Search Engine Marketing

What’s a paid link and How Google decides whether a link is paid or not

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Google has made it very clear that paid links are a no-no on any website. If your website or blog is open to receiving payments for putting up links then you’re most likely going to be in trouble. Google’s alogo are now very powerful and can detect links that are paid. However there is criteria that the Google web spam team considers before flagging your site for a manual penalty.

Matt Cutts explains this in an 8 minute video, he talks about what Google considers as paid links. He says that 99% of the time Google is very clear that a particular link is paid. However sometime is not much so.

So is taking a free gift and putting up a link termed as “paid” ?
What if I get a discount code to try out a new SEO tool and then put up their link on my blog ?

These are some of the questions Matt tries to answer in the video, check it out – let me know what you think

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9 comments

Huntington Beach Chiropractor March 6, 2014 - 1:06 am
Paid links can effect the ranking of the website. Paid links are cheap, low quality links and can even penalize a website.
john March 6, 2014 - 10:53 am
I've stopped listening to what Matt Cutts says long ago. If I feel like selling links I just sell them and period! If Google takes a dump on small SEOs like me to make room for giants like Amazon, WebMD, etc., then why should I care about their TOS anymore?
ZK March 12, 2014 - 10:40 pm
@john ....I love it :) its the right thing to do. Do what best works for your site
john March 13, 2014 - 12:45 pm
thanks! :)
Heather Stone March 7, 2014 - 3:10 am
Hi Zubin, I think the time worn phrase "avoiding the appearance of inpropriety" comes into play here. And remember, there are other factors to consider besides Google penalizing your website. They include things like legal guidelines enforced by government agencies (including the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S.) and most importantly perhaps, the trust of your readers. Are you betraying that trust by creating referrals for reasons other than merit or than your honest opinion about the quality of a link, website or service? Thinking about some of these questions is probably a better idea than waiting for a set of absolute guidelines from Google.
ZK March 12, 2014 - 10:42 pm
Very true @heather Google's algos are now getting very complex, they want you to move to paid ads
rifki March 11, 2014 - 3:07 am
i think..there is no "real" factor that make our website be no 1 in google or the last one...the way google think about their page rank is too complicated...and i also think its classified.
john March 13, 2014 - 12:49 pm
classified my *** (pardon the expression). All you need is high PR, relevant backlinks from trusted domains and you can rank for ANY keyword. The trick is getting these backlinks that are: 1) on high PR pages (not domains, but pages) 2) relevant to your niche 3) from trusted and authority websites. That's the secret! That's how you beat Google at their own game. But getting these golden nuggets is out of reach of poor SEOs like me.
Karan Rawat March 15, 2014 - 12:08 pm
There are lots of folks out there who knows how to cheat google. Black Hat Seo techniques are very advanced.
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