Google Updates Webmaster Guidelines

[A_Khan]

Google updates webmaster guidlines. It is comprehensive guidline for webmaster and specially for those who involve to sell links. Google is enforcing to don't get any paid link or don't involve these type of activity, it causes to decrease your ranking, sometime disappear your website from Google index. Read the google webmaster guidline, it really helps to all of You
[google.com...]

[Reno]

some paid directories are fine, especially the human edited ones that don't just list everyone who pays them money

And I have to think that a second factor -- in addition to the human editing -- is whether or not the theme of the directory is closely related to the content of the website seeking inclusion. Select a directory that has quality listings, and make sure those listed/linked sites are complementary to your own, and go for it. It's hard to imagine that Google would have the slightest concern about those kind of relationships.

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[hugo_guzman]

I think that tedster hit the nail on the head.

It's unlikely that buyers of paid links will suffer ranking penalties, but those paid links will be devalued.

However, if Google decides that a site is selling paid links, then that site will likely suffer in the SERPs.

I'm actually ok with that, because it ensures that unscrupulous webmasters cannot harm a competitor by simply purchasing links and pointing them at their competitor's site.

And for all of you that chose to use paid links as the basis for your link-building strategy, good luck picking up the pieces.

And for those of you who chose to use paid links as the centerpiece for your business plan, good luck picking up the pieces.

The lesson, as always, is to avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket.

[Whitey]

Sell links? --
If you let them pass PR, you may get hit with a true ranking penalty, and that's a lot worse than the current little smack on the wrist of a toolbar demotion to your PR.

In some cases the entire site can go out of the SERP's as Google strips PR from all the offending pages, which dilutes the overall strength of the site.

I've seen a site restore quite quickly when some easily identified paid links were removed. But I'm not sure if there is a longer period of recovery for sites not fixing this quickly.

[tedster]

Matt Cutts made a new post today on the official Google Webmaster blog about buying and selling links - and he followed it up with responses in the comment area to many issue that were raised. If you have still have questions about Google's position on link selling, this post may help. Or it may just fuel your fires. At any rate, there is more communication here:

[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...]

[Whitey]

I just sense the mood about links is focused and more intense at the moment from Matt - like we 're about to witness something a little more robust in the algo and from the editors .

There are further references in his blog : [mattcutts.com...]

To some it might be bull , but the intentions, as ever, are very clear .

There will be an interesting buzz at PubCon.

All I can say is that external linking is a risky art for the purposes of ranking in some sectors.

[edited by: Whitey at 4:33 am (utc) on Dec. 3, 2007]

[CainIV]

Doesn't seem to me that Google can or will determine what is paid and what isn't for the most part. The most they can do is demote the toolbar to try and skew the results.

If they were to implement a more decisive paid link stance, they would likely lose public confidence as many of the top networks and businesses that the public is accustomed to seeing and trusting in the searches may no longer rank so well...