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Grumpy SEO Guy
Why "One Time Payments," or "Lifetime Backlinks," Are Always a Scam - Episode 10
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This is grumpy SEO guy episode 10, why lifetime backlinks Are Always a Scam. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. And you know what? I'm actually kind of excited today because this is my 10th episode and I think that's pretty cool. So thank you to everybody who's listened. Thank you to everybody who subscribes. And now let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because there are a lot of backlink providers that are trying to rip you off by selling you lifetime backlinks or any variety of one time payment for a backlink. Let me start by saying that lifetime backlinks do not exist and anybody trying to sell you one is lying to you and is scamming you and you will eventually be penalized for it, or at best, you will lose any benefit that you got. Which is kind of like a penalty if you think about it. Because remember, if you pay for something for life, you expect to get benefit from it for life. If you pay for something for life and it stops working after a year, well, you just got ripped off, didn't you? Don't worry, we're going to talk more about that and explain why that is the case when anyone sells a permanent or a lifetime or one time payment backlink. But before I go any more into this, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for. Okay, back to the show. Anyway, this episode is going to explain why, but the short answer is this. If you ever see anybody offering a lifetime backlink or a permanent backlink or a one time payment backlink or anything like that run. This is a scam in every case. And even though we just did an episode talking about scams, I wanted to give this one its own episode because you see it so much often. Okay, in order to explain this, I need to explain the economy of backlink providing.
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Okay.
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And just some basic business stuff. This is all gonna make sense afterwards, hopefully. If not, well, just trust me. Don't buy any lifetime links. It's always a scam. Okay, so before we go any further, let me define this. Real SEO requires monthly payments. For example, when we get a client and we're providing backlinks for them, they pay us month after month after month and we keep those backlinks online.
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Okay?
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Not only are they paying for the ranking increase that they're getting, but they're also paying for the high quality websites we use and all of the stuff that we do to keep the websites online, to keep them indexed, just providing overall good quality. But ultimately they are paying for the ranking increase that they're getting. Okay, the alternative to that is it or lifetime link. Okay, this is always going to be a scam. The best case scenario, if you ever buy a lifetime link is that you will get a small benefit and then eventually that benefit will go away. The worst case scenario is that you will get no benefit and then you will eventually get penalized. We're going to talk about why those are the case. For this example, I'm going to use small numbers. Okay? You can use whatever size, numbers and examples you want, but I'm going to keep them pretty basic because I don't want to make this more complicated than it needs to be. In this example, let's say somebody has a website and they're going to sell backlinks to clients on this website and they're going to sell lifetime links, okay? So their clients are only going to pay them one time, and then this backlink is going to stay on this website forever. Do you see a problem with this yet? Okay, so they sell a link to the first buyer. It's a lifetime link, no problem. Then they sell a link to the second buyer. It's a lifetime link, okay? Then they sell to the third and the fourth, and so on. Now, one thing that I mentioned in a previous episode is the concept of OBLs or outbound links. An outbound link is a link from one website to another website. Generally Speaking, the fewer OBLs a site has, the more link juice each of those links has. In other words, if I have a site and I link to 10 people, each of those websites is getting more link juice than if I have that same site and I link to 100 people because my website has a finite amount of link juice to give. And do I want it distributed to 10 people or do I want it distributed to 100 people? A lot of people are going to say that that's not how it works. They're going to say there's no such thing as a finite amount of link juice and blah, blah, blah. Okay, look, I don't know exactly how the search engines calculate their link juice, okay? But I've got over a decade of experience doing it a certain way that works very, very well. So what I'm telling you here is based on what I've seen and what I've experienced, and I know that generally speaking, the more links you have, the less link juice each link has. That's literally why the search engines came up with the concept of link farms. To penalize websites that were having too many OBLs. What is a link farm? A link farm is a website that exists only to provide backlinks to other websites and provides no value to a user. Now, I'm not sure of exactly where the cutoff is between normal website and link farm, but I have seen link farms and they're very obvious when you see them. So I like to greatly lean towards the side of fewer obligations rather than more obl. And the counter argument to anybody who doesn't believe that that's how authority works is this. How do you get authority then? How do you get link juice then? Does it come from publishing new content? Of course it doesn't. If that were the case, content farms would have more authority than anyone else in the world. Does it come from having good quality content? Well, we know that's not the case. Just go search for anything and randomly pick something and that's in the top few results. And it probably doesn't have the best content, but it ranks at the top. You wanna know why? Because authority matters, content doesn't matter, and content has nothing to do with authority. So where else would authority come from? Where else would link juice come from? As far as I have seen, every website has a finite amount of link juice to give out, which is calculated from how much authority it has. And every link provides some of that link juice. Now, I don't think it's a direct relation. I don't think that if you have a website and you only have one OBL on it, that it gets the maximum total amount of link juice possible. I don't Think it's that simple. But I'm telling you, 10 to 15 to 20 OBLs per website is a pretty good number to deliver a lot of link juice. And once you get a little bit past that, when you get into the 50s and the hundreds, you start getting into link farm territory. So you probably don't want to do it that way. Now somebody's going to say, well, what If I have 100 different articles and each article has a backlink on it? Is that a link farm? No, that's probably not a link farm. Okay, but you're missing the point here. The purpose of your private blog portfolio is to give as much link juice as possible to your clients so they get to and stay at the top of the search engines. And if you have 100 different articles, each with a backlink, now obviously here I'm talking about one backlink per article, because that would be the correct way to do it. You're not going to be giving each client as much link juice and you're probably not going to be getting as good of results. Now, if all your clients are at the top of the search engines, don't let me tell you how to do it, okay? You keep doing what works for you. I'm just telling you how it works for me. Now, it's actually probably more complicated than that, but for our intents and purposes, we're just gonna leave it like this. So that's why I said in another episode, I like to keep my OBLs between 10 and 20. I generally go closer to 10, but there's no problem with going to 20. Now, to be fair, I could go beyond that and it wouldn't even be a problem. But eventually you reach a point where your site is classified as something called a link farm, which we just talked about like two minutes ago. But if you want to hear it one more time, a link farm is basically a website that only exists to have lots of links on it and provides no real value to any visitors. And once your website is classified as a link farm by the search engines, that website is done. It's getting penalized. All of its link juice is gone. And probably the websites that you link to are going to get penalized too. So we have this person and they're selling backlinks to people and they sell a lifetime backlink, and then they sell another lifetime backlink, and then they sell another lifetime backlink and so on, and eventually they reach a point where, where they are teetering on the edge of being considered a link farm. That's the first thing that can happen, the second thing that can happen is they have so many OBLs that none of them are getting sufficient link juice anymore, which means they're no longer providing value to their clients. So let's stop here for a minute, because the first rule of business is this, don't do anything that doesn't make you money.
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Okay?
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Let's say, for example, this guy sells. Let's say he's gonna follow my rules, okay? He's gonna stop at 10 OBL. That's a good rule. I would recommend that you do it that way, but you don't have to. Okay, so he sells 10 backlinks, lifetime backlinks, okay? Now he's at his 10. He's like, well, I don't wanna go over this because I'm already providing these clients maximum link juice and because I don't want to be considered a link farm. So we're gonna leave it here, 10. Okay, we're good. Now he can't sell any more backlinks because he's already at his limit. And all of these people were charged for a lifetime backlink. So if the seller is honest, he has to leave those backlinks up forever, doesn't he? Now remember, he can't make any more money from the website because he's already reached his maximum obligation. Well, now what's he gonna do? Is he just gonna keep paying for hosting and keep paying for renewing the domain so the backlinks that all his clients paid for stay online. Eventually he's going to spend more on those things than he made from the backlinks. Remember, this guy cannot sell any more backlinks because he's already at his OBL limit. So everybody paid for a lifetime backlink. And now this guy has to keep paying to keep his website online forever because remember, his clients paid for a lifetime backlink. Do you actually think he's gonna do that? I don't think he's gonna do that. Nobody is going to keep a website that's not making them money, okay, so what's he gonna do? Remember, this guy is a shady backlink seller, so what's he gonna do? He's gonna let his domain expire cause it's not making him money anymore. And all of those people who got their lifetime backlinks just lost any link juice they were getting. Good job paying for nothing. So anyway, you've got the shady backlink seller who's hit his OBL target and now he can't sell any more backlinks, which means that website's not going to make him any more money. Do you actually believe that in five or 10 years, he's still going to have that website online and your lifetime backlink that you paid for is still going to be online? Yeah. Okay, now let's use a different example, because remember, we're dealing with a shady SEO seller here. We can't trust this person at all. So what's he probably going to do? He's probably going to keep selling backlinks even though he's hit his OBL limit. He doesn't care. Do you want to know why? Because he's making more money. Remember, shady SEO providers don't care about screwing you over. They only care about making as much money as they can. So he knows that he's probably at an OBL limit, but he's going to keep selling backlinks. So anyways, 20, 30, 40, 50, however many. Look, I don't know, but eventually it gets to a point where you're a link farm, okay? And he's got so many OBLs at this point that nobody's even getting very much link juice anymore. So remember that lifetime backlink that you paid for? Guess what? It's not even helping you anymore, is it? Well, let's say this guy's a link farm now. Okay? What happens? First thing that happens is his site gets penalized. Okay, what else happens? Well, he links to you. Well, there's a chance that your site can get penalized. Now that's called being in a bad neighborhood. Bad neighborhood links work both ways, by the way. If you link to a shady site, you're part of a bad neighborhood. But if a shady site links to you, you're also part of a bad neighborhood. If you remember in episode two, when we talked about negative SEO, it's very close in concept to how negative SEO works. And if you haven't listened to episode two, negative SEO is a real thing. And I give an example of when it happened to one of our clients in that episode, and we fixed it. So we've got two scenarios. He can either stop selling backlinks when it reaches the correct point, in which case, why would he keep paying for his website? Why would he keep paying for hosting? Why? You're not making any more money. You can't do anything else. Are you just going to be a nice person and pay for hosting and keep the site online forever just so those lifetime backlinks that you sold five or 10 years ago are still getting their link juice? No. Nobody's going to do that. You want to know why? Because that would not make you money. And because these people are shady SEO backlink sellers. Nobody's going to do that. Number two, he keeps selling backlinks forever because he keeps making money and all of a sudden he's a link farm. And you get penalized. Well, I told you not to buy lifetime backlinks, didn't I? Enjoy your penalty because the link farm that links to you got penalized and now you get penalized. The only people that are going to disagree with this are shady backlink sellers, okay? It's not a sustainable economic model. You cannot sell lifetime backlinks and continually make money. And the reason SEO providers do what they do is to make money.
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Okay?
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If you want to make money selling backlinks, you have to do monthly subscriptions. You can also do yearly subscriptions. Look, the majority of our clients are on monthly subscriptions, okay? But you know what? Every once in a while, if somebody asks, we'll do a yearly subscription. Maybe we'll give them a little bit of a discount if they pay for a year in advance. That's fine. But you know what? What is this monthly subscription getting them? High quality backlinks, great ranking increases, low OBLs, and our sites stay online forever. Do you want to know why? Because people are still paying us. It is always profitable for me to keep those sites online, even though I have to pay for hosting, even though I have to pay domain renewals once a year. It's always profitable for me to keep these sites online because they're making money. And the reason they're making money is because I'm getting monthly payments for the backlinks. If I had sold my clients lifetime backlinks instead of monthly subscriptions, not only would I be out of business years ago, but none of them would still be at the top of the search engines. Now, again, people are always going to willfully misinterpret everything I've just said, and they're always going to come up with reasons for why lifetime backlinks might actually be a thing, but they're not. They are never, ever a thing. Look, you know, it's funny. When you've been in the industry for as long as I have, you can tell very quickly from looking at a backlink provider's services if they're a scammer or not. You're just able to. You can tell from the way they explain things. You can tell from the phrasing they use. You can tell from the offering, you can tell from what information they do. Or do not provide. You can just tell I have never seen in my life a one time payment for a backlink that was not a scam. And it's not even possible to not be a scam. So there's a lot of things that you can look for when you're evaluating an SEO agency or when you're evaluating a backlink provider or whatever. But lifetime backlinks is immediately a scam, okay? Because like I said, there's only two things that can happen. You will get a small benefit and then the website will go offline because it wasn't making the money anymore. Because again, nobody is going to pay to keep a website online that is not making them money.
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Okay?
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You sell a bunch of backlinks, lifetime subscriptions, Yay. You make a lot of money. Now you can't sell anymore because you're at your OBL limit. Well, are you gonna keep paying for that website to be online forever? Are you gonna keep paying your hosting bill every month? Why would anyone do that, Much less a shady SEO provider? Nobody would do that. Number two, you keep selling backlinks forever. Yay. And now you got hundreds of them. Oh, you're a link farm now. Everybody who bought from you gets penalized. Good job scamming people. Enjoy your penalties if you bought from that person. Way to go. There are no other alternatives. There are none. The only way to ensure that your backlinks will stay online and keep providing link juice is if you're paying monthly. Because that gives incentive to the provider to continuously provide value. There is no other way to do it. You cannot. Believe me, if you want, okay, I don't really care. But look, if you buy one time backlinks, I would bet you that within one year they will not be online anymore. And I will bet you that if they are online at the end of the first year, they will eventually penalize you because it's going to become a link farm. Or the other thing that can happen is somebody sells you a backlink, your lifetime backlink, right? And then in like a year or two, he's like, oh yeah, you know, this guy paid me once, I don't need to leave the sunlight anymore, and he removes it. This is related to another thing we're going to talk about too. I've kind of alluded to this before. I have said that you cannot trust other people to manage your backlinks anyway, okay? Now there are exceptions to that if you find a truthful backlink provider, but like I said, 99% of them are scammers but this is getting into another topic we're going to talk about where basically relying on other people and having your links on other people's websites that you cannot control is very dangerous. I've mentioned this before, and I'm gonna do a separate episode on this, but the two most common types of backlinks that are supposed to be recommended by SEO gurus and other people are something called guest posting and link outreach, or sometimes it's called blog outreach, but basically they involve getting links from other websites. They are ultimately dangerous. You cannot control what happens on someone else's website. This is why my agency runs our own portfolio that we fully control. There is no funny business, there's no shadiness, there's no scamming. And why I recommend highly that if you are able, you do so by creating your own portfolio and not having to rely on link providers or SEO agencies that there's a very good chance will be scammy or shady or do something that they're not supposed to do and penalize you. But I'm getting too far off topic now. We will discuss this in a different episode. Well, you paid for a lifetime backlink, but guess what? He just pulled your link. So enjoy not having the link juice that you paid for. Do you like getting ripped off? Because that's what just happened. Now, I'm not saying that anybody who charges you a monthly fee is not ripping you off, okay? Because 99% of SEO agencies, 99% of SEO consultants, and if you're talking about just backlink providers, I would say 99.9% of backlink providers are scammers.
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Okay?
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Now I just want to talk about backlink providers here, okay? In over a decade of being in the industry, I'm only talking about backlink providers at this point. In over a decade of being in the industry, I don't want to name anything, but depending on what venues you spend time on and what marketplaces and such, you will probably see 100 different backlink providers per day at least.
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Okay.
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Why go listen to the episode about scams? Because it's very easy to be an SEO scammer. If for no other reason, then there's no barriers to entry in the industry. If you're confused about this, go listen to episode nine called six of the most common scams in the SEO industry. But you will see 100 backlink providers per day. In over a decade of being in the industry, I would say I have met maybe two or three people. Not two or three people per day. Two or three people who are not scammers that provide backlinks. That's how bad it is. Most people do something wrong, and I've talked about a lot of the things that can go wrong. But one of the most common things I see is a lifetime backlink being sold. It is always a scam. We're going to do another episode on things to look for when deciding if you want to buy backlinks or not. But just trust me, if it says anything even remotely related to lifetime backlinks, like run 100%, 100%, it's a scam. I hope that I have convinced you of that by now. But I don't know what else to say other than to say that it's literally not a feasible business model to offer one time payments. Because one of two things will happen. You'll either hit your OBL limit and have to stop selling backlinks. And then why would you keep paying for a website if it's not making you any money? Nobody else is paying you. Why would you keep paying year after year for hosting and renewals? Why? Why would you do that? Nobody would do that. Or they keep selling backlinks forever and eventually it turns into a link farm. So enjoy your penalty. I don't know what else to tell you about that. So again, I hope this makes sense. I would say more than 50% of the SEO world disagrees with everything I've said on this episode. But I don't care. You know what? Cause those people are scammers and they're probably just trying to sell you one time backlinks. Because in their scammer minds, they're thinking, well, if I get a payment from this guy, ha ha, I will just tell him it's a lifetime backlink. Ha ha. He won't think to check if it's still online in a year. I get money. Yeah. Good job being a scammer. As a buyer, you need to stay away from that kind of vendor, okay? They're all garbage. They're all scammers. Just stop. So anyways, I'm gonna leave it at that. Let me say it one more time to really make my point. If you ever see a lifetime payment for a backlink, it is a scam. Do not buy it. So I hope that explains everything and I hope that clears everything up. One time payments, lifetime backlinks, whatever. It's always a scam. Okay? I hope that explains everything and I hope that makes everything clear. I'm gonna do something new now. I'm gonna release episodes on Wednesday, so the next episode will come out on Wednesday, and I'm gonna try a new format that I might do every once in a while, and I'm gonna call it SEO Stories. I think you're gonna like it. So thanks for listening. If there's anything you want me to talk about on a future episode, you can email me at hellorumpy SEO guy.com don't forget to subscribe and I will talk to you on Wednesday. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for the first episode of SEO Stories.