Analyzing the Impact of Purchased SEO Tactics on Google Ranking: A Personal Observation
Recently, I undertook a significant website upgrade by transitioning my WordPress site from the Pagelines framework to Elementor. As there was no straightforward migration path, this process involved creating a completely new site using Elementor. During this overhaul, I focused heavily on optimizing for search engine optimization (SEO) to improve visibility and ranking.
While reviewing the competitive landscape in my niche services sector, I observed some intriguing trends:
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Many of my competitors appear to be engaging in the purchase of backlinks. Their backlink profiles include a high volume of seemingly spammy links, which they seem to acquire without hesitation.
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Similarly, on Google Local, these businesses often appear to be acquiring reviews en masse—sometimes hundreds—despite not experiencing any corresponding increase in actual customer traffic.
Despite these practices, my newly launched site has been performing surprisingly well. Within just a week, I’ve moved from the second page to the first page of Google search results for relevant keywords. Additionally, my presence within Google’s AI-generated snippets has significantly improved, often appearing at the top of the results, whereas I previously had no visibility there. Notably, my efforts have focused solely on creating high-quality content; I have not heavily invested in paid backlinks or review manipulations.
This experience leads me to question the prevalent belief—often reinforced in online communities—that Google heavily penalizes or devalues purchased backlinks and reviews. Based on my observations, such tactics may not be as detrimental as commonly assumed, at least within certain niches. For now, it appears that genuine content and user engagement play a more significant role in organic ranking improvements than these purchased signals.
While this is a limited personal case, it suggests that black-hat SEO tactics like buying backlinks or reviews might not be as impactful on Google’s algorithms as many experts suggest. As always, maintaining a focus on quality content and authentic engagement seems to be a reliable strategy for improving search visibility.