Paid for donation website backlinks, rank destroyed. Bad idea?

headphonesguy

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Here's the situation:

April 15-17, acquired 3 backlinks by "donating" to a few sites that offer that option tertiary to my niche on a specific money site. The sites all have high DA and TF, but also link to many other sites that have also donated. My money site is old, no bad history and no manual actions, built organically over years.

April 18-22, fell off a cliff in both KW ranking for my primary money KWs and overall traffic, about 40 KWs total just off a cliff by about 50% ranking. Thought it has to be an algo update but unsure because the timing with these backlinks was very close to the fall now that I think about it.

Does anybody have experience with donation sites?
 
Your kw's could be dancing or they could be bad links if they are blog rolls resulting in instant jump in link count?
 
Two possibilities:

1) Google dance due to the power of links, It happens with PBNs.
2) Google will sink your rankings because Big G knows that you paid for this links.

I think (2) is the right now.
Wait for 1 week / 10 days, if nothing new happens then contact those sites to remove your link & you will return back with no problems.
 
Two possibilities:

1) Google dance due to the power of links, It happens with PBNs.
2) Google will sink your rankings because Big G knows that you paid for this links.

I think (2) is the right now.
Wait for 1 week / 10 days, if nothing new happens then contact those sites to remove your link & you will return back with no problems.

Thanks for this, it's always hard when your work takes a hit because of shortcuts. But in reality, it's a good experience to remind that Google is always watching us, even when we sleep...
 
Here's the situation:

April 15-17, acquired 3 backlinks by "donating" to a few sites that offer that option tertiary to my niche on a specific money site. The sites all have high DA and TF, but also link to many other sites that have also donated. My money site is old, no bad history and no manual actions, built organically over years.

April 18-22, fell off a cliff in both KW ranking for my primary money KWs and overall traffic, about 40 KWs total just off a cliff by about 50% ranking. Thought it has to be an algo update but unsure because the timing with these backlinks was very close to the fall now that I think about it.

Does anybody have experience with donation sites?
you said April 18-22 meaning is probably a dance that's all. To be sure check some websites that's already donate to those directories and see if they are ranking on something or not. If they are ranking then the issue is not from the backlink.
 
you said April 18-22 meaning is probably a dance that's all. To be sure check some websites that's already donate to those directories and see if they are ranking on something or not. If they are ranking then the issue is not from the backlink.

Thanks, good tips. You learn something no matter how long you have been doing web work, the dance is a new term for me. I'm guessing it means once in a while your rankings just go nuts as Google makes decisions, then settle back down in time.
 
Any updates on this?

It's been some time now, about a week. Traffic has somewhat normalized, though there are a few pages that are seeing reduced traffic. In Search Console, I am seeing my primary concerned money content is actually trending up, which is somewhat confusing as revenue and clicks are down. Perhaps there is some market seasonality that is new, or a change in overall behavior/product preference that we are not aware of. Search Console is telling us that overall, keyword ranking is trending up! Bottom line: Inconclusive. There was a rapid drop that may be coincidental, but will keep watching to see how this all plays out.
 

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There was a confirmed google update recently. Not sure what date but definitely within the last 2 weeks. I doubt its those backlinks that are hurting you though, 3 backlinks wont do it.
 
Lol... awful advice was given to you in this thread.

It takes around 6 weeks for a backlink to take full effect. Not 72 hours. Your website lost 50% of traffic and only has 40 keywords, I take it has you don't have X,XXX of daily traffic? this is when you should be worrying, not when you lose a few hundred.

Just chill out, Google has no way of knowing you brought those links..
 
Lol... awful advice was given to you in this thread.

It takes around 6 weeks for a backlink to take full effect. Not 72 hours. Your website lost 50% of traffic and only has 40 keywords, I take it has you don't have X,XXX of daily traffic? this is when you should be worrying, not when you lose a few hundred.

Just chill out, Google has no way of knowing you brought those links..

Thanks this is very helpful. I did not panic and make any changes or undo my links. I will wait and see how the new Google update plays out. Currently site gets about 1,100 daily organic from Google, and is cranking out $1,000 - $1,500/month in profits. I have continued to link build and do basic work as I have a lot going on and not a ton of time to build these links, and have read on these forums that link building services are mostly junk. If you do know of someone reputable pleas let me know!
 
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I dont think its because of the 3 links you got especialy if you used brand or naked url anchors.. Its just normal thing with SEO and google accept it and keep working there are things you will never understand or be able to proof why.. Ive seen sites that get hit even they have amazing unique content and few years old suddenly start dropping and losing traffic, keywords.. then they come back again after some time.
 
I dont think its because of the 3 links you got especialy if you used brand or naked url anchors.. Its just normal thing with SEO and google accept it and keep working there are things you will never understand or be able to proof why.. Ive seen sites that get hit even they have amazing unique content and few years old suddenly start dropping and losing traffic, keywords.. then they come back again after some time.

Thanks, I'm resolved to continuing especially since this is a nice, very old site with good history. The timing of the links and the drop in traffic was just very coincidental, so I came here for reassurance :)
 
Hello, I want to update on what has happened in the 30 days to my money site.

As of today, it has achieved a new all time high in traffic. The reduction I reported earlier was obviously temporary. Oddly, traffic mix now seems to be more mobile devices and conversions on ebooks are still at near zero from daily sales. In addition, I have added some key PBN and outreach links in order to strengthen page profile. This seems to be having a site wide effect and rankings are increasing.

One note: It seems Google has decided I am in a niche. Pages that apply to the niche and work nicely together topically are destroying and in top 3 search position every day now. These are 4-5 separate pages ranking for the niche term. Unfortunately i have a different niche on the same site (the way it evolved over the years) that seems to not be growing as well. I will continue to watch, but thought you would all be interested in the new high today, and maybe Google dance is over for now. Onward!
 
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