You’ve probably heard about Fiverr sellers offering large quantities of backlinks from high-DR sites, with some sellers offering this service for as little as $5.
Sound too good to be true?
If you do a quick Google search to see if Fiverr backlinks are worth it, you’ll see most experienced SEO professionals telling you to run for the hills and “you get what you pay for.”
While we largely agree with this stance, it’s important to understand why backlinks purchased on Fiverr are generally not an effective long-term strategy for building site authority.
Let’s go over some of the most common types of backlinks offered on Fiverr:
Forum comments
Since link resellers typically work with multiple clients at the same time, they need to find backlinks that are easy to obtain. Forum comments containing links are easy to automate, so sellers love these. However, because they are so easy to produce, they carry very little SEO value.
Think about it: if search engines rewarded sites that just spammed forums with comments containing a backlink, pretty much anyone could rank well despite having low-quality content.
Here’s an example of a backlink built by a Fiverr seller (the URL has been redacted to keep the site anonymous). Contextual relevance is critically important in SEO, and this link clearly looks like a spam link that was dropped from the sky.
Directory links
Web directories are like online phonebooks–they contain lists of websites, categorized by business type, location, etc. Web directories, such as business.com, can have a high DR but John Mueller himself has said links from these sites don’t enhance SEO.
Footer links
Footer links are backlinks placed in the footer of a website.
Take a look at the footer below from a lifestyle website with a 70+ DR. There are links commonly found in footers like “Privacy Policy” and “About”, but then there’s a link to a random page on “Spanish Tutors”.
In the early days of SEO, these types of links easily flew under the radar since most people don’t interact with this part of a webpage. Google’s algorithm has since adjusted for tactics like these, but we still recommend that clients avoid including external links in their footers, or at least nofollow them to conserve page authority.
Nofollow links
A complaint we often hear from dissatisfied Fiverr customers is that the majority of links are nofollow. While there are many big-name editorial publications like Forbes and CNN that use nofollow links exclusively, these links are more beneficial for referral traffic than SEO. To strengthen your site’s rankings, prioritize obtaining dofollow backlinks.
The importance of quality link building
The reason why Google still places so much weight on your backlink profile is simply because it’s still difficult to acquire relevant backlinks from reputable sites. Most backlinks which are easily attainable are low in quality.
Final Thoughts
Google’s algorithm is more sophisticated than it’s ever been when it comes to detecting black hat backlinking tactics.
Fiverr backlinks can be an effective tool for link building in the short term. However, for effective, white hat links acquired through manual outreach, you’re better off working with an experienced agency.
