I dont get it, aren't all web advertisments "paid links"? If so then why is it prohibited by google, and why do they have a "report paid links" tab on the dashboard of google webmaster tools?
there is a difference web advertisements like adwords are transient, meaning they come and go and don't do anything for backlink power (ie. pagerank or serp) you can sell advertisements on your site all you want, just put "nofollow" in it and you are fine Google just frowns on links being paid for to try and manipulate pagerank or trying to gain search engine rankings, and it is good that they do, because otherwise it would all go to the richest and biggest companies so support Google in their quest to punish paid links that pass pagerank or try to give backlinks to boost search engine rankings
Yeah, i see your point. I just think that google should make it a little more clear that "nofollow" links are ok.
Google has stated this pretty clearly for a long time here is a direct quote from Matt Cutts: "What if a site wants to buy links purely for visitor click traffic, to build buzz, or to support another site? In that situation, I would use the rel=â€nofollow†attribute. The nofollow tag allows a site to add a link that abstains from being an editorial vote. Using nofollow is a safe way to buy links, because it’s a machine-readable way to specify that a link doesn’t have to be counted as a vote by a search engine."
in general if you are buying or selling links to increase pagerank then you are manipulating the system. or at least trying to. The least you can do is a little research to find out what the adverse consequences would be for those actions. And if you are unfamillar with Cutts and his work, then you need to read up on the Google.
In advertisement, java script is used which produce links that search engine do not count as backlinks. And if java script isn't used then there will be no follow tag used. Google hate paid links unless nofollow tag is used.
This is a verry tight subject who seo expert try new thing each days!! You have no chance for mistake on seo or your project is dead!
isn't that the truth! us webmasters can work like crazy for many many months even years, and overnight google decides to do some strange thing to the algorithm and overnight all of our hard work is destroyed even if we are totally innocent of any ill intention it is a shame
I think the issue is become a little clouded. Adverts are for promoting your product Bought backlinks are for the sole purpose of manipulating the search engine results pages. At the end of the day the message from Google is stay away from buying and selling links. There is the penalty I think it's called -60
It's not Google's responsibility to ensure your education and success. If you were to do something as simple as search "paid links information" the first site that comes up would discourage and lead you to more research.
I think what needs to be redefined is what google is calling 'organic' search results. Just how organic is it? I think paid links should not be penalized the way they are doing it. They do NOT need to be reported... it CAN be handled by google bot if they wanted to... but that is not their real goal. To be frank, what they have done is turn the entire webmaster world against itself. It was not an algo/quality results decision, so much as a psychological warfare one. If you ever noticed, Matt Cutts talks a LOT about affecting the spammers of search engines by means of frustration. Always noting how they are people at the other end, and are susceptible to emotional manipulation. By frustrating the site owner / spammer, they will thwart their desire to continue pursuing the efforts they are making to turn a dollar. Their hope is that once 'converted' by being thoroughly scared with lost time and money, that they will turn to something like.. oooh I dunno.. Adwords? The psychological profile of the person fits, they just need to manipulate them through terror to make their paid in option, the only one to consider. Once they get there though, they are abused again by Google through a series of what they call 'quality scores' in an attempt to further intimidate, frustrate, and terrorize your money into their multi-billion dollar wallet. Google's campaign of terror has effectively pitted everyone against each other and divided the webmaster world to allow them to easily dominate. They must be taking notes from Bush. Look around the net and you will see what is really going on. DP has a story about it everyday. Good luck!
Ok, i'll remember that the next time i wan't to do something like, "take a piss"...i'll type that into into google and make sure google is ok with it. silly me, gosh, gee wilikers, i should have known better!
My question : how can google know that a link is a paid one ? Even if 1 000 000 report the link it could be a normal link. The cannot proove that a link is a paid one exept if a webmaster put a section "these link have been paid" ! So in my opinion if paid link are illegal they have alot of paid link here : http://dir.yahoo.com/
It is all about the THEME - strong sites can not be as universal as to promote paidly other sites from any niche - once they add an irrelevant link - sites is suspicious enough to be considered paid.
I'm so glad google are cutting down on paid links. if you use webmaster tools, you can also report sites which are overtly selling paid links, and i love this feature. I have no problem with people paying for advertising space providing they use a no follow attribute
Basically the only reason Google has done this is because they are jealous that someone else is making money from ads that affect Google rankings. They know that if these websites weren't buying links for improved rankings, they would be pumping money into AdWords instead. Their logic: stop link selling and everyone will give their money to google instead. Now they are essentially admitting that they can't find all purchased links themselves. They are relying on seo's to all rat each other out. Really Google is dreaming if they think this will work. There are just too many types of paid links and no clear definition of which ones count. What about paid directories, event sponsorships, paid press release distribution, etc. Google's ego has grown far too much if they think they can change the entire economical structure of the web. They opened up this can of worms by publishing PR on their toolbar. Now they're struggling to shove all those worms back in the can. Good luck with that - worms can be quite slippery.