How a Home Services Business Got Penalized for Buying Links

Recently, we encountered something rare—a home services business penalized by Google for purchasing links. This was surprising because, in all my years of working in SEO, I hadn’t seen a case like this in a long time. It sparked a deeper investigation, and in this article, I’ll share the fascinating insights we gathered from analyzing this case. If you’re running link-building campaigns or considering it, you’ll want to know what went wrong here to avoid making the same mistakes.

The Rise of Manual Penalties for Link Buying

Manual penalties from Google have become increasingly rare. When I asked around, many SEOs and business owners said they hadn’t seen a penalty for links in years. But suddenly, earlier this year, Google began handing them out again—particularly around the time of the March Core Algorithm Update. This home services business was one of the unlucky ones.

So how bad does a link profile need to be to get penalized? The quick answer is: pretty freaking bad.

Initial Penalty—But No Immediate Drop in Rankings

Here’s where things got interesting. When the business received its penalty in March, their rankings didn’t immediately drop. Typically, a manual penalty would send a site’s rankings plummeting, but that didn’t happen until the June Spam Update.

Buying Links Helped them Rank

One of the most notable things about this case is that the links were initially working. The company’s rankings were improving steadily, despite the risky link-building strategy. However, the unnatural pattern in their referring domains—shooting up from 0 to 87 in a short time—was a red flag.

The Link Building Company Had a Strong Reputation—But It Didn’t Matter

This business wasn’t using some shady, unknown service. They hired a well-known link-building company with a solid reputation. The takeaway here? Even reputable companies can use risky tactics. Just because a company is popular doesn’t mean their approach will keep you safe.

Why Did They Get Penalized?

So what exactly got this business penalized? A few major factors stood out:

• Volume of links: They went from no links to 100+ in a very short time, which is unusual for a small, local business.
• Duplicate content: They were using guest posts across various sites, but the content was often the same, either reworded slightly or, in some cases, duplicated verbatim. Google quickly detects these patterns.
• Sites they were getting links from were littered with ads. The quality of the sites providing the links was also problematic. Many of the sites were ad-heavy, cluttered with pop-ups and banners. This is something I see often with sites that are hit by algorithm updates.
• Authors that wrote their articles also posted about things like gambling and crypto. Probably not trends you want to associate with as a home service business.
  

Did the Manual Penalty Even Hurt Them?

While penalties can be damaging, they aren’t always a death sentence. In this case, the business began recovering during the August core update. While we don’t know if they filed a disavow file or took other steps, it shows that recovery is possible.

Final Thoughts

In SEO, the long-term strategy is the winning strategy. Quick wins from buying links might seem tempting, but they come with serious risks. Even though this site didn’t seem to suffer much as a result of their actions, it doesn’t mean every story ends like this one.

Have you run into a manual penalty for links? If so, what did you see? We’d love to hear about it in the comments. 

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