Back Links DOT com : how I teased Google – and its reply

About 3 months ago I found out about Back Links dot com (let’s call it BLDC from now on). Seems like another TextLinkAds site, which can get you banned by Google. However, after closer inspection, seems like BLDC is more “invisible” than those other backlinks marketplace.

Basically its script is PHP script. So it’ll be harder to detect, unlike the Javascript ones. Well, theoritically.
Anyway, although it’d be harder to detect, it’s also harder to install for newbies. To my surprise, the support team of BLDC is very responsive. They are even willing to install the script for you on your website. This kind of service is not easy to find. And they treat everyone the same; even when I tried to obtain support for lower-pageranked websites.

So I thought, let’s see if Google can detect this on my blog 🙂
It’d be cool if Google actually able to detect it as well. Therefore I installed it in this blog’s footer. You may have noticed it (or not, it was at the bottom of the page anyway)

To my surprise; more than 2 months passed, Google didn’t do anything, and the links are selling like hotcakes. Amazing.
It’s literally easy money – you do nothing, yet you kept on getting emails almost everyday telling that another link has been sold.
I thought it’s safe now to conclude that BLDC is, well, safe.

I was proven wrong very quickly. In a routine check days later, I found out that this blog got its pagerank dropped to zero.
None. Null 🙂

To make sure it’s not a fluke (sometimes this happens when Google is updating its datacenters around the world), I waited for several days, and kept checking.
It only confirmed it. The zero rank status stays.

Panic attack ! 😀
Just kidding… I don’t really care about this blog’s pagerank anyway, that’s why I did this experiment in the first place. My curiosity got the better of me, he he

Now is the ultimate test – I deleted the BLDC code from my site. If it’s the culprit, Google would soon lifted the ban.
And, to my surprise, it happened. Just in about 3 days, this blog got its previous pagerank back.

So, I think it’s safe to conclude that Google is able to detect even BLDC, and punishes those who are selling (and most likely buying) on it as well.

I don’t know how Google accomplish it though.
I have Google analytics installed, but it should not be able to detect BLDC’s php script. Another possibility is that a Google employee created an account at BLDC, and monitor the sellers there. At first I thought this is not feasible, but with BLDC’s < 100K rank in Alexa, it may very well is worth someone's time at Google to do so. Any other ideas ? So as always, don't sell backlinks. Google has always prohibited this, and WILL make you pay 🙂 I've confirmed it personally in this little experiment. Enjoy.

72 thoughts on “Back Links DOT com : how I teased Google – and its reply

  1. @Darkum – I’m not crazy enough to link back to BLDC after going all the way to prove that Google’s not exactly very happy with them, he he 😀
    .
    By the way, the article on your website (that tracked back here) seems to be clipped / kepotong ?

  2. Oops correction, that article on your blog is fine now. Thanks.
    Hope others won’t suffer the same fate as me as well 😉

  3. Well, my site’s pagerank also dropped to zero since like… months ago. I do have TLA on the site though, but never thinking on removing it 😛

  4. Holy crap they caught on fast and hard! At least they gave you your PR back though that’s the important thing IMO. I don’t think Backlinks.com pays that well so really I don’t bother with it.

  5. @Real Estate – oh yeah they did. I got hit before I knew it. Instant kill.
    Good thing I was keeping a close watch on my blog back then 🙂
    .
    A bit of correction, Back Links dot com pays quite well actually. And it was EASY money – simple one-time setup, then you just watch the money pouring in.
    .
    But of course the risk is definitely NOT worth it 😀

  6. That’s interesting that you got caught. What title did you use for the links and how many did you allow? Personally, I would say that giving it a stealthy title and putting it in the sidebar will help pass it off as more legit.

  7. Well I think it is hard to fake google. You know there is also a spam form that anyone can fill.

  8. I can agree with “estetik” about spam notifying form. But i know real stories when text link buying can improve ranking being not detected by google.

  9. I just start try backlinks.com on my blog, hope it will not dropped my PR

  10. Holy crap they caught on fast and hard! At least they gave you your PR back though that’s the important thing IMO. I don’t think Backlinks.com pays that well so really I don’t bother with it.

  11. What about tag pages? I’m finding that alot of my traffic is coming from tag pages. I didn’t see any settings for true/false with regard to tag pages. Thx.

  12. First, you don’t seem to be capable of reading. Secondly, if you are that dependent on this OS, why don’t you buy it.

  13. pengalaman saya 10 blog saya yang kena penalty menjadi Pagerank 0 setelah saya buang code backlinks dan linkadagenya (TLA tidak ada) dalam 2 minggu 4 diantaranya kembali menjadi PR 3, 3 Menjadi pagerank 2, 4 menjadi PR 1 dan sekarang semua blog itu kembali berkarya di BackLink, dan Linkdage dan 3 bulan ini aman – aman saja

  14. Thanks for testing… I guess you have to get links the old fashioned way – earn them 🙂

  15. Talk about panic attack! Textlinkads is something I’ve been considering and looking at the great scheme of things, I’ve second thoughts now. After all, it’s always a futile struggle pitting against the big G. Btw, great blog and thanks for sharing your experience. It saved me before I actually plunge into it!

  16. Nice post, I was considering using back links dot com until I saw how the big G was slappin people around for it, lol. Google doesn’t miss a beat, at least not for long. When I see something such as this launch I always wait a while to see how it affects other peoples sites before I jump in head first, it may mean I’m a beat behind the times on some new things but it has also saved my sites rankings a few times.

  17. You sir are a gutsy fellow. My biggest fear was whether or not the page rank would ever come back! I think that 3 days to get your pr restored was really fast…but I also wonder what in the google algo is used to detect.

    Either way, i agree that selling links is a recipe for a slap! Shaw

  18. Well, i like your explanation. The situation had just occur to me. When I install BLDC, pagerank dropped to 0, but when I remove, back to PR3.

  19. Nice experiment! Google can neve detect PHP, but it monitors all the changes on your website. If the outbound links are pointing to bad websites, you will notice….

  20. Hello,

    Excellent Post. I am familiar with most of them but still they are in good description so that everyone can understand it very well. And a couple of other things that I have found useful. Your efforts are awesome. Keep it up.

  21. wow this is a great information, i never thought google can banned us, i never though too there some tricks to manipulate backlink with selling backlink. You give me some light here. I will remember you warning for not selling backlink.

  22. That sounds pretty interesting. I think sooner or later google will catch on and put a stop to it. But we should take advantage of it till they do.

  23. thanks!
    You made some good points there. I

    did a search on the topic and found

    most people will agree with your

    blog.It will greatly help me in my SEO activities. 🙂

  24. Thanks!You made some good points there.
    Thanks though, i’m glad some people share good stuff like this! It will greatly help me in my SEO activities.

  25. At least they gave you your PR back though that’s the important thing IMO. I don’t think Backlinks.com pays that well so really I don’t bother with it.

  26. Good article and good find. The moral of story being, you can fool around for sometime, however, at end of the day unless you are dealing with fool, you cant do that for long. Also Google is not a fool for sure.

  27. I knew Google penalize websites that sell links but i wonder of BLDC have an option to set that links to “nofollow” in this way google woudn’t care since you’re only selling an advertising spot on your blog.

  28. What is wrong with putting the time and effort into finding relevant and valued sites to get links from? Surely, the quickest and easiest way in SEO strategy cannot be the best and of course, you do not know the effect until after you have bought the links. I would stay away from any practices that may detrimental to your site’s ranking. You may be unlucky and have your page rank drop for an extended length of time. Don’t be lazy people, put the work in, get good results out.

  29. I’m glad I found your article. I started my web site a week ago and was surfying around the internet looking for ideas to increase backlinks quickly. Buying text links has been mentioned. I was a bit skeptical about it. You have convinced me. Good Work!

  30. Just goes to show that none of those large automated link buying/selling schemes will work/last for long before Google catches on. A few years ago they may have worked, but not anymore.

  31. those back link services can get you easily banned. you don’t know where they add your links and boooom your banned. i did it once and got banned. im not going to buy any back links ever.

  32. After panda I would think that more people would resort to manual backlinking. Yes it takes more work and time but why not build a website that will bring you money for years to come.

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  34. First You got a great blog .I will be interested in more similar topics. i see you got really very useful topics, buy niche backlinks i will be always checking your blog thanks.

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