[Editor's note: First off, I love to self-gloss as an "editor" just for the record...makes me sound like I have a spine, which is cool. My web design skills rival the graffiti skillz of my 2-yr-old, who colors my walls with crayon love. All that to say, I don't want to offend my daughter, but I can't format my pics. SO if you want to read the notes I've made on them, please click them because I did put some information on them that is pertinent to the article. If you want to hire me for web design...pay me in monopoly money, or PlayDoh...]

**Just for the record, I am Not an affiliate with BLP** For what it’s worth. And not because I don’t support them, I just didn’t ask them if they had an aff program, to be brutally honest… O.O

Everyone online trying to rank their site in Google is interested in that magical thing called a “backlink.” Without belaboring you on what a backlink is – let me just paraphrase it as a happy thought that would make your site take off from Neverland like Pete ‘n Tink. One of the “signals” that Google looks for in ranking your site – or at least what the Google algorithm looks for, I doubt the leprechauns at the big G have much time for manually reviewing my micro-slice of Google-berry pie – is the number and type of backlinks that your site has.

There have been countless pixels shed on the subject, I won’t waste your time “educating” you on something you learned after you learned how to use a mouse, but FlippaChick has a neat post or twenty on the subject, as does most of my blogroll. (See SEOBook, SearchEngineLand and my blogroll: everyone wanting to actually rank in the SERPs wants backlinks like Tom wanted Jerry.)

Alright, assuming you know that a backlink is not something you need to see your chiropractor for, nor your massage therapist, nor your Shiatsu massage chair…I asked Backlinks Philippines to do some backlinking for me on two of my websites. Oh, Sara at NoteworthyTips has recently done this as well, so check out her results (her review on Backlinks Philippines was more in-depth, I’m just reporting something I find pretty cool).

Here’s a picture of my two sites’ stats using SEOBook’s SEO for Firefox plugin, before and after BLP hit them with a packet of 100 backlinks apiece, from forum profiles:

Site #1 Before BLP: Position 7 for main KW in G, 94 backlinks from UAW and article marketing, traffic of 83

BacklinksPhilippines on Site#2

That’s before the magic experiment. Here’s the result:

Site #1 IS #1 in Google for main keyword...

Ah! The coveted position. But wait…Google had a trick up their sleeve. At some point in May, the big daddy G-bones decided to do a massive algorithm game-change. You can read about that at change called Mayday mayhem or what have you by clicking this link. Just don’t go all Chicken Little…in any event, here is what happened a couple of days after my short-lived “hoo-rah!” –

This is Site #1 Results a week after Backlinks Philippines is Done Backlinking

Notice I dropped from #1 to #3 — but please remember I started out at #7. Also, not sure if I uploaded the right pic or not, but my traffic went from 83/day to 103 where it currently sits. I have noticed an increase in my CTR but won’t discuss further so I don’t violate the ToS from Googlie wooglie. Suffice it to say, the results are noticable, if not uber-significant.

Now, what about that red-headed foster child, Site #2? Well, after all was said and done, about a week after the team at BacklinksPhilippines was done with the 100 profile links, this is where that beast lies:

Net result – an increase in about 20 or so positions in the big daddy G-dizzle, with an increase in CTR of…well, nothing really. Being on page 17 or so isn’t that great, I don’t care how many backlinks you’ve got! Let the record show that the red-headed step-site did increase by 20 positions, though, and combined with other linking protocol and site tweaks, no doubt this site can climb. I just haven’t had time for that just yet.

Conclusion – What Do I Make of Backlinks Philippines?

First off – I’m 1/2 Filippino, so I have to say they rock the planet.

Alright, coming down from that high a little bit, my sober-mindedness returning somewhat, I have to conclude that they did what they set out to do. I’m not sure how these links are “boosted” or indexed, or if there is much of that going on at BLP. To be frank, with 100 profile links per site, both only showed an increase in backlinks by about 20-25 each. So, at best, YSE was only showing 1/4 of the 100 backlinks per site.

Problem? Maybe. YSE is notoriously hit or miss, and Google’s webmaster tools will show even less, but since YSE is the staple, I’ll stick with it for metric purposes. What did I have to do to get these 20-25 backlinks? Pony up a little cash (in normal conditions, this was a trial-for-review sort of experiment, so I actually lost nothing), email my URLs and list of KWs…

Then the really tough part. I had to
spin the article 3 times
rewrite some plagiarized EzineArticle
do some massive competitive analysis using a $125/month tool
…actually, I just sent the email.

So, on a scale of 1-10, the difficulty of using BLP was…you know, this is silly: they’re extremely professional, easy to use, and they gave me some backlinks that I didn’t have to think about.

Would I use them again?

Sure would, on money sites I want to fortify, on sites I want to get ranking, and in times when I am just too darn busy to work my passive income side of things. On typical micro-niche sites, I would only use them if I had an income that could support continual link-building. Right now, I’m *not* at that point. I have 9 sites (will post my May totals this weekend I think). Not much with which to support an ongoing backlinking service, even if they are probably related to me somehow (all Filipinos are “cousins” by default…).

If I was at the point where I could keep using their service, I wouldn’t hesitate at this point. BacklinksPhilippines does help ranking, period.

How much do they cost?

Here’s a screen shot. I’m off to the next thing: some of my own article marketing, finally!! <==first time in 3 months I could work my passive income...Darn those high-paying Elance gigs. (tongue in cheek)

Oh, before I forget -- I have begun the process of the interview you all helped me with, so we'll see about getting that interview up and published ASAP.

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