Buying Backlinks Online – Should You Do It in 2026?

Jacky Chou

October 23, 2026

If you have been in the SEO world for a while, you know how things have been changing and some factors play an extremely important role in improving Google ranking. And one of the ways to rank on the first page of Google, you need real, and quality backlinks.

But where can you get quality backlinks? Of course, you can buy links from reputable brands in your niche and increase your domain rating.

That said, what is the process of getting quality links to grow your backlink profile? What are the do’s and don’ts, which reliable sites can you get links to, will links increase your DR?

In this post, we will endeavor to provide you with accurate and credible information surrounding buying backlinks.

What is Backlink Buying?

Backlinking is the process of getting other websites to link back to your site. It can be a black hat SEO, white hat SEO, or somewhere in between. With that, backlink buying can take diverse forms and shapes depending on how it’s done, who does it, and for what purpose.

Buying backlinks can be in the form of:

Guest posts – We recommend Rhino Rank, Outreach Pete, and/or FatJoe (opens new tabs)
Sponsored posts
Niche edits or link placement – We recommend Indexsy, we rank #1 on Google for “niche edits” so.. here’s our offering, just give us a chance.
Product reviews
Paying for a link to be published in another site

Why Do Brands Buy Backlinks?

There are two major reasons that a brand will seek link building services – to get faster results and to save time.

1. Buying Links Saves Time

Any link building strategy you choose takes lots of time to accomplish. And it is even harder when SEO, content marketing, and outreach services are not the core of your business.

Let’s take an example of getting backlinks through outreach,

Create high-quality content optimized for Google and other search engines
Prospecting for link building opportunities
Vetting to see whether you qualify for the opportunity
Building a rapport with every prospect
Request for link building on the websites
Wait for a response and customize the content for different sites
Test different outreach approaches
Create high-quality content for the approved sites
Hire a freelance writer if you don’t have inhouse writers
Monitor and repeat the process

This is a best-case scenario of getting backlinks. And since you’ve other things to do, focusing on link placements can disorient you from your primaries, necessitate that you train your staff or hire freelancers to assist you to reach a bigger audience, enhance brand awareness and increase organic traffic.

With all that it is better to outsource link building processes to a service provider devoted to link building campaigns for increased search engine rankings.

2. Faster and Better Results

When buying links, you are outsourcing this role to a provider with high DA, and the staff is skilled in link building services. Most of these outreach companies have established relationships with reputable bloggers in almost every niche. They’ve also tested various link building strategies and know which works better for what industry.

As such, you’ll be focused on other areas of SEO such as the content idea, creation, and optimization. Combining efforts from both parties, you will get results faster.

3. Buying Links because of Competition

If your competitors are buying high-quality backlinks to rank high on Google and other search engines, you may be forced to include that SEO service to have a leveled playing field.

If you try and avoid it, your competitors will be miles ahead, rank better, and increase their clientele base.

So besides saving you time, and getting better results, if your industry demands that you buy backlinks, it is important to keep up with the trends and be able to reach your target audience.

Is Buying Backlinks Safe?

Since buying backlinks is something you want to do to grow your domain rating, how safe is it? And is there something you can do?

Well, buying links is a safe process when your provider follows a white hat SEO approach and upholds industry best practices. If your provider is skilled and experienced in link building, they will ensure maximum safety and privacy. So nothing to worry about.

That said, buying links is a black hat SEO as it goes against Google’s TOS. And since there’s a thin line when it comes to link-building, and SEO is getting competitive by the day, we still encourage you to get links from reputable brands.

When buying links avoid the low quality, cheap, irrelevant, and non-niche specific backlinks. These links by PBNs (Private Blog Networks) will have a negative bearing on your profile and it’s easily detectable by Google, which may jeopardize your site.

Only trust brands that have proved track records, show integrity, and are committed to helping you gain a competitive edge without compromising your website.

What to Look For in a Link Selling Website

There are many websites to buy backlinks from and all claim to further your SEO efforts and ensure you rank better.

But there a few things that you need to look out for in a website before engaging them for a link building service. And these are:

1. Adequate Information Regarding Different Types of Links

Website owners might have heard about a need for a link building campaign but not conversant with the various types of links. A good website will provide helpful and comprehensive information to help you make an informed decision.

They will also explain in layman’s language how to keep yourself safe from going against Google’s TOS and safeguarding your website.

If anything is still unclear, the right provider should have a support team to clear any doubts prospective customers have.

If all you find in a link building provider is about sales and hype about being number one on search results, be careful. You might be duped, and the brand may not be using industry-best practices.

2. Quality Backlinks

Since you don’t want to get links for the sake of it, you want to get link vendors who are serious about growing your profile with high-quality, real backlinks.

One way to assess that is to check the quality of links of their site. Find out about their DR, DA and also rankings on Google and other search engines.

Also, check whether links on their sites are natural or appear forced. Those are little link schemes that can tell you a lot about the quality of links.

You can check on their policies and terms. A good brand will talk about quality links as opposed to spam links and will have a guarantee to stand behind its services.

3. Your Website’s Safety on the Longterm

Google bots crawl and index web pages on a regular basis. When SEO experts use black hat methods and try to cheat the system, this can increase the rankings in the short term. But reputable link vendors will not do this.

Rather, they emphasize on the best practices that will increase your search results rankings steadily. You want a provider who will help you create content with backlinks that ensure safety and longevity.

4. White Label Reports

White label text links are unbranded making them perfect. You want a text that you can customize to suit your individual needs.

But getting backlinks with rights reserved makes it to transfer or even resell. For the long-term well-being of your website, check for white label link building vendors.

5. Affordability

One of the common questions that website owners ask is how much link costs.

Some link building service providers are costly and this depends on the type of link you want and from which website. Do-follow links and no-follow links do not cost the same.

Also, if you want paid links in high-authority sites it will be more expensive but will increase your organic traffic and increase search engines’ rankings.

Take your time to check the different prices and commit to buy backlinks that you can afford. After all, backlinks are not the only determinants to rank high on search engines.

Where Can I Buy Quality Backlinks?

It’s clear that buying links is something you should consider for your site, but who is selling them?

Some popular places for selling links include:

Manual Outreach
PBNs (Private Blog Networks) disguising as real sites
Brokers
Webmasters and contributors

But when we talk about paid links, what are the above sites selling? They will be selling any of this:

Guest blogging opportunities
Features or interviews
Contextual links on webpages
Backlink to existing content on the site
Community posts
PBNs

How Much Do Backlinks Cost

Like everything else in SEO, there is no easy, simple answer to this. There are many factors that come to play when you decide to buy quality backlinks.

We’ll discuss the major link buying pricing factors to help get a clearer picture when preparing your SEO campaign.

1. Link Quality

Older sites with high domain authority are pitched more as their link quality is high. As such, they charge higher and mostly have a limited number of link placements per month. One way such domains use to limit applicants is to increase prices.

If you are just a beginner without a huge budget, that may not be the best site to pitch to.

2. Content

Sites with optimized, engaging, and excellent content don’t have a hard time finding other sites to trade links with. They are usually picky and their partners can be pricy.

Content that is ranking well on search engines is easy to find partners. If you have a new site, you should consider using available tools to measure SEO and hiring excellent writers to craft high-quality content.

This way, you’ll be a step closer to getting guest blogging opportunities.

3. Industry

Your particular niche will determine the cost of links. For example, buying links in the finance industry can be more pricy than the gardening niche. Any niche that attracts a fast flow of money translates to more expensive links and vice-versa.

4. Creative Control

When pitching sites to buy backlinks, you can choose to protect your brand’s integrity with certain rules and requirements or you may choose to take a care-free approach.

For instance, you can give a specific anchor text to use. Since this process may increase the link placement process, you’ll have to pay more.

5. Brand Strength

When pitching for partners in backlinking, your online presence matters a lot. If you have a renowned blog with countless social shares and blog comments, your emails are likely to get answered sooner.

You will get more offers within a short time and maybe less.

However, if your website is new, and not known, it will take longer and you will pay dearly for placements in high-quality domains.

6. In House Costs

If you want Google to index your site but don’t want to hire freelance writers, you’ll need the efforts of a couple of your in-house staff. This also involves outreach efforts for link placement.

When considering the cost of buying links, you shouldn’t forget to factor in your employees’ time.

Do Backlinks Still Work in 2021?

According to Moz, backlinks still work in 2021. It does not matter whether they are paid links or natural backlinks. Of great importance is the quality of backlinks.

Since backlinks are a vote of confidence on your website, it sends positive indications on Google bots that you have some sort of authority in your industry. When Google notices an unnatural backlink, it imposes Google penalty, which affects ranking significantly.

So, if you want backlinks to work for 2021 and beyond make sure to do the following:

Get high-quality backlinks from high-authority sites in your niche
Combine links with high-quality content that is optimized for search engines and your target audience
Use the links naturally and an anchor text that’s informative
Check the authenticity and excellence of the link vendors before buying links
Understand the various types of links and which ones are likely to enhance your profile and increase organic traffic
Be on the lookout for the trends in the link building services and follow suit.

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