The Current State of Backlinks

I'm not an expert but I know the basics.

Backlinks still have value in ranking.

If those backlinks are coming from authority websites that are in the same niche to your clients website, then they will have a weight in.

If for example your client website is for dog training and the backlinks are coming from dog food and dog stuff websites. Those backlinks will benefit the dog training website of your client.

But if it's coming from irrelevant websites to the dog niche then they won't have the same value.

Bottom line is if a backlink is coming from a website in the same niche it's better than 50 backlinks coming from irrelevant websites.

Except that the only person saying that is Matt Cutts who routinely says things that then turn out to be B.S. ... look at what actually ranks, not at what Cutts yammers on about.

And you can buy backlinks if you know what you're doing.

Yes they do AS LONG AS the articles don't contain grammar problems which Google's engines can spot a mile off.

It would.

Okay, this is VERY important. Buying backlinks works under certain scenarios.

1) The anchor text is changed up. You don't need to worry about "click here" and other stupid nonsense like that, but anchor text should vary. The 50 backlinks should contain maybe 7 links hitting the primary keyword, 5 hitting a close second keyword, 3 hitting a third, then start varying up with 35 other keywords for the remaining.

2) Fiverr is probably NOT the service to be using as few vendors can support what I just said.

3) PR means much less than it used to. WHERE links come from has become important. The sites linking to you DO NOT have to be "contextually related" like Matt Cutts claims (another example of him spewing B.S.). I've tested this 10 ways to sunday. Having said that, you want links from sites with a small number of outbound links or you don't get much "link juice" out of it. Getting links from some PR8 site with 90 gajillion other outbound links won't do nearly as much for you as a link from a PR4 site with 3 other outbound links.

Those Fiverr services I can pretty much guarantee you are going to get you links from sites they use A LOT which means you won't get hardly anything out of them.

IF YOU DO SEO THEN YOU NEED YOUR OWN PBN.

I'll go one step farther. If your client is paying you the fairly standard 1k per month, why not build a PBN specifically for that client? It'll cost you roughly $400 to build him something that gives him the first 4 listings on the organic results and allows him to absolutely dominate the local results on top of it.

If you don't know how to build a PBN (stands for private blog network ... most people build these WRONG and it screws them in the end) then PM me and we can talk by voice.

Whether or not is a new site or an old one links will definitely help. But you have to know "how to do them" by splitting your anchors properly and by using quality sources.

I would personally avoid links from "old school" sources and by any means fiverr. If the website is a brand new then you have to be way more carefull with links. However i don`t recommend fiverr for any type of site (new or old)

Some people tend to go for the cheapest option in a field where they shouldn`t make any compromises (i mean seo). In this field price reflects quality. You pay $5 for a seo gig on fiverr well you`ll get $5 quality. As simple as that. If we combine a brand new site with fiverr seo gigs that would be a red carpet invitation for Google to penalyze the site

When you think this is true, you shouldn´t have clients... It´s just propaganda to get people to use adwords!

All oldschool techniques are fine and to a point necessary. However, they have to be done the right way! Don´t overdo it and don´t have like 50% of your links coming from the same source.

Depending on how much they are willing to spend you could build a private blog network.

Stay away from fiverr for direct links.

If you want to play by Google's rules, you can't buy backlinks. How many SEOs are really willing to obey the rulebook? I would not use Fiverr gigs, but good ones and some other forms of spam may work better than I'd like to admit.

That "dead according to Google" is BS unless by "old school" you mean "spam". I guess many marketers feel that article submissions are getting harder because Google is looking into badly spun content and awful spam sites. You know, you may even need to get real useful content instead of the artificial substitute.

If you have a client that mentioned fiverr, your wasting your time.

It is my understanding that you just do not want a bunch of low page rank links. It is ok to buy links as long as it is not a lot all at once and make sure the links you do get are high PR links.

Avoid Fiverr for backlinking. Full of scams and it can put your site in danger!

Chris, do you really believe those 50 Fiverr backlinks could help your client? If you don't, then just tell them so.
First off, it's impossible for any good links to come that cheap. Second, Fiverr gigs is what people use these days to hurt a competitor.
Why don't the client try content marketing, internal linking and good old networking to get to know people in the industry instead. Then links will follow.

In time, all these really amazing and high quality blogs that are allowing spammy blog post comments from link builders will get penalized. I would not want my link anywhere near them when it happens. For now, just stay to the tried and true content creation aspects of SEO and if your readers happen to share one of your pages on Facebook or Googe+ or their own blog, then so much the better.

Can anyone recommend a reputable backlink service that offers varied anchor text? Cost is no issue. Is something like this worthwhile or a scam?

It would seem my link got moderated out- it was a link to a SEO backlink service in the WSO forum.