I hired a Fiverr provider in 2023 to build SEO backlinks so I could understand what many business owners experience. What followed was a lesson in fake websites, AI-generated content, bot traffic and SEO problems that can be expensive to fix.
There’s a conversation we have with business owners all the time.
They’ve been approached by someone offering hundreds or thousands of SEO backlinks for a surprisingly low price. Sometimes it’s a Fiverr gig. Sometimes it’s an overseas agency. Sometimes it’s a random email promising first-page rankings in a matter of weeks.
On the surface, it sounds like a bargain.
To better understand what our clients were experiencing, I decided to try one of these services for myself.
What followed was a useful lesson in why cheap SEO shortcuts often create more problems than they solve.
Why I Decided to Try It
I wasn’t expecting miracles.
The goal was simply to see what the provider actually delivered and whether the results matched the promises.
Like many of these services, the seller claimed they would build SEO backlinks that would boost visibility, improve rankings and increase website traffic.
After the work was completed, I received a report showing a large number of links had been created.
At first glance, everything looked impressive.
There were backlinks.
Traffic was increasing.
Reports were full of activity.
But once I dug into the details, the cracks started appearing.
The Backlinks Came From Fake Websites
The first thing I noticed was where many of the backlinks had come from.
Rather than legitimate websites with real audiences, a significant number appeared to be low-quality websites that existed primarily to link to other websites.
Many were filled with generic articles covering random topics. Some had little evidence of real visitors, engagement or authority.
They looked less like genuine publications and more like websites created solely to host backlinks.
While these links may inflate a report, they rarely deliver meaningful business value.
The reality is that one relevant backlink from a trusted industry source is usually worth far more than hundreds of links from websites nobody visits.
Our Content Was Republished Using AI
The next surprise was discovering how some of the content had been created.
The provider had taken content we had already written and generated AI-created versions of it across multiple websites.
Technically, it wasn’t direct plagiarism.
But it wasn’t original content either.
The articles added little value, contained no unique insight and appeared to exist purely for backlink placement.
This approach may produce backlinks quickly, but it does very little to establish credibility, authority or trust with either search engines or human visitors.
Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly common as AI allows low-cost providers to create large volumes of content with almost no effort.
The Traffic Was Mostly Useless
One of the reported successes was an increase in website traffic.
Again, that sounds positive until you look at the quality of the traffic being generated.
A large portion of visitors were coming from countries where we don’t actively do business.
If you’re a local service business targeting customers in Perth, visitors from unrelated international locations aren’t particularly helpful.
Traffic by itself isn’t a goal.
Relevant traffic is.
The objective is to attract potential customers who may actually contact your business, request a quote or make a purchase.
More visitors who never become enquiries simply create a more impressive-looking report.
We Saw More Bot Traffic
Perhaps the most concerning discovery was the increase in suspicious traffic activity.
Alongside the new visitors came what appeared to be significantly more bots and automated traffic.
This creates several problems.
First, it makes analytics data less reliable. When automated traffic is mixed in with genuine visitors, it becomes harder to understand what real customers are actually doing on your website.
Second, it can create a false sense of success. Increased visitor numbers look great on paper, even when many of those visits have no commercial value.
Finally, it highlights a broader issue we see regularly when businesses choose the cheapest possible SEO provider: cybersecurity risks.
Most business owners never get visibility into how these campaigns are being executed, where links are being placed or what third-party networks are interacting with their website.
That lack of transparency should concern anyone responsible for a business website.
The Bigger Problem With Cheap SEO
The experiment helped explain why so many business owners become frustrated with SEO.
From the outside, everything appears to be working.
There are new backlinks.
Traffic is increasing.
Reports look busy.
But none of those metrics matter if they aren’t connected to actual business outcomes.
Quality leads.
Sales enquiries.
Improved visibility in your service area.
Revenue.
Those are the results that matter.
Real SEO isn’t about generating random backlinks as quickly as possible.
It’s about improving website quality, creating useful content, earning trust and building genuine authority over time.
That’s a slower process.
But it’s also the process that works.
What I Learned
The experiment wasn’t a failure because it taught us exactly what many business owners experience after purchasing cheap SEO services.
The backlinks weren’t helping build meaningful authority.
AI-generated content was being published without providing real value.
Traffic was increasing, but much of it wasn’t relevant.
Bot activity was rising.
And the overall outcome was a website that looked busier without becoming any more effective.
In other words, lots of activity and very little progress.
The Takeaway
If you’re considering buying SEO backlinks because they seem like a cheap shortcut to better rankings, it’s worth asking a few questions first.
Where are the links coming from?
Are the websites legitimate?
Who is creating the content?
Will the traffic be relevant to your business?
And what happens if the strategy creates problems six months from now?
The cheapest SEO option is often the most expensive one to fix.
Been Burned by Cheap SEO? We Can Help Fix It.
We regularly work with businesses that have inherited the aftermath of low-quality SEO campaigns.
Spammy backlinks. AI-generated content farms. Poor-quality traffic. Confusing analytics. Damaged search visibility.
The good news is that many of these issues can be repaired.
Our SEO repair service focuses on identifying harmful backlinks, cleaning up questionable SEO practices, improving website health and helping businesses rebuild authority using strategies that support long-term growth.
If you’ve used Fiverr, an overseas backlink service or an agency that promised quick rankings and left you with more questions than results, we’ll give you an honest assessment of where things stand.
No lock-in contracts. No jargon. No SEO snake oil.
Book a free 20-minute SEO health check and we’ll show you what’s helping your rankings, what’s hurting them, and what can be done to get things moving in the right direction again.
