Netlinking test – Buying links on Fiverr [Part 3]

As repeated in my last articles, netlinking is one of main pillars of search engine optimization. We also talked links considered toxic by certain reputable tools in the acquisition field, and their recommendation to disavow this type of link (although John Mueller contradicted the latter). Today I'm going to make you a feedback from a test on buying links on Fiverr.

How was the Fiverr link buying test established?

To begin with, the idea came to me during some LinkedIn PMs who proposed the purchase of “permanently dofollow backlinks on high quality domains which increase your traffic” (= permanent dofollow links on high quality domains which increase your traffic). traffic) with a reduced price ($5 for 50 backlinks + 5 free). On top of all this, a backlink strategy and analysis must be done! (Spoiler: this will never be the case)

So I found a website which has nothing to lose and everything to gain from this type of test: I chose a page which goes back a little on certain queries in order to know if this future purchase will be useful or not, with the search console access which accompanies for follow-up: 

Source: Search Console (last 3 months) on the page targeted by the operation

 

So we have everything we need, except the keywords, because the goal is to monitor the rise of backlinks.

About anchors chosen for this campaign we have:

  • robots replacing humans
  • here
  • here
  • on the website
  • will robots replace us
  • socialcomarket
  • Gear 5
  • gumgum bazooka

And that’s already not bad! Finally, we have everything we need: a test site, a page (which talks about the replacement of humans by robots in the future) and optimized anchors.

 

Posted backlinks

The purchase of the links was made on January 24, 2024; they were ALL posted on January 25, 2024. 55 links were therefore acquired in less than 24 hours. What's quite nice is that I already have good results (at least according to the seller of the service)! 

That is both positive and negative, because no link analysis was done. For my part, I know that everything that's way too many links in a single acquisition (in theory, because practice is always different).

Among these 55 links we find: 

  • 39 different domains
  • 32 top-level domains (.com, .org, .net, .edu)
  • that each query is found 7 times (apart from one which is 6 times)
  • 55 links in guest posting
  • 31 of these links are nofollow (out of 50 promised follow)
  • 13 links that are in follow (and some not on the requested anchor)
  • Links that are not contextualized at all
  • Links that can sometimes be found on the same pages (2 occurrences)
  • 11 lines in Excel that do not contain a link (deletion of comments, links, etc.)

Among other things, approximately 1/5th of links correspond to the scope (dofollow). I will avoid the share of links categorized as User Generated Content (few follows and many nofollows).

So, “Thank you for your order” was the part analyzed here, with part of “you get very good results” (results which are not so good after all).

 

Are the backlinks going up?

Let’s deepen the analysis of “you get very good results”, but this time on the part performance indicators of this netlinking “campaign”. The periods analyzed will obviously be similar (01/01/24 – 24/01/24 and 25/01/14 – 17/02/24), although the links will obviously not be taken into account as quickly.

Let's talk about average page position (queries are ranked based on impressions):

 Average position before campaign   Average position post campaign   Delta 
Page 13.6 12.8 -0.8
Query 1 8 8.6 0.6
Query 2 7.6 4.9 -2.7
Query 3 20.8 12.5 -8.3

Cool ! The average position is decreasing! But is it really due to this test campaign?

Big spoiler: No.

But why ? Currently, only two links appear in Search Console: 

Some skeptics will say that not all links appear in Search Console…And that’s true! Well partially, because they must go back after a certain period in the GSC, which lasts up to several months. 

However, for the vast majority of these links, the pages are not crawled by Google (checked using the “cache:” command). There is therefore little chance that Google will take these links into account. Concerning the others, the explorations date back to the beginning of January 2024…

 

Conclusion on this (almost) useless purchase

To conclude quickly, I lost $5, but this allowed me to confirm that this type of purchase is not really useful (UGC links have little weight in terms of SEO). If you were planning to buy links on Fiverr, avoid this type of service, because after 3 days, you no longer have the right to complaints. In addition, the lifespan of the links is clearly not guaranteed. So you will waste money, but also your time checking everything.

Disclaimer on buying links

Buying links requires fairly advanced knowledge in the field of netlinking. Without a strategy behind it, “buying links” for the sake of “buying links” is not necessarily a good practice because there are several risks if this is not done correctly: 

  • Google may never be aware of the links posted.
  • Links may be poorly optimized.
  • A waste of budget that you could invest elsewhere.

To obtain support on establishing a netlinking strategy and acquiring backlinks, do not hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to help you. 😉

 

 

 

Esteban Irschfeld, SEO Consultant at UX-Republic