I've heard that google has penalized sites for using paid links -- yet these links are constructed manually and not using a script or any sort of special code. How is this possible? Or does google do it manually? Or someone cynical reports it to google?
They looks for lists of outgoing urls with "sponsored links" as a heading or text that says "buy a link here" etc If you were to buy a discreet link using common sense they will have no way of telling if its a paid link or not.
They also notice unrelevant links. Let say you have a dog food website link on a golf site, not very relevant.
Google isn't magic. They are just intelligent. It isn't hard as these two have said to separate links from paid links.
I agree with Mightyb. Some users of paid links fool Google by being discreet about it. In other words, don't tell anyone that you are doing paid posting.
They also have a "report paid links" function as part of their webmasters tools. Any webmaster who uses sitemaps has this available to them.
I agree with everybody here. I would not use a script, advertise it, etc. So how would somebody get paid links to their site. What would the best way to do it
mighty b is right they look for out going links titled sponsored link , but i must say that google is no magician do this thing right and google would not g et you
Their method is not very scientific. There are lots of free link sites that have been penalised as though they offer paid listings. I think the last PR update on the 29th February / 1st March restored some rankings to sites which were previously penalised. This suggests that Google realised the flaws which existed in the system.
they are not even intelligent , its so simple to understand different between a paid link and a normal link
I don't know. People tend to buy related links now days. And every other website links to unrelated sites anyway.
The whole idea of paid links being a negative in my opinion is dumb. How are you supposed to advertise? The internet is built upon links... Thats like cablevision dropping Fox 5 because they charge money for commercials...
I agree with oldsteel68 But anyway, what about sections labeled 'link exchange' or 'your link here' without any mention of a paying service? Does that get penalized? And if google is so "intelligent", doesn't this destroy the business of businesses like Text-Link-Ads? Yet TLA is still consistently popular. This sounds contradictory.
but the whole point of buying text links is to build search engine rank.... before google came out with link-based results -- text links ads were second to banner ads.
There is a distinct difference in what google wants and what google does. Actually, heh, there is not a difference. Google wants you to be like them. The 'adsense' ads are "nofollow" based on how they are published. Google was mindful of that and does not (and will not) penalize sites that practice similar techniques in advertising. They allow similar ads / links without question or penalty... it's where people are trying to manipulate page rank by selling in-content links that are followed by bots...which are also clicked on by unsuspecting users that have no clue they are paid. Labeling such links can keep the powers that be away from a site, labeling plus blocking bots will keep the powers that be, at bey. So it's not ads that google is against per-say, it's "paid links" especially if such links are for PR rather then traffic.