I’ve been away for a while relaxing in the sun, so perhaps it’s the the reality of coming back to England to sub 10C temperatures that have caused me to feel quite so negative.

The number of posts and discussions regarding paid links is at an all time high as Google attempt to scare sites away from purchasing links for pure SEO value. With that Google recently penalised a high number of web directories which were obviously deemed to be ‘low quality’ directories whose main purpose were for search rankings, not the user.

So while Google catching and penalising web directories is one thing, catching and penalising or limiting the value of paid links from every site on the internet is a very different thing. Take a look at Rands recent post, where he highlights the sheer scale of paid links from sites he merely ‘stumbled‘ accross.

Now those are only sites he has come accross at random. Now take a competitive industry such as hosting and a run a search for a highly competitive generic keyword for that industry. Run some analysis of the back links to those sites that are ranking in the top positions. You will see the percentage of paid links gets a little higher than Rands examples.

Paid links in footers. Paid links in sponsors and supporters sections. Paid links on homepages of directories. Paid links in the form of Wordpress theme ’sponsoring’. Paid links on sites with completely unrelated content with keyword rich anchors.

Clear paid links without the ‘no follow’ attribute, bought for search engine ranking value.

So the reality is – Paid links still rule.

Googles algorithms for catching these types of paid links is at best, not very good (I mean, take a look at the crap site that ranks for SEO) and a lot of catching these types of paid links is manual.

So while Google are preaching for everyone to halt buying paid links (unless of course they are paid links through pay per click) and those selling links to add ‘no follow’, they are still ranking those sites buying links at the top of the SERPS. Until the time comes that Google can find a way to devalue or restrict the impact of these types of paid links, it will simply not stop. Why should a site decide against paying for a link for search ranking value when there competitors are all so clearly reaping the benefits from doing so?

How quickly or if at all Google will ever really be able to get a handle on all website paid links I do not know but my guess is that it will take a very long time. So should you hang on from paying for links when they continue to be so successful?

I am not saying you should go out and buy a tonne of unrelated crappy footer links from sites purely for search ranking. But Google have to understand that if their algorithm does not allow you to be as competitive through pure non paid link building, then how can they expect you to conform?. They simple fact is, sites with paid links continue to dominate the SERPS. There comes a time where if you can’t beat them, you have to join them.