how can google tell if you pay for links? don't see how that is possible. what google checks your bank account?
Well G is not going to find every paid link. But there are telltale signs of link selling on most pages that do in fact sell links. G’s got that part down to a science. And don’t forget their “paid link†reporting through Webmaster Tools. That's icing on the cake. /*tom*/
Google is not interested in what link is paid and which is not. Google is taking down all the links that come from paid directories. It's primarily a strike against paid directories
Thats not true they have ways of identifying paid links, based on the code surrounding such links for example sponsored links placed in their own box. Its not just paid directories its all sites that are selling links.
There are several other threads here about paid link detection. There are always going to be people who for their own reasons want to believe that Google cannot detect paid links... that is just blatant denial. Longcall911 is correct: There are several ways that Google can detect paid links, basically amounting to profiling, as I suggested in another thread. They don't have to get every paid link - they just have to be able to get - and discount or penalize - a solid proportion of them to keep the rest of the webmaster world a little more honest. Add to that the willingness of your competitors to turn you in to the Google paid link snitch line and you've really got to be either desperate to someone with just too much money to burn to be buying links for PageRank these days.