If you own a website or business, you’ve probably heard about buying services like backlink packages, Facebook likes, YouTube views, and Twitter followers to help boost your site’s ranking. You can find these services everywhere, from [eafl id=”14503″ name=”Fiverr” text=”microjob sites like Fiverr”] to entire companies dedicated to the cause.
But are they really worth it? Do these services actually help you get more out of your website? Do they actually improve traffic by a significant margin? Are they a worthy investment? The answer to these questions is a little more complex than a simple “yes” or “no.”
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A boost only in the beginning
These packages can cost anywhere from $5 to well over $100. They promise an increase in site performance through the use of “strategic” backlink placements, and “legitimate” Facebook likes, YouTube views, or Twitter follows.
For the most part, these services actually do their job. Once you buy them, you’ll notice a sizable increase in your site traffic. If you bought Facebook likes, YouTube views, or Twitter follows, you are more or less guaranteed to receive them. Because if they didn’t deliver on their promises, then they wouldn’t be in business for long.
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About backlinks and the importance of their quality
After purchasing a backlink package, you may notice a gradual drop in the number of hits that your site is getting. As advertised, the backlinks will help your site appear on the front page page of Google’s SERP. But after a few days, your site may drop off from Google’s search results, costing you a lot of traffic.
Why does this usually happen?
This is because, most of the time, the backlinks that these services provide are of a low quality. The people who offer these services usually claim that they provide Page Rank 2 to Page Rank 9 backlinks, along with many other perks. But after a while, check the sources of your traffic. You’ll notice that most of the hits you’re receiving are coming from links that are either one of two things. They’re either really spammy or suddenly inactive.
One by one, these links are going to disappear off the face of the internet. For all intents and purposes, Google will consider these links as nothing but spam. Your site will then suffer the consequences once Google recognizes that these links are providing you with traffic.
Google’s SERP uses an intricate algorithm to determine if a site is worthy of front page attention. One of the factors that contributes to a site’s success is its legitimacy. Low-quality backlinks and backlinks that eventually get deleted by a moderator or admin lower your site’s “legitimacy rating.”
Luckily, Google introduced a “disavow link tool” just recently. Using this tool, you can tell Google to disregard any shady backlinks that are providing traffic to your site. Do this if your traffic suffers because of those low-quality backlinks that you bought.
It’s true that some backlink services are legitimate, but the majority of them are not. Pay especially close attention to your site traffic, not just in the beginning, but also after a few weeks. If your traffic drops after an initial, significant increase, then you’re probably a victim of bad backlinks.
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But what about Facebook likes, YouTube views, and Twitter follows?
Services that provide Facebook likes, YouTube views, or Twitter retweets are sometimes even worse. If you’re looking to promote your content, buying 10,000 likes, 10,000 views, or 2,000 retweets from someone for $50 might sound like a good deal. But ask yourself this question, where are all of these likes, views, and retweets coming from?
Regarding Facebook likes and Twitter retweets or follows
Most of these likes, retweets, or follows come from either fake accounts that don’t even have profile pictures, or legitimate accounts that belong to people who don’t really care about your content. Buying Facebook likes or Twitter follows can make your blog, site, or business appear like it has a bigger following. After all, the biggest businesses out there have millions of participating followers, right?
In reality, buying these services does very little to promote your business. As mentioned before, most of the likes, follows, or retweets you receive are coming from either fake accounts or people who aren’t really interested in what you’re doing. Just like with backlink packages, the likes, follows, or retweets you’ve received might start disappearing one by one.
This is because both Facebook and Twitter occasionally purge inactive accounts. Since most accounts that liked your page, or followed, or retweeted you belong to this category, there’s a good chance that they’ll eventually disappear.
Even if the accounts belonged to a real person, the person behind the account was most likely paid to provide you with a like, follow, or retweet. With the job done, they might unlike your page or unfollow you on Twitter after a few days, while probably thinking that you won’t notice.
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Regarding YouTube views
Meanwhile, buying views on YouTube can be a bit more legitimate. But take note that one view, or even 10,000 views, are just small dents that contribute to a video’s success. If you want your video to reach more audiences, paying someone to provide you with views is the wrong way to go about things.
If you want to promote your video on YouTube, you’ll have to do most of the hard work yourself. You’ll have to expand your network to reach the appropriate audiences. You’ll have to connect with other creators that create similar content to yours. Most services that provide YouTube views are entirely automated. This means that there’s a good chance that nobody is really watching your video.
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In conclusion
Backlinks packages are rarely ever worth it. If you want to drive traffic to your site, you’re better off employing more organic methods. Bad backlinks can only do more harm in the long run.
Buying Facebook likes or Twitter follows is straight up not worth it. If you want to expand your social media presence, artificial likes, follows, or retweets are the wrong way to go about things. The same can be said about buying YouTube views. Views aren’t everything. If you want your YouTube video to reach more audiences, you’ll have to be a bit more hands-on when promoting it.
All in all remember that finding success online isn’t merely a numbers game. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to know how to find and create organic hits. And most importantly, you have to know how to find and keep your audience’s attention.
