purchase the link on is relevant to your site's theme. If you buy advertising for your crafts website on a very busy biker site, your link may be seen by a lot of bikers, but they're highly unlikely to click through, much less buy some of your crafts.
Of course, there will be a handful of bikers who are also interested in crafts, but overall you will have wasted your money.
- How many other links are on the page? Again, regardless of the amount of traffic a page gets, if your link is buried amongst 50 other links, the traffic that you receive from the link will most likely be paltry and no where near enough to justify the cost of the link.
- Do you get to choose your link text? If you pay good money for a link, you should be able to choose your own link text (within reason) to induce as many clicks as possible.
Many webmasters that sell links insist that the link consist of your URL or company name only. These links are virtually useless for bringing traffic to your site.
If the link meets the criteria described above, then in my opinion a link on a high-traffic page is well worth $100/month. And yes, you will indeed receive a boost in your search engine rankings from the link if the linking page is ranked higher than yours and has just a very few links on it.
But remember that the search engine ranking benefits (if any) should and must be secondary to the real purpose of buying a link: advertising on a high-traffic site in order to bring in lots of targeted traffic to your website. Purchasing PageRank is against the Google Terms of Service, so proceed in that direction at your own risk.
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