Getting Emails Offering Backlinks? Read This Before You Pay

If you own a business website, you’ve probably had the email. Someone offers to boost your Google rankings with “high authority backlinks” or “guest posts on top sites” for a small fee. Some of them even promise page one results.



It can sound like an easy win. But buying links is one of the quickest ways to put your website’s rankings at risk, and the damage can take a long time to undo.

Here’s what you need to know before you reply.

What are backlinks, and why do people sell them?

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Google has long used links as a signal of trust. If reputable websites link to you, it suggests your site is worth visiting.

Because links can influence rankings, a whole industry has grown up around selling them. Link sellers pay websites to place links, then resell those placements to businesses hoping for a quick boost.

The problem is that Google knows this, and its rules are clear.

What Google says about buying links

Google’s spam policies treat buying or selling links to influence rankings as a “link scheme”. That includes paying for links, paying for guest posts that contain links, and exchanging goods or services for links.



The only exception is when a paid link is clearly labelled with a special tag (rel="sponsored"), as outlined in Google’s guidance on qualifying outbound links. This tag tells Google not to count the link for rankings. Once a link is labelled this way, it has little or no ranking benefit, which is why most link sellers don’t use it.



Google enforces these rules in two ways:

• Automatically. Google’s spam detection systems are designed to spot paid link patterns and ignore or devalue those links. You may pay for links that do nothing at all.
• Manually. A Google reviewer can apply a manual action to a website involved in link schemes. This can push your pages down in search results until the problem is fixed and Google reviews your site again.

Google has released several spam updates in 2026 alone, so this isn’t a risk that’s going away. The safest approach is to protect your website from Google algorithm updates with ethical SEO from the start.



Warning signs in a backlink offer

Not every link offer is a scam, but these are red flags:

• Guaranteed rankings. No one can guarantee a position on Google. Anyone who does is overpromising.
• Price lists for links. Packages priced by “domain authority” or number of links are a clear sign you’re buying links to manipulate rankings.
• Exact-match keywords as link text. If they want the link to say something like “cheap car insurance”, that pattern is exactly what Google looks for.
• Unrelated websites. A link from a gaming blog to your accounting firm doesn’t make sense to readers or to Google.
• Sites that publish anything. If a website’s blog covers everything from crypto to cosmetic surgery to car loans, it’s likely a link farm.
• Cold emails from strangers. Genuine publishers rarely email business owners offering to sell links.
• “Permanent dofollow links”. This phrase means the seller is promising links that pass ranking value, which is the type Google prohibits when paid for.



What good links look like

Good links are earned, not bought. They come from websites that have a genuine reason to mention you, such as:

• Local business directories and chambers of commerce
• Industry associations you belong to
• Suppliers, partners and clients who reference your work
• Local news coverage, sponsorships and community events
• Useful content on your own site that others want to share

These links take longer to build, but they’re safe, relevant and lasting. They also send real visitors who are interested in what you do.

Being mentioned on trusted, relevant websites also helps your business appear in AI search tools, which draw on brand mentions across the web. Learn more about optimising your business for AI search.

What to do if you’ve already bought links

If you’ve paid for links in the past, don’t panic. Start with these steps:

1. Check Google Search Console. Look under Security & Manual Actions to see whether Google has flagged your site.
2. List the links you paid for. Note the website, the page and the link text.
3. Ask for removal where needed. Contact the site owners to remove links from low-quality or unrelated websites.
4. Speak to someone you trust. An experienced SEO professional can review your link profile and advise whether further action is needed.
   

If an SEO tool has flagged “toxic backlinks” that you didn’t build or pay for, that’s a different situation. Google ignores most of those links on its own, as we explain in why removing toxic backlinks isn’t always the best SEO strategy. Paid links are the exception, because they’re the type Google treats as a link scheme.

The bottom line

There are no shortcuts that Google doesn’t eventually catch up with. Paying for links might look like a quick fix, but the risk to your website, and to the enquiries it brings in, usually far outweighs any short-term gain.

If you’re an LMOM client and you receive a backlink or guest post offer, forward it to us before you reply. We’ll tell you whether it’s worth considering or one to delete. You can also learn more about our approach to SEO services in Wollongong.

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