28 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
28 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Google Penalizes Link Selling??

by lookielookies
24 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi

I bumped into several messages reporting how Google had penalized sites because links were being sold on them. While looking for more info, I found a whole bunch of posts claiming this is not true. [?]

Can someone please clarify?
#google #links #page rank
  • Profile picture of the author HarveyJ
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[21984].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author swollenpickles
      Google frown upon the whole link selling thing. Have a read here:
      Why should I report paid links to Google?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22120].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
        Yes; everything I've seen leads me to believe that Google not only penalizes sites that SELL links, but penalizes sites that buy them, as well.

        If you own a website, please don't buy or sell links. There is an answer. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but not only can one of my current products help you, but I am feverishly working on another product that can help even more.
        Signature
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22132].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author xmx
          That's very interesting, and important for all site's owners
          that try to improve the rankings of their sites.

          But how does google determines if a new link has been
          bought or not?

          There are many way to increase the number of links back.

          A web site owner could simply link to a new site in exchange
          of a link from a different site.

          If 2 webmasters own more than a web site they could decide
          to exchange links without doing the classic link exchange,
          but doing 1 way link from 1 site without link back.

          example:
          webmaster 1 has sites a and b
          webmaster 2 has sites c and d

          1 adds link on site a to site c
          and adds links on site b to site d

          2 adds link on site c to site b
          and adds link on site d to site a

          they are not links back and either paid links.

          I know that this is a very particular example, but I did it
          to understand how google can determine which links are
          considered good which are not.

          Please let me know more about google and links.


          kind regards

          Gian
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22197].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author Jelasco
            That's funny, since Google sells more links than probably anyone else. Typical hypocrisy.
            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22443].message }}
            • Profile picture of the author lelaiskandar
              One of the way Google ranks your site is by using the power of democracy.

              If you have 500 sites pointing to yours with the text 'Cute Babies' while your competitor has only 1 site pointing to his with the same text, Google will rank yours higher.

              The reason Google penalizes buying & selling of links is because of this. Like in a democratic election, you can buy and sell votes (although illegal, that's how many 3rd world countries end up with corrupt leaders - i live in one), and those with the most money (instead of the most valuable info) will win the top spot of Google ranking by buying links.

              Google makes money by giving out relevant/best results for your searches. If they don't combat/penalize sites that sell/buy links they'll be out of business because you'll get irrelevant results for your searches.

              Remember: It's not just about selling/buying. It's about trying to game Google. A classic case study involves John Chow who used to rank #1 for 'make money online' but was penalized for gaming Google (by getting tons of links) up to the stage where he don't even rank for his own name!

              Story here: http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/06/29...s-penalty-box/
              http://www.liewcf.com/blog/archives/...-results-page/


              p/s This is only one of many algorithm used to rank site. Of course, if your competitor has only 1 site that comes from say, National Geographic or About.com while all 500 of your come from spammy overnight blogspot.com sites, I bet his will be ranked higher.

              It's called the power of authority sites.
              {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22505].message }}
              • Profile picture of the author JaturontThan
                Google basically can tell if the site is selling link by seeing "your links here" or similar phrase on your website. But people can report selling links activities to Google for investigation. Beside of that Google've never knew which site is selling the links...
                {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22732].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards View Post

          Yes; everything I've seen leads me to believe that Google not only penalizes sites that SELL links, but penalizes sites that buy them, as well.

          If you own a website, please don't buy or sell links. There is an answer. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but not only can one of my current products help you, but I am feverishly working on another product that can help even more.
          Hi Angela,

          Respectfully, I must disagree with your assertion that buying links will cause a penalty to your site. I have never seen one credible example of this. If you can find one, please share!

          As Jelasco pointed out, Google embraces the concept of buying and selling links as their primary business model. This is not hypocracy as they will not penalize anyone else if you follow their guidelines.

          What Google has a problem with is the attempt to sell Pagerank, which is theirs and theirs alone to give. They do not sell Pagerank and they do not want anyone else selling it either. This would ruin the effectiveness of their natural ranking algorithm and jeopardize their entire business model.

          Google has no problem with you buying or selling links for traffic, just as they do. You are only at risk if you appear to be selling Pagerank or "Link juice" as it is sometimes called.
          Signature

          * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
          *           Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22942].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author blacksirius
          Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards View Post

          Yes; everything I've seen leads me to believe that Google not only penalizes sites that SELL links, but penalizes sites that buy them, as well.

          If you own a website, please don't buy or sell links. There is an answer. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but not only can one of my current products help you, but I am feverishly working on another product that can help even more.
          If Google penalized sites that buy links, so how if i buy links to my competitors site and get them penalized?
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[25691].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author websitemoneynow
          It is very true , look under google analsytics and you can report link selling , the person who is buying the link has notihng to worry about but the person selling the link will get bad google rankings from that point on and the person buying the links will simply just find another seller
          Signature

          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[70966].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Ricky Parker
    Originally Posted by lookielookies View Post

    Hi

    I bumped into several messages reporting how Google had penalized sites because links were being sold on them. While looking for more info, I found a whole bunch of posts claiming this is not true. [?]

    Can someone please clarify?

    This happened long ago. All they did was take away PR.

    Whoop-deeee-do no biggy. All my sites that lost their pretty green bar still rank just fine.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22130].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Misch.Chief
      Originally Posted by Ricky Parker View Post

      This happened long ago. All they did was take away PR.

      Whoop-deeee-do no biggy. All my sites that lost their pretty green bar still rank just fine.
      It is no biggy if all you want to do is rank well, but if you sell links and you only have a pr0 then your link value is not going to be as high surely?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22948].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Originally Posted by Misch.Chief View Post

        It is no biggy if all you want to do is rank well, but if you sell links and you only have a pr0 then your link value is not going to be as high surely?
        Hi Misch,

        If you are selling links for PR then you have crossed a big bold line in Google's eyes. This will corrode the integrity of Google's algorithm and you can expect them to vigorously defend against this.

        The only legitimate reason to sell a link is for the traffic benefit. If you add the "nofollow" attribute to the link, all will be right with Google.
        Signature

        * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
        *         Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[22975].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author angilina
    Yes, google hate paid links [without no follow tag], and penalizes sites for selling links.

    If google finds out that a site is buying links then they also penalize that site too.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[23612].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by angilina View Post

      Yes, google hate paid links [without no follow tag], and penalizes sites for selling links.

      If google finds out that a site is buying links then they also penalize that site too.
      Hi Angilina,

      I have never heard of a site that was penalized for buying links. I have done a lot of research in an attempt to find one, with none ever found. Do you know of one?
      Signature

      * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[23639].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
        I guess we were both saying the same thing, Don. Websites that sell links (and I don't have proof, but I've heard that buying links is just as bad) for the "link juice" have been heavily penalized by Google in this last PR update.
        Signature
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[23842].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author davemoore
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        Hi Angilina,

        I have never heard of a site that was penalized for buying links. I have done a lot of research in an attempt to find one, with none ever found. Do you know of one?
        Ditto.

        So I am on page 2 for a very high comp term in 'make money' market (40+ mil results)... I am pretty sure that I would spend a few hundred a month on links to competitors to knock off 3-4 site above me to make page 1 if this were true. Most (successful) folks don't buy links for those competitive markets... you would (and if you do it tactfully, you probably should IMO) get links for "portable pizza warmer"... which IMO (with a enough testing acorss 1000's of markets, literally) SEs do not spend 1 iota of resource to research. And if someone did try to purchase links for a comp term/market... they would need to have well rounded strategy to be ranked in the first place... and in that case paid links, if identified, would simply be disregarded... because of the scenario above.
        So you could waste your time... and some money if you don't know what you are doing at all... or try to rank for "home mortgages", but to say you get penalized... well, I will just say I haven't seen it.
        My 2 cents.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[24023].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author scene4u
    Sites with purchased links are considered link farms. Google has not identified all the link farms on the web yet so some of these sites may still boost your ranking. I read someone that Google does not necessarily penalise but that they effectively ignore links from paid directories.
    Signature

    Psychic Readings http://www.kooma.co.uk
    Search engine optimisation Londonhttp://www.searchsensations.com
    Abs Workout Now http://www.absworkoutnow.co.uk

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[70269].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Solidsnake
    Banned
    Originally Posted by lookielookies View Post

    Hi

    I bumped into several messages reporting how Google had penalized sites because links were being sold on them. While looking for more info, I found a whole bunch of posts claiming this is not true. [?]

    Can someone please clarify?
    Yes it's true... My site, which is PR2 before the update was down to PR 2 because of my reciprocal links at homepage (not selling)... I didn't realized this until I experienced... I removed all the links and do more in link building... I am hoping to regain my pr or even higher on next update..
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[70281].message }}

Trending Topics