Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
If it's a problem, how could Google detect it?
They probably have a team of bloggers doing all kinds of "articles" with links and how would google ever know... or ever really know.
So if google is now the link police then maybe they shouldn't base the value of a site or a page based on links at all.
I have read through the posts more than once. I do see it involves a lot of time and effort to obtain good quality links.
So what you are saying is build quality contents and the links will start coming in..
At this time, if we cancel our paid links being they have probably lost thier worth, what affect may it have on our site?
Our link broker claims by canceling all the links we will show G that we have done something wrong and they may penalize us completely being that they will loose trust in us. If we keep the links and bring more we will build up trust in Google and will eventually come back..
What is your suggestion on this?
[edited by: F_Rose at 9:31 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2007]
Our link broker claims by canceling all the links we will show G that we have done something wrong and they may penalize us completely being that they will loose trust in us.
That would depend on whether your site has been penalized, or as some knowledgeable board members have pointed out, links have been merely discounted. Your 'link broker' may not be the unbiased opinion you are looking for.
As far as building content and the links pouring in, it really depends on the type of content. For some types of e-commerce sites, you might be waiting a long time for incoming links.
That is the reason I posted the question cause I want to know what step to take.
I assumed G has dropped us for having sitewide links, I checked other sites listed on the same site with a sitewide link and they are doing just perfect. Maybe, something else went wrong with our site?
I just can't figure it out...
P.S. I have no idea if this may have anything to do with our site but when I do a search in Google for url: I get 12,800 urls, we only have 309 indexed and I get to see only til up to 309, is it something I should look into?
I checked other sites listed on the same site with a sitewide link and they are doing just perfect. Maybe, something else went wrong with our site?
Unfortunately it is more technical than that. As Robert pointed out, possibly the other sites already have good link reputation, and so if their paid link was detected, the loss of link weight did not hurt them significantly. Also, never make too rash of a decision when something goes wrong.
I am not sure of what information you are trying to get using the url: operator in Google.com
Here's my thoughts:
Create really unique content on the website.
Consider cancelling your text links if they do not bring qualified and convertable sales for you. Sales and relevant traffic are always what I look for, anything else is simply not worth paying for. Focus on sales and qualified visitors and you will never go wrong.
Cancel any run-of-site links you have purchased.
Manually ask for links. I have been quite successful asking people if they might link to me, and have taken pride and time to develop content and services. Somtimes you have to think creatively to get important links to you, but that will put you one step ahead of others.
At this time, if we cancel our paid links being they have probably lost thier worth, what affect may it have on our site?
This suggests that you bought these links only for PageRank, with no regard to how much traffic they might bring. A good link will likely bring both. As CainIV discusses, if they are good links that do have traffic potential, then do not rush to cancel them.
Other questions you might consider, from both the traffic and ranking benefits perspectives...
Are the links on pages relevant to your pages? Are they surrounded by content that is relevant to your pages?
And how long have you had them? Link benefits don't show up immediately.
Text links will rarely bring you business. Text links do very little to increase rankings these days.
Best kind of links are free links. Write a few good articles, submit them to various press releases and you can also look at submitting them to digg as well.
Surely you must be joking! Plus, finding out the bought ones, is much easier if they have a "Sponsored Links" section.
Also, every other site on the sponsored link section is highly ranked in the SERPS for various industry terms, so I don't think it has hurt them any.
Google says buy our links, don't buy others, don't link to others without our special tag, don't get involved with bad neighborhoods... which by the way we will never tell you what or where a bad neighborhood is. Write your pages for people and include content and we'll stuff that content in the supplemental index. Join our webmaster tool program and spill your guts out to us over what you think you might have done to get penalized in our index, so we can collect all the goofy stuff that has been done in the past into one big algo. All along, watch websites that engage in everything we say we don't like beat the pants off of you in the serps.
Oh and lets put out blogs and forums that give incredibly vague answers on how to fix the local glass shops penalty... Yeah he's a big time spammer, with his 10 pages of installation services and can't show up on his company name or domain without begging and pleading with the google deities to list his site. Thats a real useful index... Can't find the local craftsmen because they don't know about Webmaster tools and pleading with google over something they didn't do wrong.
It's cheaper to just buy a Yahoo directory link and a few well placed text links that will actually send you traffic and forget google's restrictive and horribly deficient index.
Google says buy our links, don't buy others,
Google doesn't sell HTML text links.
All these people worry about that little green toolbar and they should not be.
Take the money you are planning to spend on a link, sink it into adwords ads and drive traffic to your best selling products.
Yet another qualifier.... Don't buy any old type of link from someone not connected to us, buy our special type of link...
"Google doesn't sell HTML text links."Yet another qualifier.... Don't buy any old type of link from someone not connected to us, buy our special type of link...
You miss the point. Google AdWords and AdSense ads don't pass PageRank, so they're only ads--they aren't SEO ploys masking as ads.
Sites that sell straight text links subvert Google's PageRank mechanism, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for Google to ignore or, better yet, penalize such links. That doesn't mean site owners aren't free to sell straight text links; they can do whatever they like, as long as they're willing to accept the potential loss of free traffic from Google.
Text links do very little to increase rankings these days.
This is a very good thread because the original poster is asking a truly legitimate question. It’s one a lot of people think about these days. He’s not asking what you think ethically of purchasing links, but whether if he does purchase links will that cause a negative effect on his sites ranking, as opposed to the hoped positive effect.
I have never purchased a link, but the fact is we see every single day sites ranking very well that in fact do purchase links. Coincidence? No, its not. Given that we see the links they have and know the sites their on and know that without those links their ranking would not be as high the evidence is pretty clear to us, that purchasing text links does in fact help with ranking. In fact in grappling with today’s algorithm, having links, from as many high quality relevant sites as possible, placed correctly, seems to be even more powerful (especially in regard to keeping you out of trouble such as with the 950 penalty)
Purchasing text links would definitely be a problem, (or cause your ranking to fall) if you;
Bought a large number and implemented them all at once.
Bought a large number from one site (remember when run of site was common practice? Well don’t do that today)
Bought links from penalized sites.
Bought links from sites that have nothing to do with the theme of your site.
Bought links from low quality sites that offer nothing unique in terms of content.
Bought links where the link is on a “links page” with 200 hundred other links.
And a whole bunch of other reasons that could be detrimental.
Conversely;
If you had a site that sold personal computers, and Michael Dell agreed to sell you a text link from the home page of his site, guess what: your ranking is going to rise.
I’m not in any way advocating buying text links, and don't purchase them myself, but the OP is asking a clear cut question and he’s getting a bit of a mixed bag of answers based on personal preferences and attitudes that don't factually address the question. Could it be a problem? Yes, most definitely. Is there risk involved? Absolutely.
Could it help your site to rise in rank? Yes, it could and does every day with more sites than you probably realize. Pull up a few of your favorite competitors in the Yahoo site explorer and really drill into the source of their links, right down to the very page their on. You might be surprised what you find.
I didn't miss anything. We have a virtual monopoly dictating how we can advertise because they invented a poor system of ranking.
Quite frankly, I'm surprised they haven't been sued under antitrust laws for this. They are effectively limiting an entire legitimate advertising medium.
We have a virtual monopoly dictating how we can advertise because they invented a poor system of ranking.Quite frankly, I'm surprised they haven't been sued under antitrust laws for this. They are effectively limiting an entire legitimate advertising medium.
Google isn't a monopoly by any stretch of the imagination, and Webmasters are free to link however they wish.
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