"Toxic" Links

Deeeeeeee

Just wondering if SEs will penalize for low-quality links.

I've been told all kinds of things, both that such links are ignored and that they count against a website.

Is there any danger in pointing a purchased list, unfiltered for DA, etc., right at a money site?

I know it's mostly senseless to bother with anything but high DA backlinks pointing at MS, but is there any harm in doing this?

I always mixed what I did as far as SEO tactics, but only began using a purchased list fairly recently.

Thanks to anyone who has any ideas on this.

backlinkaddict

You can check if have a penalty in search console under security and actions if Im remembering correctly. Probably depends more on the specific search engine and how established the "money site" is for these types of questions. Personally, I would not just go buying lists and pointing them directly at your main site and runnning a campaign with no set goal. Def not before filtering out the best links for the closest tiers at minimum. It would probably be a waste of time/resources especially since your paying for these resources. I was a carpenter when I was younger we used to say measure 2 twice cut once. I like to think of SEO campaigns the same way. Test , test run - Measure results then, optimize then, rinse and repeat. Do you have an established website? Does it have any existing backlinks or some indexed social profiles at least? Have you done market/keyword research and have your onpage seo done. Are your targeted keywords currently ranking anywhere? How are you monitoring your efforts and keyword rankings? You can use semrush, ahrefs and I think majestic still for sites you own and verify for free. I would not "rush" into building links if the "basics" are not in place yet and or you have no way see how your campaigns are affecting your site. Def test and mix up your strategies like you said . .

Deeeeeeee

@backlinkaddict: Thank you, kindly,  for the detailed response!!! I really appreciate your help.

"Do you have an established website? Does it have any existing backlinks or some indexed social profiles at least?"

The site has been around a while and once ranked well.  It has backlinks. Some are my own t1s on my own servers or shared hosting. there are the usual socials, and then many t1s on Wordpress and blogging accounts that are my own.  Some authority sites. And, a lot (the majority) of them are links on engines I asked SER to create, pointing right at the site. It's a mix. I've avoided shared PBNs and paid links.

Now it's mostly in the 10-20 slots in the SERPs for KWs I'm aiming for. Some worse.  Just weak rankings.

I did not run SER for some time  during the pandemic, I must admit. I updated machines, and was offline for waaay too long. then, of course, rankings fell. I was also just out of it for a bit during that time...anyway...

I panicked, upon getting back to SEO, and tried doing all this new stuff, wanting to see faster results, but didn't remember how low it was at first, climbing in the SERPs.

I was using GSA SER more effectively years ago when I had SER scrape and then filtered by Yandex PR for contextual links.  I know it's not the same as back in 2017 or even 2019.  I know I have to catch up!  I know some now  use DomDetailer and put in actual DA instead of Yandex, but I don't know about the cost.

I've been testing projects for a while, and have learned a lot more about SER and SEO  in the last two years, but I really had put it all together more effectively in the past, tbh.

I should probably start with an easy (smaller) project and go from there. Re-do everything with what I've learned in mind, and how SEO might have changed in the meantime.

" I was a carpenter when I was younger we used to say measure 2 twice cut once."

It's been so long since I've seen success that I began just "hacking" away, no measured cuts at all! lol  I hope I didn't get any of my sites penalties in the process.

I've been trying new stuff, a lot of testing did not yield expected results because, again, I didn't put the elements together successfully for projects.

I'll try making a project, and see if I can do better.

I want to use Ranker-X; I purchased a lifetime license a few years ago but never actually used it. (I know that is ridiculous!) I mean, if they update and reach targets I am not getting, it can't hurt.

Incidentally,the page I thought was punished went back and is ranking better than before.

"Google Dance" or Penalty? It's scary waiting and seeing which. I should be more careful so I don't mess up. I was testing, but I see that in the past, I never left a footprint that was so obvious as I had doing testing in recent times.

backlinkaddict

I think a dip in rankings before an increase is normal. I see this alot, whether its because of new links getting indexed, an update rolling out changing serp behaviour or possibly a simple failure in rank tracking.

I think if just let it be for awhile it will be fine but if panic and build many links during this "drop" you may find it hard to come back from.

cherub

The only 'toxicity' I've seen from any link in any test I've run has been down to the anchor text used. I've not been able to produce a negative result (within a tolerance) just going by link 'type', but I've certainly managed to get a negative result by using certain words/semantics in anchor texts.

organiccastle

cherub said:

The only 'toxicity' I've seen from any link in any test I've run has been down to the anchor text used. I've not been able to produce a negative result (within a tolerance) just going by link 'type', but I've certainly managed to get a negative result by using certain words/semantics in anchor texts.

Same for me. I am pointing SER links directly to my money sites and never encountered any ranking loss or penalty. The anchors I am using on T1 are mainly (80%+) the Site Name, URL or generic anchors.

Deeeeeeee

cherub said:

The only 'toxicity' I've seen from any link in any test I've run has been down to the anchor text used. I've not been able to produce a negative result (within a tolerance) just going by link 'type', but I've certainly managed to get a negative result by using certain words/semantics in anchor texts.

Hmm....That is actually what precipitated the fall in SERPs recently. Not that I know that it's the cause, but I made more than the usual amount of backlinks to my site using a list  with about 800 articles with the main keyword, not any of the longtail versions, as anchor, in a few hours.

I've also seen KWs in SERPs go from 40-60 range back to page one after I corrected the imbalance of too high a percentage of certain keywords.

I hope I didn't ruin the site.   Mostly, the KWs dropped, but not that far. Some came back a tiny bit stronger.

thank you all for the convo. I still wonder about this!