Buying backlinks: is it safe, what Google's policy says, and what to do instead

Buying a backlink means giving something of value to get a link to your site, where the point of the link is to help your rankings in search. Money is the obvious case, but Google's definition is wider. The link spam section of its spam policies (last updated August 28, 2026) lists these under "Buying or selling links for ranking purposes":

• "Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links"
• "Exchanging goods or services for links"
• "Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link"

The same section names related practices that founders are often offered as a package:

• "Excessive link exchanges ('Link to me and I'll link to you') or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking"
• "Using automated programs or services to create links to your site"
• "Advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit, or links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites"
• "Text advertisements or text links that don't block ranking credit"

In the market these show up under other names. Ahrefs describes the common formats as niche edits ("You ask a site owner to add a link to an existing page on their site for a fee"), paid or sponsored guest posts ("You write an article that contains links to your site, then pay a site owner to publish it on their website") and private blog networks, or PBNs ("You build a network of sites yourself, then link to your 'money' site from all of them"). Whatever the label, the test in Google's policy is the same: was something exchanged for a link that passes ranking credit?

Google defines link spam as "the practice of creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings." Buying links for rankings is the first example on its list.

The policy also says plainly that paid links themselves are not the problem:

"Google does understand that buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web for advertising and sponsorship purposes. It's not a violation of our policies to have such links as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value to the <a> tag."

So the line Google draws is not between paying and not paying. It is between a paid link that is labelled as paid, which is allowed, and a paid link that is dressed up as a normal editorial link so it can pass ranking credit, which is link spam.

Google states the consequence for violating its spam policies on the same page: "Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all." It detects violations "both through automated systems and, as needed, human review that can result in a manual action."

Here is how the common ways of getting a link compare:

Link type	What you pay for	What Google's policy says	Risk to your rankings	How the link should be marked
Paid placement passing ranking credit (niche edit, paid guest post, PBN link, link package)	The link itself	Link spam: "Buying or selling links for ranking purposes"	Link ignored at best; manual action at worst	Not allowed unless it is qualified, which removes the point of buying it
Sponsored link or ad	Exposure to the host site's audience	Allowed "as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored""	Low, if marked	rel="sponsored" (preferred) or rel="nofollow"
Earned editorial link	Nothing given for the link	The kind of link Google says links are for: they "can be good for sites to receive, as long as they're well deserved"	None from the link itself	No rel value needed; the linking site decides
Directory listing	Often free; sometimes a paid tier	"Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" are listed as link spam; relevant directories are not singled out	Low for relevant, reviewed directories; higher for bulk or paid-for-dofollow listings	A paid listing should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow"

The quotes in the table come from Google's spam policies and its July 2021 post on qualifying links, both linked in the sources.

No outcome of buying a ranking link is safe in the sense of being allowed. In practice, one of three things happens.

1. Google ignores the link, and the money is gone. This is the outcome Google describes most often. In July 2021, announcing what it called the "link spam update," Google said the change was "even more effective at identifying and nullifying link spam more broadly, across multiple languages." On December 14, 2022, it went further: SpamBrain, which Google calls its "AI-based spam-prevention system," "can now detect both sites buying links, and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links." That update, Google wrote, means "Ranking may change as spammy links are neutralized and any credit passed by these unnatural links are lost." A neutralized link does not hurt you directly. It simply does nothing, so the price you paid buys nothing.

2. Google takes manual action against your site. Google's help page says it issues one "when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google's spam policies." Google's Manual Actions report help page describes the action called "Unnatural links to your site" this way: "Google has detected a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to your site. Buying links or participating in link schemes in order to manipulate ranking in Google Search results is a violation of our spam policies. This can result in some or all of your site getting a manual action." The same page says that "If a site has a manual action, some or all of that site will not be shown in Google search results." Getting out of it takes work, and Google warns that "link-related reconsideration requests" may "take longer than usual to review."

3. Nothing visible happens, for now. Some paid links are not caught. Ahrefs says in its article on buying backlinks that "Paid links often look no different to earned links, so it's quite possible to 'trick' Google and get higher rankings with paid backlinks," while adding that "Google gets better and better at spotting and demoting paid backlinks." That is the bet a link buyer makes: that this link will not be among the ones caught, now or after the next update.

For a new product with a small site, the downside is lopsided. A few bought links that get neutralized cost money and time. A manual action can take part or all of the site out of Google's results while you clean up.

You can pay for a link without breaking Google's rules. The link just has to say what it is.

Google's documentation on qualifying outbound links says to "Mark links that are advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid links) with the sponsored value." It adds that nofollow "was previously recommended for these types of links and is still an acceptable way to flag them, though sponsored is preferred." In HTML a sponsored link looks like this: <a rel="sponsored" href="https://example.com">.

Two things about these labels matter when you decide whether a paid placement is worth it:

• They are hints, and Google generally does not count them for ranking. Since September 10, 2019, Google has said that sponsored, ugc and nofollow "are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search." The same announcement says: "In most cases, the move to a hint model won't change the nature of how we treat such links. We'll generally treat them as we did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes." So a correctly marked paid link buys you the host site's readers, not ranking credit.
• The wrong label only causes trouble in one direction. Google's 2019 FAQ says: "There's no wrong attribute except in the case of sponsored links," and "Any link that is clearly an ad or sponsored should use sponsored or nofollow."

The site publishing the link adds the attribute, not you. If you pay for a newsletter mention, a sponsored post or a featured listing, ask the publisher whether the link will carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and check the page source after it goes live. A seller who promises that a paid link will be "dofollow" is promising exactly what Google's policy describes as link spam.

Google's July 2021 post applies the same rule to sponsored and guest posts: "When we detect sites engaging in either publishing or acquiring links with excessive sponsored and guest posting without proper link tags, algorithmic and manual actions may be applied, similar to affiliate links." Note "acquiring": the site that buys the post is in scope, not only the site that sells it.

If you have launched anything, you have probably had emails offering backlinks. Each common offer maps onto a line in Google's link spam list; the table near the end of this post matches them to Google's wording.

What paid links cost (Ahrefs' study figures). The only prices in this post are Ahrefs' figures, from its article on buying backlinks (updated July 18, 2024). It says "Paid links cost $83 on average according to Authority Hacker's survey of 755 link builders." It also reports its own outreach study, which the article says was run "a few years ago": paid niche edits averaged $361.44 and paid guest posts $77.80, and "only 12.6% of the sites I reached out to were willing to sell me a link." These are Ahrefs' study figures, not current market prices. Ahrefs adds that bulk packages exist "for just a few dollars" but "these links are unlikely to improve rankings."

Google's advice on hiring an SEO is a useful filter for these emails: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google," "Avoid SEOs that talk about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines," and "Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire." That last point applies to links an agency buys on your behalf.

You do not need to panic over a handful of old paid links, and you should not start disavowing everything. Google's disavow documentation says: "In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, so most sites will not need to use this tool." Here is the order Google's own help pages suggest:

1. Check for a manual action. Open the Manual Actions report in Search Console. Google says that "If your site has no manual actions, you'll see a green check mark and an appropriate message."
2. Stop buying. Cancel any recurring link package and ask whoever built links for you for a list of the sites and pages involved.
3. Ask for removal or a label. For links that break the policy, Google's instruction is to "contact the owner of that site and ask that they either remove the links or prevent them from passing PageRank, such as by adding a rel="nofollow" or a more specific attribute."
4. Disavow only if it applies. Google says to disavow links only if "You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site" and "The links have caused a manual action, or likely will cause a manual action, on your site." It calls the tool "an advanced feature" that "should only be used with caution," because "If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site's performance in Google Search results." The file is a plain .txt list with one URL or "domain:" entry per line, and after upload "it can take a few weeks for Google to incorporate your list."
5. If you have a manual action, request a review. Deal with every link you can first. Google warns that "Blindly adding all backlinks to the disavow file is not considered a good-faith effort, and will not be enough to make your reconsideration request successful." Include what you removed and what you could not, then select Request Review in the report.

If you bought a domain that came with a manual action, Google's help page asks you to fix the issues and say in your reconsideration request "that you recently acquired the site and that it now no longer violates the policies."

Once a product blog has some traffic, offers arrive from the other side: a fee to add a link, or a ready-written guest post with a link inside.

Google's policy covers selling as well as buying. The Manual Actions report has a separate action called "Unnatural links from your site," for "a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive, or manipulative outbound links on your site." Google's fix is to "Identify any links on your site that were paid for or that appear to violate our link spam policy" and either remove them or change them "so that they no longer pass PageRank, for example by adding a rel="nofollow" or a more specific attribute." The December 2022 update was aimed at "sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links," not just buyers.

If you accept the money, mark the link rel="sponsored". Most buyers asking for a "dofollow" link will then lose interest, which tells you what they were paying for.

There is also a reader-facing side in the United States. The FTC's guidance for endorsers says a recommendation is covered by the FTC Act if an advertiser "pays you or gives you something of value to have you mention that product," and that on where to place a disclosure, "the guiding principle is that it has to be clear and conspicuous." It rejects a disclosure hidden behind a link: "A hyperlinked disclosure like that is easily avoidable, meaning that the disclosure is not clear and conspicuous." A rel="sponsored" attribute sits in the page code where readers do not see it, so in our reading it handles Google's rule but does not replace a visible note such as "Sponsored" near the content. The FTC page we read does not mention rel attributes or search engines. This is general information, not legal advice.

Google's own advice for getting links is short. Its Search Essentials name, among the "few core practices" with the most impact, "Tell people about your site. Be active in communities where you can tell like-minded people about your services and products that you mention on your site." Its SEO Starter Guide lists ways to promote a site: "Social media promotion," "Community engagement," "Advertisement, both offline and online," and "Word of mouth," and calls word of mouth "One of the most effective and lasting ways." It also warns that "you can overdo promoting your site and actually harm it."

For a new software product, that turns into a handful of things you can do this month:

• Launch where your users already are. A Show HN post, a launch on a community site in your category, or a useful answer in a forum where people ask about the problem you solve. These bring readers first; links sometimes follow.
• List the product on relevant directories. Directories your buyers actually browse can send visitors and help Google find a new site. Google's spam policies name "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links," so relevance matters more than count. Our post on backlinks from directories covers which ones are worth it and how to check the link you got.
• Publish pages people want to cite. Original data, a free tool, a clear comparison or a template gives other writers a reason to link to you without being paid. Our guide to SEO for SaaS covers the page types a software site can build.
• Pay for attention, not for the link. A newsletter sponsorship, a paid launch slot or an ad can be worth it for the audience. Expect the link to be marked sponsored or nofollow, and judge the spend on visitors and sign-ups, not ranking credit.

VibeLaunch, which publishes this post, works on the directory part of this list. According to its homepage, it prepares each directory submission to that directory's requirements and checks that the listing and the backlink actually went live.

What we don't know. Google does not publish how many paid links it detects, how many it neutralizes without telling anyone, or how often buying links leads to a manual action rather than links that are quietly ignored. We cannot tell you the odds that a given paid link will be caught, or whether a particular link you already bought is being counted. Google also does not say how many paid links counts as a "pattern." We could not check the Authority Hacker survey that Ahrefs cites. The FTC material is US guidance; other countries have their own rules.

How this post was put together. We did not buy links or run ranking experiments for this article. On October 12, 2026 we read the Google, FTC and Ahrefs pages in the source list below; every quote comes from one of them.