There are some people that say paid links will get you penalized, yet those same people tell you things like the Y! PAID business directory are going to help you... well its OBVIOUS Y! is paid submission... so then speaking TECHNICALLY how would that benefit you ? YES I KNOW IT HELPS ... but my question is which side is wrong... does google not penalize you or do they only penalize the small fish ??
Yahoo and few other top directories are an exception. Paid links from other sites not a good idea. This is how it goes, no valid argument can be reached on this topic.
G's policy is not so much about paid links but rather about "selling PR". If a site advertises "buy a link on my site to increase your PR" they will most likely be punished. I'm not saying that only advertising the fact will get you in trouble. I'm saying the recipient is probably fine and that sites built so sell PR are probably going to be dealt with.
The policy is if you're selling links you're supposed to nofollow them. If you can buy links with nofollow they'll still count. Sites built only to get high PR and sell links are usually garbage though. If you want to buy links it's better to e-mail a site that's ranking well. PR means nothing but ranking actually tells you a link will help you.
thats true dan... i will consider contacting through whois and seeing if i cant buy a link that way !
How would google know if a link on a site is paid or not. It could of been put there by the owner to link to good content or they swapped links with another site. So what criteria does google use to determine if a link is a paid link?
Exactly Do you think Google penalizes Coke and the Special Olympics for this "sponsors" page with do-follow links to them? http://www.specialolympics.org/coca_cola.aspx There are many, many, many examples like this of links back to "sponsors" and "partners" from major websites. I spend some time marketing in the insurance niche and the big insurance companies like Geico are technically buying TONS of links all over the place with their "sponsorships" of events and groups. You can bet in the sponsor deal they are sure that a press release and link to them is required.
It doesn't matter "how they would know". Google has a formula. If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. If it turns out not to be a duck, oh well... too bad, you're penalized and can do nothing more than remove what you *think* is causing the problem and request re-inclusion. Come on now really.... you think that the Special Olympics is selling PR? That is a far different situation from someone buying an abandoned domain that still shows a PR 6 and then loading it up with garbage links and selling listings on a "PR6 Directory". The directory is quite likely to get nailed. Nothing against directories per se. The same would be true for a blog selling PR.
You won't penalized for buying links wisely. Most of the Webmasters get penalty for selling links. And, regarding Y! Directory, they have a free option also.
"Sponsors" give them money and one return is a do-follow link (or links): http://www.specialolympics.org/meet_our_partners.aspx People can argue many points and reasons, but the end result of what they got (link, PR, authority) and how they got it ("sponsorship" money) makes it very similar to other forms of link buying. Of course in this case the sponsors do it to help and for public relations (while fully knowing the link back will help SEO - They're not stupid)... but my point is where does Google draw the line on what is a paid link and what isn't considering one could easily argue these are paid links.
Paying to be a sponsor of something when you know it will get you a great dofollow link from an authority site is actually an old trick. Just have to have it in your budget.
Because they keep the spam out. If you go back and read the google webmaster guidelines, buying and selling of links is a natural part of the internet. Its buying and selling links on unrelated sites and links that pass pagerank is what gets you in trouble. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736
yes, Yahoo directory is paid submission. but as far as Google is concerned, Yahoo has high editorial guideline and dont just approve any site even if thats a paid submission. Matt Cutts discusses further here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pu1YWcIh04
actually no body can know why penalized happen, like this site www.iklangadget.combased on pr4 to pr0