A while back I signed up to test a backlinking service called Textlinks.com which I think was previously known as SEO Ultimate Network.
How does Textlinks.com work ? Well it uses a credit system where you can get one way backlinks from a variety of blogs in their network including footer, header,contextual and article links. It will cost you 1 credit for most links and 3 credits for a homepage link.There is also an option for blog comment links.
You can buy credits on a daily basis but the best value is the monthly membership which gives you 99 credits per month for $99 . When you sign up there are also extra bonus links from other networks but so far I haven’t used these.
At the time there was a free trial offer for 25 Links, I didn’t expect any real results from this but was surprised when I noticed some movement in the serps so I signed up for the monthly membership.
The video below gives you a quick demo of the control panel
Fair Disclaimer : I only done a small test of about 175 credits and this was in the middle of the Google Panda and Penguin Updates so results may be skewed as I lost a lot of other good rankings in this update ( Yes, can you believe it ? ).
However, the backlinks from Textlinks.com actually performed pretty good despite my reservations when I looked at the quality of some of their blogs ! And if any of your links get removed you will find credits refunded to your account, and the links are permanent. I used up 50 credits one day and noticed 7 credits were back in my account the next day as some of my links didn’t go live.
The interface is very easy to use and you simply search for related blogs to add your links to, example of topics below…
I can’t reveal the domains for obvious reasons, in theory if you use the sidebar, footer and contextual links it is all pretty automated as you simply do a search and place your links. However, it is worth taking your time and finding the best quality blogs to place your links on as I found domains ranging from 1 month old to 4 years old.
You simply use up your credits and there is no more work required apart from tracking your results and rankings.
In the Textlinks.com interface you can preview the blogs in a framed window that doesnt reveal the site url but gives you an idea of the content. I found some blogs with very few links and others with loads so it’s worth taking the time to find your good backlinks.
Tip : Click on the archive posts to find the age of the domains !
Adding anchor text links and your website details is also very easy…..
Remeber this was a small test but here are the Textlinks results on the keywords and domains I tested. Credits used basically mean 1 credit = 1 Dollar ( I did get some bonus extra free credits so one month of links was $99 ).
Site 1 : .org domain 2 years plus
27 Footer Links, 7 Contextual Links
Total Cost : 46 Credits
Keyword Google Position : No 6
Current Google Position : No 3
Increase of 3 Positions and so far untouched by the Google Updates.
—–
Site 2 : .co.uk Domain 2 years plus
13 Footer Links
Total Cost : 19 Credits
Keyword Google Position : No 29
Current Google Position : No 6
Update : This site got smashed by the Penguin Update and lost all it’s rankings. I dont think Textlinks had anything to do with this as I only had 13 links using the same anchor text links. Previously I had some other links coming in from various sources that seemed to have hurt the site. Currently working on methods to get my rankings back.
————-
Site 3 : .co.uk Domain 1 year old
33 Footer Links
Total Cost : 43 Credits
Keyword Google Position : No 39
Current Google Position : No 16
Increase by 23 Positions, untouched so far by Google Updates.
————
Site 4 : .org Domain 2 years plus
25 Sidebar Links and 4 Footer Links
Total Cost : 39 Credits
Keyword Google Position : No 45
Current Google Position : No 8
Some decent results here to get to Page 1 and it’s a pretty competitive keyword.
———–
Site 5 : .co.uk Domain 2 years plus
21 Sidebar Links
Total Cost : 27 Credits
Google Keyword Position : No 15
Current Keyword Position : Not Ranked
I think this site has been hit by a Penguin, currently investigating !
—————
In Summary, I didn’t use all the features of this service to their full potential but the results were pretty promising. It’s not the cheapest backlink service but remember unlike other services you don’t have to submit content to get your links which can save time and money.
You should be getting links from a variety of sources and it’s maybe worth testing out Textlinks for a few months and see how it works out if you are looking to rank for easy to medium keyword phrases.
Click here for 25 Free Backlinks at Textlinks
