Comments on: Paid Links - If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

By: randallflynns

randallflynns — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:03:32 +0000

As long as we’re talking about links, this seems like a pretty good opportunity to talk about a simple litmus test for paid links and how to tell if a paid link violates search engines’ quality guidelines. If you want to sell a link, you should at least provide machine-readable disclosure for paid links by making your link in a way that doesn’t affect search engines.
___________________
Randall Flynn

By: Google: Power-Based Branding at Gypsy Bandito

Google: Power-Based Branding at Gypsy Bandito — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:11:27 +0000

[...] That part about making others rely on your for their prosperity is probably why SEOs get so upset over changes, and affiliate marketers fear measures that Google can’t enforce. As for not teaching people too much, moreover, this is why Matt Cutts’ blog is so thoroughly scrutinized. [...]

By: Jan, web developer from thrusites

Jan, web developer from thrusites — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:32:19 +0000

The only one technique how to fight against paid links is to lower their importance within Google’s algorithms. It might sound silly, but it could work this way.

Google still lacks in the analysis of text. If they could determine the quality of any text, then it would be possible to get rid of paid links. Naturally, this is not an easy task to do because of many reasons which include duplicate or rewritten content.

So it’s still all about links… But it shouldn’t be so. BTW, it’s Google who created this business model. If links had less importance, people wouldn’t be interested in buying links.

By: Jeffrey Tonetti

Jeffrey Tonetti — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:34:40 +0000

Paid Links…People are smarter than they used to be on the web, there will come a day when Google won’t have to de-value “sites with paid links” the people going to them will. There is nothing better than repeat traffic, or word of mouth via “email this to a friend”. But links work and there is an old saying, “It is what it is”.

By: PPC

PPC — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:52:18 +0000

Agreed.

All I see is paid links. If they expect anyone to stop puchasing links, they should probably stop favouring those that do first.

By: DoubleSpark

DoubleSpark — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:45:13 +0000

Great post.

Trust me, within ‘loans’, every site in the top 10 has paid links. Its these paid links from PR 7-8 sites that are helping them rank, theres no doubt.

Are we expected to just sit back and not compete? I personally can’t ever see Google being able to deal with this issue. Ever.