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Paying For Links-Let's Talk About It



Linking

Since finding quality links are an extremely important factor to the success or failure of an online business, many companies have popped up – promising webmasters 100’s of quality links. Among the companies that assert such claims are: link exchange programs, link purchasing, software programs, article writing systems, blog creation systems (which may include splog systems).


Note: Splog is a blog term– It is a spam blog, which the author uses for the sole purpose of promoting their affiliate websites, to increase page rank, or as a link outlet to get new sites listed. The articles are considered Spam, with no viable content.


Paying For Links – The Concept

Webmasters are always looking for ways in which to increase their page ranking – thus, paying for links, when it first began – was a pretty simple method for those websites/blogs with high rankings to make money from their website/blog.

The high ranking, high quality website, would open a page where a webmaster could buy a plain text link. The webmaster who was buying the link was hoping to increase or improving their own page rank. This simple concept had created a nice income for webmasters selling links.

As you may have noticed, I said "had".


Do The Search Engines Condone Link Buying?

Late in 2007 link buying did not become profitable. The bubble came crashing down for many. Google began penalizing the blogs/websites for this practice.  It became a problem. Why?

The people at Google  felt that the buying and selling of links lessens the quality, integrity and creditability of the links on the Internet. In other words, they felt that webmasters was "gaming" and/or manipulating the page ranking system. But, I might add, that Yahoo is not to thrilled with the buying and selling of links, as well.

Why is this important to Google, and Yahoo as well? Both put a high relevance on the meaning of links from one site to another – and thus, the reason why they are steadfast in the pursuit at reducing the tendency toward link purchasing. (Understandable, links are the connecting force to the Internet.)


So what do you need to do to comply with Google standards? Google suggests the following remedies.

1. Redirect through URL blocked by robots.txt
2. Redirect through URL using 302
3. Use JavaScript to direct the link
4. Apply rel=”nofollow” attribute to the link
5. Add to the page header

As you can see, these solutions helps only one-Google.


To Buy Links Or Not To Buy Links

Should you pay for links? From my point of view, I would say no.

The search engine rules have become stricter. The links you may have purchased or are thinking of purchasing may now affect your website in a negative light, if the eyes of the Search Engines are watching.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly do not want to wake up to a website or blog -- after working late hours for several years to see my site/blog drop in rank or penalized – because of my greed for ranking. Do you? 

But you say, how will they know if the link is natural or bought? Here tell, Google and Yahoo are getting better at determining these links. But sadly, they cannot determine the intent. With that being said, remember – even if your intent is/was innocent, the Search Engines will not know – they will proceed according to the programming rules instituted by human programmers. 

But all is not lost, there is one way in which you can pay for links and stay free of the penalties that Google or Yahoo may place on you – you can buy plain text links (these links do bring in traffic to your site). However, Yahoo and Google would like the individual that is selling you the link to incorporate the “no follow” attribute into the link. This way, you will be safe and will not be penalized, because Google and Yahoo will not use it in the ranking of your page. Alas, if the individual incorporates the “no follow” attribute into the link – that defeats the purpose of even buying the link.

Translated, it means that you would find greater success if you do not buy or sell links to increase your page ranking. Always use the natural way of getting one-way links – all based on the quality of your content on your website. 


Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal links is another avenue you can look into as well. However, you're depending upon the honesty of the individual you are linking too. This takes a lot of time and extra work. Why? Because if you are smart, you will monitor the links, as well as, the links on your site.

Not to burst your bubble, but if you think people cannot do something that is not above and beyond devious-think again. Check out the Linking Scams, Slight of Link for details below.

Next........

One Way Inbound Links
Linking Scams-Slight of Link