Common Scams & Gigs to Avoid on Fiverr

Fiverr is a popular marketplace that connects buyers and freelancers on the internet.

Much like the Dollar Store only sold items for $1; Fiverr started offering gigs for $5, hence the name.

Today, there are roughly 55,000 transactions per month on average from graphic design, web development, WordPress development, search engine optimization, social media marketing, content writing, video production and even fortune telling.

Fiverr is also a place where scammers can also earn a quick bucks. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of worthy gigs on the website however plenty are as good as burning your own money in a fire pit.

Let’s take a look at 2 popular SEO gigs you should either avoid or at least be weary of before making a purchase.

Link Building

Link building is important for SEO and the links that point to your website can certainly impact how you rank in search engines.

In 2012, Google launched the “Penguin” algorithmic update or “Webspam algorithm update” which specifically targeted websites that had spammy or manipulative link building practices in order to improve their search visibility.

There are hundreds link building gigs from blog commenting, social media link building, private domain networks (PBN) to using specific software such as XRUMER to mass produce spammy backlinks.

Before 2012, these unnatural link building methods may have provided some SEO benefit. By today’s standards these gigs are likely to negatively impact your website’s search engine ranking or even worse delist your website completely.

It’s possible many didn’t get the “memo” or aren’t educated enough in SEO enough to know the negative side effects of unnatural link building.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is a more natural method of achieving backlinks especially when they come from authoritative websites within your niche or industry.

Fiver gigs for guest posting are commonly offered on the platform but you should purchase with extreme caution and look out for the following scams to avoid:

i) False Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a score associated to a domain/website out of 100 which determines how well a website will rank in search engines.

Unfortunately freelancers on Fiverr provide deceptive gigs that offer guest posting on “high DA” websites and sure enough when you visit these websites they do indeed have a high DA score.

Truth is, many of these websites are built on expired domains which previously had a high DA score. The new websites are a blog of poorly written content across multiple topics that are unlikely to provide any value.

By using ubersuggest.com you can determine the true value of these websites such as keywords they rank for, and traffic which is usually either low or nothing at all.

ii) Freelancer doesn’t own the website(s)

There are several gigs which provide guest posting on high DA websites which aren’t even owned by the seller.

That’s right! You can just visit the website yourself, register and post the blog which takes all but 5 minutes and save yourself $5 to as high as $100+ USD.

Chances are if attaining a link from a website is easy then it isn’t going to be a very useful backlink.

iii) Blog post not visible to websites architecture

Although rare, I have come across this type of gig a couple times. Some websites, and I’m not sure why, will allow you to post blogs on their website which aren’t even linked anywhere in the site menu or architecture.

This means that the page cannot be found by search crawlers, or even visitors, can’t be indexed and therefore a pointless backlink to have.

This might be the shadiest practice I’ve come across. I’m not sure if the seller knows they are even scamming the buyer, but if you pay for this gig then you are certainly scammed.

To avoid this from happening, ask the buyer if the blog will be featured on the home page or once the blog is published be sure to check that you can navigate to that page from the main menu. If you can’t, open a support ticket for a refund and Fiverr will refund your money.

iv) Website covers multiple topics or contains poorly written articles

If you’re looking for a backlink for your pet blog then having a backlink from a technology blog is not going to be of any value. Chances are anyone on a technology blog is likely not going to click on a link that deals with pets anyways.

When paying for guest posts, be sure that there is a common topic on the website and that it isn’t just miscellaneous posts.

Be sure to also check the quality of the articles on the website. If they are poorly written this means that the site probably has a high bounce rate, little value and not a valuable link you want pointing to your website.

Conclusion

Despite the many scams on Fiverr, there are still many gigs that can provide value to your website. I was able to hire voice talent and produce this commercial which I was quite happy with but as the saying goes “you get what you pay for” so it’s hard to expect a professional logo for $5. Chances are the logo will be modified stock logo.

If you have a legitimate blog, Fiverr can certainly provide another source of income for guest posts instead of just AdSense revenue. Just be sure to check for quality and that articles are relevant to the topic of your website.