Is buying links blackhat?

I know if you sell links to manipulate the SE's you can be punished, I take it buying links is the same thing?

Say you bought a link and that site got punished, can your site be punished? I mean if that site gets punished your link you bought wont carry any juice, but can it go further then that, can your site actually be punished more?

Is buying links with certain anchor texts of your choosing recommended?

 

Well I Guess buying links is blackhat now, as it's frowned upon by search engines.

 

Link buying has been a hot debate at all the recent SEO conferences. There is really no confirmed answer for this question. I still see sites buying links ranking in the top of G.

I dont think buying links can actually hurt your site in terms of organic ranking, or else your competitors can just go out there and buy all the trashy links possible and link to your site. I believe G will punish the people that are selling links and discount all of the link juice coming out of them. The link buyers would then wasted their money on links that carries no value is G. However, the last time i check, there are still two other major SEs out there...maybe they wont be able to detect your bought links??

 

Google has "officially" stated it does not want paid text links unless they are using the nofollow element. This is clearly stated in the webmaster quality guidelines, I provide a link below for you to review. The "main" reason they aren't allowed and shouldn't be allowed is because they manipulate Pagerank and search results, think about it, the concept of the Pagerank system is to value web pages by their incoming links, if people can buy links to their website they are in effect "buying value" instead of earning it naturally. Also, since paid text links usually let you choose your anchor text your able to juice that keyword or phrase in search results for your site.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356

 

I would have to vehemently disagree. Purchasing link based advertising is no different than using Adwords, PPC, or other forms of banner advertising...

When people use affiliate marketing firms, ppc advertising, banners, text links like adsense, yahoo ads, and other forms of advertising, SE's do not seem to discount these sites.

Some of most heavily laden and ad intensive sites on the internet, particularly news sites are littered with thousands of paid links. I see no evidence of the publisher or the advertiser being penalized as a result.

If buying say, a signature link at DP, or a directory link is blackhat, then so too is buying Adwords and other forms of PPC link based advertising..

Right? What is the difference???

 

There's a clear difference - people buy links for keyword anchor text and PR juice.

Everybody who buys links knows this - this is why they buy them

 

I love when Mia joins in these threads, we have different opinions on the subject and makes for a great discuission!

Her point does stand that no "hard evidence" exists to support Google is penalizing sites for paid text links, no one can doubt that. The reports of PR\Link devaluation has come from small-medium sites that in turn could of gotten penalized for something else.

But, I'm sure she would agree with me Google stance on paid text links is clear, they are not allowed without the nofollow element. She makes a great point on PPC programs, but most don't have a straight link to the site like a text link does, so in turn don't provide any pagerank\seo value.

Untill the "big boy" sites start (if ever) getting hit there will be no hard evidence but the stance that Google has made. You can't deny the fact that buying texts only to boost Pagerank and search results via certain anchor text would be manipluation. If your buying to advertise and get traffic you should have no issue with the nofollow element being added to the hyperlink.

 

Blackhat? Thats a term used for search engine optimizers (aka SEO experts) that do use unethical ways to obtain high search engine rankings by tricking the search engines and the visitors.

Penalization for buying or selling links is something between you (webmaster) and Google (1 search engine) and not collectively for all search engines. Buying and/or selling links is against the Google's policy (while other search engines seem not to be making too much noise on this regard).

If your question is "Would I get penalized in Google for buying/selling links" then the answer is YES (if they catch you).

But then again you should ask your self, why buying links? If you ask me I would buy links all the time as long as i have a decent ROI (with or without nofollow). If your intentions are to spend $500 buying several links from websites that will give you just SEO/PR benefit in return to get customers for your site, then you are walking the long road. Spend rather those $500 in ONE single website that will actually send you that needed traffic to turn visitors into customers.

 

Blackhat in terms of SERPs. Not traffic. My position stands.

 

Because Google frowns on paid links, it does not make it blackhat. There are many sites selling links for advertisment and they are not nofollow links. The only penalty you face is that the links may not be counted in your PR.

That is the main reason Google has spoke out against them. However, last time I checked, Google does not own the Internet and even though they control the largest search engine, they are not the overall authority on the Internet.

If it benefits you or your sites, I say buy the links. If you are doing it just for PR, it may not work since Google controls PR. However, Google relys on webmasters to repot paid links so I would not worry too much.

 

Agreed, but they I don't expect to see these same people complaining months or weeks later when their PR and SERPs drop cause sites they bought text links from lost their ability to pass value on to outbound links.

 

Buy the links but with very reputed directories like yahoo or website owners but beware of link farms.

 

Hi

I would like to know what exactly Black Hat SEO ?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization#White_hat_versus_black_hat

 

no its not! but Its one of the things that google hates!

 

Google is very touchy on the subject of natural linking and dropped me from a 2 to a 1 in my sites PR because I had alot of bought links.

 

How did they know you bought links?

 

I dont think that buying links is a pure blackhat tech, but yes, google do not like paid links unless they have a nofollow tag

 

I think it's not blackhat but Google don't like paid links.

 

If you buy links for SEO purpose ( i.e. to increase/improve your PR and enhance SERPs) its blackhat.

If you buy links for traffic purpose (i.e. links with no-follow attributes or redirects) --thats whitehat. Buy these type of links-- and nobody--will ever bother you.