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Earned Vs. Paid Backlinks: What’s the Difference?

Have you ever heard about backlinks? Backlinks are important for SEO (search engine optimization) because Google (“the big G”) ranks a website based on the number of other websites that link to it. In other words, when another website links back to your site from their website, they’re voting for your site to be ranked higher.

In fact, there are two types of backlinks: “earned” and “paid”. In this article, we will explore the difference between these two types of backlinks and help you determine which type is best for your website.

Earned Backlinks

First, let’s talk about “earned” backlinks. Earned backlinks are links that other websites create to your site without you paying them for it. It is called “earned” because Google wants these links to appear as natural as possible; if the links look too much like an advertisement, they will not help you with SEO (search engine optimization). Therefore, earning backlinks can take some time and effort since you need to contact other websites asking them to link to your site. However, this type of work usually pays off in the long run since earned backlinks bring more organic traffic than paid advertisements do.

Paid Backlinks

As for paid backlinks, they are created by websites that allow you to purchase a link for your website. While these links may seem much easier to get, they will not help with SEO (search engine optimization) one bit since Google’s goal is to give its users the most relevant information about their search results. However, professional link building companies that are able to provide paid backlinks that appear natural can be a quick and efficient way to boost your website’s ranking. When it comes to purchasing backlinks, it is vital that you purchase them from an experienced team, otherwise, you may receive backlinks that appear spammy or too promotional which will not benefit you but can in fact have negative effects on your ranking.

Why Earned Backlinks are Not as Nice as They Seem

Although safer, there are a number of reasons you should probably avoid earning backlinks altogether if you can. For one, it takes a very long time to earn backlinks because many other websites aren’t willing to link to yours, and even if they do the links are totally at their discretion. There’s also no guarantee that there won’t be negative consequences such as Google penalizing your site for spamming (link schemes).

Why Paid Backlinks are the Way to Go

Although there is some risk involved, paid backlinks are the best backlink solution to increase your search engine rankings quickly. The reason for this is that unless you pay for backlinks, you will be waiting a very long time to see any kind of results. With paid backlinks, you are guaranteed much quicker results and it is a more efficient way of growing your traffic by increasing your ranking overall.

Paid backlinks give faster results, but it is a more effective way of growing traffic by improving your ranking overall. This is because paid backlinks are pre-established and can help you get a leg up on the competition in a shorter amount of time. If you buy low quality or spammy links, however, you could put your site at risk of being banned from Google’s index.

Paid Backlinks Come with Certain Risks

On the other hand, if you’re not careful, paid backlinks can actually be detrimental to your rankings. This is because buying links (or trading for them) isn’t allowed by Google and could get your site banned if they find out. With that in mind, paying for backlinks is only worth it if you purchase them from a company or provider with proven expertise and years of experience, otherwise, the backlinks they provider may not be helpful at all.

Nofollow Vs Dofollow Backlinks

One thing remains the same regardless of whether you choose paid or earned back links; you will need to choose between nofollow and dofollow backlinks. This important choice may worry you if you are unsure of the difference. Let’s explore the difference between these two backlinks types.

DoFollow backlinks can help improve your site’s ranking in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This is different than Nofollow backlinks, which don’t pass any value to your site’s search engine rankings.

Which Kind of Backlinks Should You Use?

Nofollow links should only be used for the sole purpose of building backlinks and nothing else because nofollow links don’t pass any value to your website. Do follow, on the other hand, means that the link will influence the search engine rankings; however you should note that both kinds of backlinks are limited in quantity by Google. If too many are found, they could get your site penalized or banned altogether. Paid backlinks are great because they offer faster results, but it is a more effective way of growing traffic overall since paid links are pre-established to help you improve your ranking quickly. Remember though that if you buy low quality or spammy links, you will get penalized by Google.

Conclusion

Overall, while earned backlinks come with less risk, if you are looking for a safe and efficient way to gain backlinks to your site, consider hiring ArticleHub to take care of all your backlink needs! Unlike lesser-known backlink providers, ArticleHub can provide paid high authority backlinks that are safe and risk-free all while being much faster to receive than earned backlinks.

Article Hub

We work with bloggers and perform real manual outreach to ensure relevant, long-lasting links that improve rankings and drive traffic.