Refusal to buy links: why exchanges died in 2025
Purchasing “SAP” (rental) or permanent links through exchanges has been the basis of the SEO industry in the CIS for many years. Until recently, agencies reported to clients with spreadsheets (Excel) with “hundreds of purchased links.” By 2025, this practice had finally become toxic (Black-Hat).
We analyze how search engines killed the market for purchased links, and what strategies (Outreach, Digital PR) really increase domain trust today.
SpamBrain (Google) and Minusinsk (Yandex)
The era of bulk links died due to the introduction of machine learning into the core of search engines.
- Google SpamBrain: The built-in AI algorithm does not simply calculate donor sites that sell links. It has a mechanism Link Nullification. This means that Google does not always impose strict manual sanctions (Manual Action) - it simply resets the weight of this link to zero (as if it does not exist). Businesses spend hundreds of thousands of rubles on purchases, but the effect is zero.
- Google's new graph model: (Introduced in 2025) Artificial intelligence sees through structural PBN link networks 40 times more accurately than older algorithms.
- Yandex (AGS and Minusinsk): Yandex is even stricter about “link explosions” (an unnatural sharp increase in cheap links). The Minusinsk algorithm is capable of putting a site under a filter for 3–8 months. Getting out from under the filter requires exhausting manual correspondence with Platon Shchukin (support) and removing 90% of the previously purchased mass.
From a report from the Western SEO community (Reddit): "Bad links on bad sites won't hurt you severely, they'll just cost you money without any positive effect."
Why do exchange links (Miralinks, GoGetLinks) no longer work?
How does the algorithm understand that a link has been “bought”? It’s very simple - based on the pattern of behavior of the donor site:
- Thematic vinaigrette: On the regional news portal there are articles next to each other: “Harvest Festival”, “Buy plastic windows”, “Betting on eSports” and “Dental treatment”. The algorithm clearly sees: the site is “omnivorous” and sells places. The weight of outgoing links from such a domain tends to zero.
- No traffic on the node: A purchased SEO article does not receive real traffic. Real people don’t click on it. A link without transitions is dead for modern algorithms.
- Footers and drafts: Rental links in Footers or Sidebars are recognized by search bots using the DOM tree and are ignored.
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3 Legitimate Link Building Strategies (White-Hat)
In 2025 the mantra works: “If a link can be easily purchased in 2 clicks, your project does not need it”. High-quality link building has become similar to classic PR.
1. Digital PR and Hard Outreach
This is the process of establishing personal agreements with editors. You create a cool (and free) study, collect analytics or write software, after which the SEO manager knocks on the editorial office of specialized media, Telegram channels and blogs with a proposal: “We have cool material for your audience, use it with the source (link) to us”. Such links cannot be purchased on the exchange.
2. Expert Content Marketing (Guest Blogging)
Publication of voluminous, in-depth cases (“How-To”) on reputable UGC platforms (Habr, VC.ru, Cossa, Pikabu). Inside such a longread, 1-2 links to your services or products are organically embedded. Bonus: these articles themselves collect search traffic and generate warm leads.
3. Linkbaits (Tools)
Creating “magnets” on the site that people link to naturally:
- Mortgage/renovation calculators.
- Free online PDF converters.
- Unique databases (for example, a directory of error codes for Baxi boilers). Users will start searching for links to this tool on specialized forums completely free of charge.
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Summary: Quality over Quantity
SEO in 2025 has moved from extensive to intensive growth. 1 link from an editorial from Forbes, RBC or a major industry media outlet that people actually click on will convey more authority to the site than 1000 links, purchased for 100 rubles on dead sites.
Optimizers NBM-IT They don’t buy stock exchange garbage. We develop a content marketing strategy, create valuable expert material and obtain trust (White-Hat) links for your projects through direct agreements with the media and sites. Leave a request for SEO promotion with payment for real results.