Agree to that... quitting dogpile until they fix it... I searched far and wide but everybody says about penalties about selling links ( solely based on PR) but i dont see it anywhere in google helpcenter... But i think if i clearly label a link as sponsored then i should not be penalized no matter what i use to emphasize value of my website ( including PR) to the adverisers... if a cleanly demarcated sponsored (paid)section is good for google then it is for others as well... dont you agree.
I think the issue is with sites which sell links based on PR. For example, say Site A advertises; PR8 link available for $100 per month This has nothing to do with trying to boost traffic, only PageRank, which is an artificial manipulation of PR, which Google states (somewhere) is not allowed and will be viewed dimly.
Homer Excuse... if the thread you started has gone a little off topic.. Why should that be a problem isn't this just a way of saying that this is a quality site worth purchasing ad space. I would consider a website that does a paid review for another website or product placement equally guilty if this is wrong... I am still finding it hard to believe Google would go to such extent to penalize websites because they found that they sold links... When one purchases links or offers link they are not guaranteed any PR per se... let me put it this way i can offer a link for a price because it could be forking hard earned traffic out of my website... having these and other reasons how could google judge a site to be penalized... intriguing... As for me i see a website with high PR as a site with lots of inbound links from other good websites which in turn could mean good traffic and better exposure for the text ad i place...
No probs I think we're still on topic as I have not clearly stated why Google has basically deindexed my site. I believe it has something to do with what we're saying here...an attempt to manipulate serps or PR. I think this is what you were talking about earlier: And I agree with you . Agree with Minstrel on that, adding that Google is free to develop 'link fraud' algos to their own pleasing, whatever patterns get caught under the radar are busted. In my case there is really only one thing I do that may be causing this, who knows . I am beginning to think that it may have some affiliation with the *pattern of growth*. When you set LV most usually set it to XX per day and leave it? Maybe changing that alone could disrupt what pattern Google is seeing. On the other hand this seems crazy that I could use this as a weapon . I don't think you searched far enough Google's TOS clearly states that attempts to manipulate results will not be tolerated.
The truth of the matter is that Google has no problem with people buying paid text links . . . . . .as long as Google are the one profiting from the sale of those links. I do find it hard to stomach Google's arrogance determining who should be the ones profiting from the sale of text links. But hey, they are Google and they can do what the hell they want to bolster their advertising revenues, after all unfortunately we need them more than they need us. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone xxx sites paying their way in the serps for Christmas Kids Toys keywords or anything (ok extreme example ) but most of the people on here and our friend Homer are just trying to run a business to pay the mortgage and put food in our kids mouths and have legitimate reasons for targeting the keywords absolutely relevant to our websites) I think the algos need a certain common sense filter, for a site to of held serps for 6 years to be knocked out because it does a little creative marketing is outrageous, especially in light of Googles hypocritical attitude to text link advertising. Sorry I cant help but rant. I'm sorry to hear you've been penalised Homer, hope other strategies help you get back where you were.
Close, but a good reference statment. Thanks minstrel. This shuts out many a service and brokers as "google no-no".
I considered it, and it definately has me thinking. I chose to set my links as static due to all the concern over dynamic links. Of course, I cant control how my ads are displayed, so this does concern me a little. For whatever reason, I just got blasted by Yahoo yesteday. No delisted, but my rankings crashed and burned. This happens regularly for me at yahoo though so I wont worry unless I dont see them again in a couple days.