A good link profile usually makes for a good PageRank, and for a good spot in the search engine results pages for relevant searches. Link building is one of the current must-haves for an effective SEO plan. Many site owners get around the problem of finding links by simply buying them from link suppliers, and for the most part this does no real harm, as paid links does give you a boost in the search engines. When your link profile is entirely made up from paid links however, you’d better watch out.
Paid linking is a tricky area of SEO. Many search engine optimisation experts still approve of the odd paid link here and there. Others are entirely against them and would never advocate the use of paid links on the grounds that the search engines disapprove. Whether you buy some of your links or decide to go entirely natural, it’s important to be aware of what a fully-bought link profile can do to a site.
Part of the problem with paid links is that a site can largely get away with them, for a time. Many sites with entirely bought profiles survive and prosper… until the day when they don’t. Google doesn’t always immediately detect paid profiles, but when Google does become wise to a site that has done nothing more than pay for its links, the reaction from Google is very nasty. A sudden drop in rankings can be attributed to an all-paid link profile being detected, and links should be one of the areas to look at if your rankings take a dive.
A good link profile is one that contains links from high-quality, very relevant websites. It’s always a good idea to have natural links in your profile, even if you have gone down the paid link route. Do what you can to develop relationships for link building when you engage in SEO.
