We all know that Google has been penalizing sites which have paid links. So I guess that link sellers would probably stop... Now, what would the future of text link brokers (like TLA) be? I've written a post about that, and it can be found here. Do you think people will continue using TLA/whatever link program and risk their SE rankings? Or will link brokers be totally out of business? Please leave a comment on the post if you can. Thanks.
TLA and other text link brokers will find some another way of getting revenue using same network website which they currently have. But its true, they are going from tough time.
What about the publishers? Will you still continue using the program and risk your search engine position?
I tend to agree that buying links is now been punished by G. But what I don't understand is how they know what links are paid and what links are not. I mean I have a TLA account and the pages, (with the links), are generated on the server. Nothing on the page mentions TLA, (i don't link back to them in any way). So how does Google even know that I have a TLA account? FFMG
I think it will be harder and harder for text links sellers to survive. People are afraid their pr will drop for selling links. I ask myself: will a TLA button on your site also result in penalties from google?
The answer is most definitely not. Publishers of sites that have a lot of traffic will be scared off but most committed link sellers will not. There are a lot of ways to hide a paid link and thus to evade detection e.g. paid reviews and custom articles. It is sure that their inventory has taken a hit and will take some time to recover. But it will mean that link sellers will be more careful in the future and thus making it even harder for Google
And what if Google finds a way to detect paid blog posts? I can't wait for it to happen. I want to know what the next step of link brokers would be.
I don't think that brokers like TLA will vanish. They will find a newer ways of sustaining business and the wheel will roll on to the next level.
I think, the future of text links is in making them editorial votes and letting publishers choose advertisers themselves for every page of their sites, which makes paid links 100% relevant. Of course, contextual links in content will also survive, but they don't seem ethical to me (they can also be very annoying).
Google owns the internets today, but what about tomorrow? Is there anyone that could provide search like Google or does Google own the internet for the foreseeable future?
To put things into perspective, 1. It is only the green toolbar PR that had been hit. 2. The majority of websites hit did not sell links. 3. Almost no link sellers or link buyers have reported a drop a traffic. 4. The only value of the green toolbar PR is that the perceived effectiveness of the link (this is highly questionable and probably flawed) Unless the the SERPS and traffic of link buyers/sellers get affected as well, I just cannot see how much this will be able to affect link buying activity. In any case, some link brokers would prefer Google to drop the green PR toolbar altogether since there are other ways to price links.