Poll: 50% Of SEOs Have Bought Links In Past Five Years

Here is another fun poll Lily Ray posted on Twitter, asking if you or your company have bought links in the past five years. The results are literally 50/50. I retweeted it to help get more of a response last week and with over 1,000 responses, it is pretty funny to see SEOs split down the middle.

The question asked was "Anonymous survey: have you (or your company) purchased backlinks - of ANY quality - for your own site, or any of your clients' sites, at any point in the past ~5 years?" There were 1,108 votes on the poll and the results were 50% said yes and 50% said no.

Here is the tweet:

Does this surprise you? If I asked this five-years ago, I bet it would be closer to 75% yes and 25% no. But today, espesially with the taboo Google has put on links and espesially buying links, many SEOs stay way from it in the literal sense.

Yes, buying links that are not nofollowed are against Google's guidelines - so don't do it.

Here are some of the responses to the question because like anything in SEO, the answer is never black and white or yes or no. :)

I’m in the same boat since a lot of my work for the majority of my career has been in the local space. Sponsorships are the only thing I’ve paid for.

— Jesse McDonald (@jesseseogeek) October 24, 2019

And let's not get into "well if you pay someone to write content, and that content earns links", aren't you buying links?".

— Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) October 24, 2019

Plus.. If you're parents say "don't do that" it's generally for a reason (less parental stress most often, as they were the ones tasked with cleaning up YOUR MESS). Surely you can relate to this Andrew? 😉

— Jon Sharman (@JonSharman) October 25, 2019

I will only admit to buying a Multipass. pic.twitter.com/t6ZRVbnaIV

— Jason "Possible Russian Asset" Channell (@El_Fenix) October 24, 2019

I meant to say that it "may" be illegal. Always consult an attorney to verify the legality of what you're getting into.

— Roger Montti (@martinibuster) October 24, 2019

I voted yes; as my previous agency had it as a core service. You pay X a month, you get X number of tokens, and those tokens exchanged for links. So glad I'm out of that.

— Dan Taylor (@TaylorDanRW) October 24, 2019

There is a lot more but here are just some of the responses to the original poll.

Forum discussion at Twitter.