I never have personally bought links or even assisted my clients in doing so, but I have had numerous occasions to counsel clients who are trying to break the link buying habit. Some are doing it out of principle while others have unfortunately bottomed out, having allowed their link buying addiction to interfere with their relationship with the SERP god. For those of you in a similar predicament, I offer the 12 steps to end your link buying addiction.
Step 1 – Admit that you powerless over your addiction to chasing rank on Google- that your link portfolio had become unmanageable.
Step 2 – Come to believe that a Power greater than yourself could restore your rankings.
Step 3 – Make a decision to turn your will and you life over to the care of God as you understand God.
Step 4 – Make a searching and fearless inventory of your past abuses.
Step 5 – Admitted to Google, to yourself and to your clients the exact nature of your wrongs.
Step 6 – Affirm that you are entirely ready to have Google remove all these backlinks from your profile.
Step 7 – Humbly asked Google to remove your penalties.
Step 8 – Make a list of all the links you have purchased and became willing to send take down requests to all of them.
Step 9 – Make direct amends to clients wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Step 10 – Continue to take personal inventory and when you being a craphat, promptly admitted it.
Step 11 – Seek through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with Google as we understood Google, praying only for knowledge of Google’s algorithm for us and the power to adjust accordingly.
Step 12 – Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, try to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all your affairs.