Why Paid Links are No Good
Many website owners, webmasters and SEO’s believe that paying for links should not be forbidden. They often say, “It’s just advertising”. Google on the other hand says its artificial manipulation of their search results so they forbid it if you want to play nice with them.
In this article I will try to explain how I went from a disgruntled SEO who thought Google was being unreasonable, to a converted believer with a much fuller appreciation for the dangers and seedy nature of the paid link business.
It starts in 2003 when I first entered the web development business and began learning basic SEO tactics. At the time reciprocal links were ‘da bomb’ and all kinds of link swapping schemes were raging. The smarter SEOs started to realize that a link coming from a site with no reciprocal link is MUCH better than a reciprocal link. So the idea of one-way links was born. The reciprocal link schemes turned into three-way links or triangulated link structures where Site A links to Site B who links to Site C who links back to Site A; this way everyone gets a one-way link. Well Google had become the Lord of the Search engines and began decreeing by fiat the rules of engagement. So when reciprocal links diminished in power and three-way, four-way and other link-ring schemes began to lose their effectiveness, the answer became real one-way links; easier said than done, that’s for sure.
As a result, all new schemes came out for webmasters to get listed on many sites including directories, social networking sites, and blogs. First it was the mad rush of new free-for-all directories that would publish just about any link. Then it was the niche directory which focuses on one segment of the economy. The next great link idea was the blog comments and social bookmarking. And last but not least is the wonderful world of article syndication. All of these tactics create one-way links which is what you want when you are trying to build backlinks to your site.
All along the way the experts had the idea that the backlinks that you really want, the ones that actually help your site’s rankings, are the ones from established, credible, and authoritative websites. So how does some small startup business or even an established local business get links from authoritative websites? You pay for them, of course; in the form of advertising and you get a nice link back to your site. Seems honest and reasonable, doesn’t it? Well, it may have been at one time, but give any honest idea some time and it will become as corrupt as a big white building full of politicians.
The SEO demons came in and made the paid link business a cesspool of thievery, fraud and corruption like they do with everything else they touch. Not only was there an ability for any site owner with a decent budget to buy into powerful sites but a black-market of fake PageRank (pr) and fake websites, content theft, domain redirects, doorway pages and all sorts of unscrupulous pillaging of ignorant buyers emerged. The schemes were (and still are) so good that even savvy SEO’s could get duped without any recourse. Google saw the corrupt nature of a paid link system and decided to totally outlaw the practice.
They did this first of all to keep their search engine a fair field of play. No one likes cheating, especially being cheated, so Google went with the idea that buying links to boost one’s website rankings is not a fair play as it artificially manipulates their index. Why is it artificial you may ask? Google always wanted their search engine to deliver results that were most relevant and most important to the user searching for the information. They offer a pay-per-click link system in their adWords program. But these are set aside and labeled, “Sponsored Listings”. The user knows that those are paid advertisements not necessarily relevant results. If people pay sums of money, large or small, to get a boost in the organic results, the user is left in the dark that these results have been influenced by money when they are not supposed to be.
The second reason, if the first was not enough, is the very dirty and corrupt nature of a business like link trading, buying and selling. There are more scams than anyone would believe, especially being the unregulated world of the Internet. Sophisticated programmers can write code to do all kinds of evil all the while the innocent buyer has no clue they were duped until it’s too late. The dark world of link trading was something that Google wants to discourage. So, they do not permit paid links, link buying or selling in any way shape of form. They developed the use of rel=”nofollow” to place on paid links so that they could easy dismiss them for the purposes of their index and not allow them to influence it.
At the time, my first reaction to this was, “hey, who do they think they are to tell me how to promote my websites!” I rebelled, and found ways to do it anyway … until I got in deep and saw some of the real evil that goes on in the link selling world. I saw how people would rip you off over the smallest amounts of money. In many cases, what seemed to be a good deal would turn out months later as a total scam. The schemes, the tricks, the corruptions… yikes! its awful, awful!
I also saw how search results were so rife with out-of-place irrelevant nonsense sites that are not even close to what I searched on. I saw how the cost to my clients for paying some joker to post a link to their site in hopes that A) it actually provides some juice, and B) it doesn’t get caught by the Google police, or C) the link doesn’t go away mysteriously or turn into a porn site (yes, it happens). What a mess!
At this point, somewhat recently, I realized that Google was right after all. Paid links are no good! It creates bad search results, it feeds a corrupt black-market, it’s just plain evil!! — Ahh, kool-aid can be refreshing on a hot summer day. Never mind that, what I really mean to say is that even if you don’t believe Google, at some point you will realize that the whole paid link market is not worth the trouble. It is getting worse and worse as it gets more secretive.
In conclusion, paid links are just no good. The right way to optimize a website is in plain English, or whatever language you want, in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. That’s the real Secret of Search Engine Optimization…duh. People will always find ways to corrupt things and take advantage of a system or other people. It has always been this way, and will always be. But if you search through the confusion and just come back to the simplicity of what the search engine sites tell you is right, then it will all work out the right way. Paid links are definitely not necessary.
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