My De-indexed Backlinks Test

I signed up to SEO Link Vine Elite (Elite) & SEO Link Monster (Monster) last month.

I was pissed when I discovered that there were hundreds of de-indexed domains in Elite. (This is a high PR network, I think it costs $997 per month)

And even more pissed when all the trackbacks I got on my blog were from de-indexed domains (Monster).

So I ran into both accounts and deleted my links and articles before much damage could be done.

I also decided to do a little test.

I picked out a random plumbing site which was on the third page for a local plumbing keyword, the site had NO backlinks (I checked in lots of tools)

I built 3 links from the Elite network on high PR de-indexed domains.

I also submitted 3 articles to the Monster network.

One week later and there are only 7 links recorded in ahrefs. All de-indexed domains.

Today I searched the keyword, hurried to the third page and the site was gone!

I click through the results pages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Nowhere

I initially thought the domain had been de-indexed.

But I went back to the first page...

ITS NUMBER ONE!

Totally rushed past it!

I'm confused.

ALL of this sites backlinks are from de-indexed domains.

I'm going to be doing some more testing this week before I fully conclude that de-indexed domains are actually working.

This is just a little food for thought, I'm not posting a full case study here, just some interesting results and I'd like to get some second opinions on this.

So, do links from de-indexed domains still work?