Page 3 - This whole "buying links is bad" thing is really irritating

David if your sites are great already then brilliant.

The basic point remains though, Link Buying is against the terms of service of Google, Google are not being two faced on the issue, and the only people who are upset by the issue are those who think they should have the right to buy their natural position rather than earning it by being the most relevant site for a search term.

Then do it. There are lots of sources for under the radar links. Just be careful how you do it and don't be pissed off when/if the links are discounted.

I'm not opposed to people who want to break Google's policy. I just think it's weird when people can't understand why Google must maintain its position against paid links.

Earn it by paying Google's new SEO company they bought with the doubleclick acquisition? Or maybe they should just pay Google for popups from doubleclick?

Search has been dirty since the beginning, the cheaters are winning and Google's one of them.

Google are obsessed with relevance, and i do not see that changing. I don't fear the fact they have bought doubleclick, i don't think we will see the SERPS flooded with doubleclick clients with non relevant sites.

The day Google stops worrying about relevance is the day that Googles decline begins, and it would be swift, i don't believe they will risk that position.

I suspect that the chasm has been created - for the most part - by paid links and age... in which case I would think that the devaluation of paid links should (given time) help.

BTW - I'm not being deliberately argumentative ('though I do love a good discussion - lol)...
I often spend time sifting through serps rankings between 950+1000 and the quality of the info' from some of those sites is excellent.
I really do believe that the problem is largely Google's fault and that this is their only way out!

BritishOne22 - Your problem is most likely temporary and paid links wouldn't help anyway.

Maybe you're right.

I personally think that their decline has already begun for two reasons:
1. 90% of their revenue comes from adwords
2. Now that they are public they have different priorities. (investors and profits)

how do find the informations here about regarding on the subject of this thread....

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/information-about-buying-and-selling.html

I guess I'm the only one who sees the hypocrisy between allowing free links, PPC and all the rest but requiring nofollows on paid links for SERP purposes.

Oh well, it's a good debate regardless.

My 2 cents

When I started my business and created my website I was pretty jelous of those people that had the capital to buy there way to the top of SERPs. Now that I am top for my search terms mainly through the creation of linkbait I am happy that google is putting up more barriers to my competators. ie self interest is largley what determines our views. It is no different for google. Google makes it money as a direct result of providing the most relevant search results to a query. To protect its position it needs to continue to try to maintain the most relevant search results.

I would assume before devaluing paid links went live they did considerable experimentation wih the quality of the search results with and without the devaluation. The results of there tests must have been an overall improvemnt in the quality/relevance of their searchr results if paid links were devalued. I donot believe google would have taken this step if the results of the research did not show an overall improvement in quality.

I also think that the largest effect of the campaign against paid link sales though has actually been a deterrent effect. People are scared of buying or selling links thus google has reduced its perceived problem without really having to do to much about it.

I also think that the wealthy webmaster will still win if they spend there money wisely. It just that the money now needs to be spent on content creation. A site that has a large marketing budget that can pay for qulaity content can get the site the qulaity/quantity of links. The argument that the small player can compete with the big boys is only true IMO if the big boys are spending their money badly.

Thus it brings us back to the question about what is good current SEO practices. The quick method of buying paid links is under serious attack IMO good SEO is now more than ever about content creation and user behavior. SEOers/businesses need to develop a network of content creators. The content allows a site to generate the organic link juice needed and to take advantage of user behavior effect on SERPs ie good content is the best way to make a site sticky.


Google also has IMO created a large problem for itself with the anti paid link campaign. People are now just adding nofollow to all links to avoid the possibilty of being labelled a link seller. Therefore they are undermining the very basis of there algo. I see more and more .edu sites for example just adding nofollow to all there links. Once again I think google is moving away from LJ being its most important determent of SERPs user behavior is slowly replacing LJ. Bottom line to me is if your only SEO stratergy is links, links, links (wether paid or natural) your days at top of the SERPs are numbered....

Could be haRd to accept but is considered a business too. Some may say they are now doing it for 10 years and they are making money out of it. It may be a grey hat. But it is considered a business.

I am against this personally since it is not a measurement of true reputation. But because of making money, they are doing it.

Buying links is not illegal. However, it is contrary to what Google wants to use to order the content on their website. Just like you and me they own their site, arrange it as they wish and include anybody that they want at their sole discretion. They are not a public utility. And, they owe the individual webmaster nothing.

Google has been very clear about their position on paid links and although detecting them is not an exact science, they can probably spot a lot of them and will improve over time. So, if you want traffic from Google the best thing to do is to figure out what they really want instead of trying to trick them into believing that your links are earned rather than paid.

Pretty simple? Yes?

Either way you are going to spend a lot of time and money... so, you might as well make a long term investment rather than grab for the last straws.