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There are many companies out there that offer links for sale on a network of sites or that offer you admission to an “automated link network” for a low monthly price. It’s common to see advertisements for 1000 links for $9.95/month, or 4500 links for $14.95/month etc… These may sound like a good deal at first but before you buy from them it’s a good idea that you understand what the pros and the cons are. In some cases it may be worth the risk to buy some cheap and easy links, but in other cases it might not be worth the potential penalizations by the search engines.

Is it safe to buy links on networks?

There are a lot of different opinions on whether it is safe to buy links on a network of sites. By safe I mean is it going to get your site penalized in Google, or the other search engines. The answer is, it can be safe if you don’t overdue it. Unfortunately in order for the “buying links from networks” strategy to work it often times requires that it be overdone to be successful. Its when you overdue things, that you are putting yourself at risk. Its also important to know that its not necessary to take risks when building links. Not all link building strategies are high risk, in fact a lot of them are very low risk.

With that being said some webmasters simply do not have the money or time to invest in a long term, safe, link building program. If this describes you, then buying into a network of sites might be the way to go. Just don’t expect to get much more out then what you put in. You might see some short term increases in rankings but as the search engines evolve you will more then likely loose those rankings. If your website is your only source of income and you have a very low risk tolerance, then I wouldn’t even consider doing it.

What do search engines consider to be a network of sites?

A network of sites is a group of sites that are either heavily interlinked or that reside on the same I.P. address, or a set of closely related I.P. addresses. A network can also be defined by sites that share other common traits, such as backlinks, template design, etc…

One type of network that is very common is the Reciprocal Link Network. Its the kind that requires you to put a directory on your site that links to everyone else in the network. In exchange you get links from all of the other sites that have signed up. As long as you pay the monthly fee, you get to participate. This may sound like a good idea, but the search engines can easily detect those sort of networks, easily rendering most of them useless. In addition, having hundreds or thousands of outbound links on your site can considerably reduce any positive effects of being part of the network. In general this sort of network should be stayed away from.

A bit more powerful then the Reciprocal Link Network is the One-Way Link Network. This sort of network does not require you to put a directory on your site or link back to the other participants in any way. You can usually spot these networks when they advertise “1000 One-way links for 29.95/month”. This is a better proposition then the reciprocal network but in most cases these One-Way Link Networks are artificially created, meaning that one person/company built all of the sites that you are buying links on. This sort of network is not very powerful due to the fact that most of the sites are probably interlinked in one way or another, or get all of their link popularity from a small number of sites outside the network. Links from these sites will have very little power.

There are other hybrid networks out there, some of them are no better or worse then the two mentioned above, while some of them are pretty clever. When deciding whether a network is worth joining or not ask yourself the following things:

1. Does the network require me to link back to all of the other sites in the network?

2. Is the network powered by a few sites that have very few backlinks, most of which are from the same sources?

3. Does the network require that I link back to their site in order to participate?

4. Does the network consist of a bunch of sites that all look the same?

5. Does the network contain links to other low-quality sites?

6. Does the network offer hundreds or thousands of links for a very low price. In other words, does the offer sound too good to be true?

The more you answer yes to these questions when evaluating a network, the more you should question joining that network. Some networks are better then others but they are networks none-the-less, and with any network comes risk.