Comments on: Do You Report Paid Links? What Goes Around Comes Around!

By: Jim Hobson

Jim Hobson — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:16:23 +0000

You have to love these types of issues – on one hand you can say reporting paid links runs counter to free enterprise and then again if Google wants to run their business by nullifying them then that is their call.

Then there is the view that, like politics, money can taint the purity of the system.

I don’t see how anyone can complain if THEY decide to buy a link (which is their right) and Google decides to ignore it (Google’s right). If Google wants it, and it helps your business, then yes you should consider it. Its playing by Google’s rules, it’s legal, and it improves the value of “honest link acquisition”. Ignoring utilization of a potential competitive advantage is playing to lose.

By: Son Nguyen

Son Nguyen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:59:10 +0000

Maybe the term “paid link” that Google uses is very misleading and confusing. You should choose another term that describes the problem better. Many links are paid, directly or indirectly. BusinessWeek says “Buy a link here”, so it must be paid links then! Many advertising services are about paid links, including Google’s AdWords. Use another term or remove this altogether! I cannot believe Google didn’t think this through!

By: Joann L.

Joann L. — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:44:27 +0000

I know that there are paid links that Google is ok with and those they are not ok with. I have been very careful about purchasing links and was doing just fine (3rd on the page for Designer Inspired Jewelry for at least 4 months). Yesterday, without warning, I checked my site and found that I had totally disappeared from Google. I am ok with the other search engines. If I’ve done something wrong, I don’t know what I did and I don’t know what to do to fix it. There is a new competitor site and I can’t help but wonder if they reported me for something that I either did not do or didn’t know I did. I really need help. My website is my job and I was doing so well. I don’t know where to turn and would appreciate any suggestions.

By: Bill Hazelton

Bill Hazelton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:30:04 +0000

I’m incredibly torn over this. Major competitor of mine is basically utilizing paid links pretty much exclusively for his ranking. The links are discreet but essentially presell/hosted content that would be very hard to detect.

Even though I’m incredibly tempted to piss in this guys cornflakes, I won’t.

But damn it would be easy.

By: Sergey Rusak

Sergey Rusak — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:47:40 +0000

Recently I worked with my client website and checked related 10 websites which rank top 10 on Google (competitors analysis strategy). 4 out of 10 were using “black hat” SEO strategies including buying and selling links.

I thought to report it to Google but I never did because owners of this site maybe hired someone for SEO and don’t know about “black hat” strategies this company or SEO expert use.

I just don’t want to destroy people business.

By: Daniel Mcgonagle

Daniel Mcgonagle — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:54:01 +0000

Thanks for the heads up! Really great post. That’s a must-read I must
say.

By: Jumpions

Jumpions — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:27:31 +0000

No..never did and never will
I report spam like hidden text or links but is not up to me to decide if a link is paid or not!

By: Karen (Karooch from Scraps of Mind)

Karen (Karooch from Scraps of Mind) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:21:14 +0000

There’s a lot to agree with in your post David. I host Text Link Ads on my site and always check them out before accepting them. Whilst they don’t always conform to my blog’s topic, I ensure that they won’t link to site that would offend my readership.

As for dobbing in other sites to Google. Anyone who does that and still sells links on their own site deserves to be stomped on by their peers. Would they do that in ‘real life’?

By: Debra Mastaler

Debra Mastaler — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:36:46 +0000

Thumbs down on reporting paid links. Haven’t done it. Won’t do it.

By: Patrick Altoft

Patrick Altoft — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:05:26 +0000

The issue is an interesting one and, as I said in my comment on the post, I’m still undecided whether reporting them is the right thing to do, hence the reason for stirring up the debate.