anybody remember sitemeter.com ? http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=site:sitemeter.com&btnG=Google+Search&meta= they have been missing from google for quite a while now. However it appears TLA is still in google: http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=site:text-link-ads.com&btnG=Search&meta= Pierce
Sitewide links kill new sites in Google. I don't want a sitewide link from DP, I just want the traffic. If you get unnatural links straight off then you are likely to get sandboxed. If you get great links you might avoid it.
Of course, howstuffworks.com still ranks number one despite being caught selling text links. Maybe because they run Adsense and make Google a lot of money...
2 reasons. 1. Its a temporary issue and will fix its self. Maybe the site was down when google crawled or something. 2. Google hates people who sell links and gave them a manual penalty. 3. They were buying links themselves and google gave them a penalty. (unlikely) Its hard to see them doing number 2 without doing the same to other link sales sites.
ok im really lost if i sell a text link on my site I could be screwed? or if i buy links from directories?
Google has said they don't like people who buy or sell links, its against their guidelines. If you break their guidelines they can ban you if they decide to. Buying links is risky and should not be your sole method of getting links. Selling links is suicide IMO.
Text-link-ads.com is on 55 position of google. I think this a temporary issue but we must have a close look on this issue. This will affect the TLA publisher network and TLA sales too.
If you sell sitewide links then you might have your ability to pass PageRank removed. If you have a paid directory which only accepts quality sites and charges the fee to review the site then you are OK.
Actually, that's not accurate. If Google determines that you are selling links for the purposes of other sites increasing their rankings, then you can get penalized. It doesn't actually matter why you are doing it, it's what Google, with it's healthy dose of paranoia, says the reason is. The inverse is true as well... if Google writes an algo to detect these links, or if someone else reports you as selling links, then you wouldn't even have to be accepting money, you could still get penalized. -Michael
I have not seen a real quality site get a serp penalty for selling links. But I have seen garbage sites made just to sell links become PR0s. I imagine sites like howstuffworks, lifetips, etc... that openly sell links do not pass pagerank. Why would these site care if they don't pass PR? As long as people keep buying links from them its a great business model.