This has probably been discussed heavily but it only just hit me very slowly! Google is penalising sites for buying and selling links so is there any point buying a featured link in a directory! I mean your only really paying for the link to be 1. approved quickly 2. Posted on a higher pr page (which may not matter anyeays if penalised). at the end of the day your not going to make massive traffic from a directory! (who uses them to find sites!?)
I'd stay away from buying links. Create good content and you will get natural links and high Google placement. Google algorithm is set to reward those with good content. Brian
^ i would suggest a mixture. At first paying for links is highly beneficial, even if google "finds out".
Its hard though i am trying to compete with livescore.com (who av been around for at least 10 yrs) massive advantage wiv a pr6 site! but if i had links i feel i could compete. I have a designer creating a nice template and a lil money to help wiv advertising but just trying to the right way about it!
I won't suggest to buy links, whenever link seller will be caught by G than at that time that will link will be worth less for your website.
If GG finds out you have been buying links, you can be demoted. If you really fancy buying links either avoid directories and just buy text links on normal websites (offers of selling text link space can be found on DP) or look for clever directories. I mean, there are some directories that don't reveal the fact they are paid directories, the actual categories and the payment gateway are on separate domains and the only way to learn about the inclusion terms is to contact the webmaster.
G does not penalize you for buying links. This way, all my competitors could "buy" me some links. Google can only lower the importance of a bought link, not penalize you for it. Google only penalize sites for selling links!
I don't think it is a good idea to buy links on a directory... There's a bunch of free directories that you could submit your site to... So why bother?
I was about to ask the same thing. Everybody keeps saying "create good content" etc, thats surely true. But its not always that easy, especially if you have a comercial website. I personally would never link to a comercial website because they provide such a good content. Did anyone really experience being punished from Google for buying links? Or is everybody just talking? I can imagine that Google punishes link sellers...but the buyer? If this would be true I would buy some links for my competition. How can Google know for sure that someone bought a link???
Plently of sites exist that sell links , if this was the case then those sites should get banned but the fact is that those sites itself have a higher PR
If Google wants to "clean up" it would work on the cause, which are the link selling sites. And since the sellers dont get banned, I think there is no way the buyers get punished. So why is everybody talking about this?