Survey result: Do you buy backlinks for your projects and/or clients?

Whether buying backlinks is now practiced by most SEOs or is just a marginal phenomenon is what I wanted to find out with the following survey.

The survey wasn't immediately over with a “yes” or “no”; instead, each camp was asked further questions in order to give a detailed overview of this topic.

Survey result: A brief overview of the results of the survey on the topic of buying backlinks.

• 37.40% of respondents actively buy backlinks for themselves or their clients.
• 62.60% of participants don't buy backlinks, but build links through other means.
• A total of 131 people took part in the survey.
• The survey was posted in various SEO groups on Facebook (thanks again to all admins for the permission) and announced via our newsletter.

Detailed analysis of the results

Contents

• Detailed analysis of the results
• ➤ The camp of the YES-sayers
• ➤ The camp of the NO-sayers
• Conclusion

Each camp of link buyers or non-link-buyers received further questions and answered as follows:

➤ The camp of the YES-sayers

Question: Why do you buy links? (Multiple choice possible)

• 88.89% – In my view, backlinks are still an important part of my SEO strategy for pushing websites forward on Google and Co.
• 24.44% – I otherwise don't know how to quickly get high-quality backlinks.
• 44.44% – Buying links works better for me than any other white hat / linkbait strategy.
• 22.22% – My clients regularly want a fixed number of good backlinks, so I'm forced to buy them.
• 11.11% – If I don't buy backlinks, my websites don't rank at all.

What's interesting about this question is the answer that over 40% stated that buying links is the best link-building strategy for them. Conversely, this means that this group otherwise doesn't know at all how to get high-quality links.

Question: Where do you buy links? (Multiple choice possible)

• 64.29% – From intermediaries and service providers (agencies).
• 52.38% – I ask about options in forums and Facebook groups.
• 57.14% – I contact the webmasters of sites I really like myself and ask about buying a link.
• 4.76% – On platforms like eBay, Fiverr, etc.
• 28.57% – I use link-buying portals to get backlinks.

It's worth mentioning here that two people actually stated that they buy cheap links via Fiverr and Co. 28.57% stated that they get links via link-buying portals, which I likewise classify as very dangerous, since Google likes to expose such networks. Folks: please keep your hands off cheap links from Fiverr and such networks/portals.

Question: Have you always bought backlinks?

• 73.81% – I bought links in the past and still do it now.
• 26.19% – I never bought links in the past, but I do now, since I otherwise can't get high-quality links.

Question: How much do you pay per link on average

• 23.81% – Less than €100 per link
• 38.10% – €100–200
• 23.81% – €201–500
• 14.29% – €501–1,000
• 0.00% – €1,001–2,000
• 0.00% – €2,001–4,000
• 0.00% – More than €4,000 per link

23.81% of respondents stated that they spend less than €100 per link on average. The less a link is worth, the higher the risk usually is of buying junk in the form of spam links. A large portion of participants spend €100–200 per link, which is also already very little. Nobody spends more than €1,000 per backlink on average.

Question: Which metrics do you use for link evaluation / link audit (multiple choice)

• 68.29% – Domain popularity
• 63.41% – Visibility index (Sistrix, Searchmetrics, etc.)
• 14.00% – Majestic Trust Flow and Citation Flow
• 12.20% – Moz Domain Authority and Page Authority
• 26.83% – Linkresearchtools LRT Power*Trust
• 26.83% – Other

Under Other, there were the following answers (one vote each):

• Trust, reputation, etc. … just not these ridiculous SEO tools ;)
• Site topic
• it really depends on the type of link. For blogs, I increasingly also look at the “engagement.” So, for example, whether there are regular comments on the blog.
• The site's traffic
• Visiting the linking page itself and taking a closer look at it
• Ratio between link pop, domain pop and IP pop
• Visual check
• Ahrefs
• Traffic and topic of the site as well as its rankings for my main key

For participants, the most important criterion is a website's domain popularity, followed by visibility. Other metrics are rather less important to respondents.

Question: Has a website of yours ever been penalized by Google for buying links?

• 17.07% – Yes
• 82.93% – No

17.07% stated that their website has already been penalized and they still continue buying links anyway.

Question: How important are backlinks in optimization for you (scale from 1 to 100, 1 not important – 100 extremely important)

• For respondents who actively buy links, backlinks are very important in optimization, at “75 points.”

Question: Do you also plan to keep buying backlinks in the future?

• 90.24% – Yes, as long as links work, I will buy links.
• 7.32% – No, links have become too expensive for me. I want to switch to white-hat tactics.
• 2.44% – I will convince my clients that I will no longer buy links and will get clean links through other means.

The group of link buyers will continue to buy backlinks – no matter how much Google threatens here, this group won't be dissuaded from its plans ;-).

Question: Do you think backlinks will still be a relevant ranking factor in five years?

• 80.49% – Yes, backlinks will still be an important factor in five years.
• 17.07% – No, backlinks can be manipulated too much and are therefore an uncertainty factor. Backlinks will only play a small role.
• 2.44% – No, backlinks will absolutely no longer be a ranking factor.

For over 80% of participants, backlinks will still be important and won't be dropped by Google as an important ranking factor anytime soon…

➤ The camp of the NO-sayers

Everyone who answered the question of whether they buy links with “no” was asked the following questions. Here it's especially interesting to see how this group gets backlinks.

Question: Have you really never bought backlinks?

• 28.75% – I did buy links in the past, but not anymore today.
• 50.00% – No, I have never bought links and never will.
• 21.25% – No, I have never bought links. But I'm toying with the idea of buying links.

The participants who answered the initial question with “no” are clearly in the majority, which is why the numbers here are very interesting. Just 28.75% stated that they had ever bought links. Well over half have never bought a link.

Question: Why don't you buy links or have never bought any so far (multiple choice possible)

• 41.89% – Too dangerous for me.
• 48.65% – Too expensive for me.
• 32.43% – There are better ways to generate links.
• 27.03% – My sites rank even without backlinks.
• 22.97% – I don't know how to get bought links at all.
• 20.27% – Bought links are useless.

For many, buying links is too dangerous and too expensive; in addition, over 30% stated that there are better ways for them to build links.

Question: If you don't buy links, how do you get backlinks? (Multiple choice possible)

• 35.38% – I create great content and make it known to other webmasters so that they link to it.
• 23.08% – I write high-quality guest articles (without paying for it) on other blogs.
• 16.92% – I create linkbait (infographics, interviews, case studies, etc.) and thereby get backlinks.
• 18.46% – I look at what content other webmasters link to and try to create suitable content in order to get links that way.
• 3.08% – I work with the broken-link-building technique.
• 6.15% – I create PBNs and link wheels (#blackhatseo).
• 26.15% – Not at all. My sites rank even without backlinks.
• 43.08% – I rely only on simple links like blog comments, web directories, business directories and forum links, which I place on my own and without payment – my website already ranks very well with those.
• 38.46% – My content gets linked by others all on its own – without any action on my part.
• 12.31% – I exchange links.

43.08% stated that they build links for free via forums, directories, etc. 35.38% build links via seeding measures or blogger outreach.

Question: Do you also plan to keep not buying backlinks in the future?

• 52.31% – Yes, I will never pay for a link.
• 47.69% – If I can buy a good link, I will occasionally pay for it in the future too.

Slightly less than half are willing to pay for a link – the willingness to buy links exists in this group. It just seems that many haven't dared to so far…

Question: How important are backlinks in optimization for you (scale from 1 to 100, 1 not important – 100 extremely important)

• This shows very well how the two groups differ in SEO: For respondents who don't buy links, backlinks are not quite as important in optimization, at 50 points, as they are for the group that buys backlinks.

Question: Do you think backlinks will still be a relevant ranking factor in five years?

• 60.00% – Yes, backlinks will still be an important factor in five years.
• 35.38% – No, backlinks can be manipulated too much and are therefore an uncertainty factor. Backlinks will only play a minor role.
• 7.69% – No, backlinks will absolutely no longer be a ranking factor.

While over 80% of the link buyers still consider backlinks important in five years, for the other group the importance of backlinks is significantly lower, at 60%.

Conclusion

The SEO scene is divided; despite being prohibited by the Google Webmaster Guidelines, trading in backlinks continues to enjoy great popularity. Many SEOs in Germany buy backlinks for themselves or their clients instead of “earning” them through other channels. Despite the risk of getting caught, buying links is fast, easy and predictable for many.

In doing so, however, many respondents spend only very little money on it (less than €100 or only €100–200). For this target group, backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors, while the group that doesn't buy links considers the importance of backlinks to be less significant and builds its links through other means. This group, however, builds its links not only through seeding measures, but also through simple links via forums, blog comments, etc.

It remains exciting to see how Google will continue to handle the topic of backlinks. As before, some SEOs try to gain an advantage through buying links – despite the prohibition by Google.

What is your opinion on the topic of “buying links”? Did the survey results surprise you, or which answers would you have expected?

-Fabian