Understand your very busy and this is a very old topic but can you tell me if i have paid for links via tla (text link ads) do i run the risk of a penalty?
We have had a very strange day today over Google and im being told lots of different things by our marketing/seo agency … based on the events of today and there reaction i decided to do a little reading ….
Im being told one thing by the experts and reading another thing by online experts ??? really dont know who to listen to …

Thanks inadvance.
Bill

Do Google has also quality guidelines for its advertisers? Google tells people not to earn money for the sites they build but does Google care about people and apply strict guidelines for its adwords clients?

Thanks…

Matt, if a site used to buy/sell links for page rank, gets its PR zapped by Google, then realizes it’s mistakes and stops selling/buying links would that site regain it’s PR?

It seems to me that to make this system work, you need to reward sites that change their ways.

Really would love to hear your take on this and as I have seen many ask the same/simlar question, i’m sure many others would too.

Can you give any clarification on the effect past link buying has on future SEO efforts – and whether or not sites are being penalized for having bought backlinks that pass pagerank?

I get asked this question all the time, and I’ve answered the questions the best I can from my own experience, here : http://www.searchengine-promotion.co.uk/blog/?p=181 but I’d love to know if what I am saying is 100% correct, so that I can change the advice if it’s not bang on.

This is a question I get asked a lot – because a LOT of people used to include paid backlinks in their SEO, who have now stopped now – and understand that their SE positions have suffered in the past as a result of a drop in PR thanks to the linkjuice no longer flowing via the paid backlinks – but their concern is, is there any point in continuing to work with the website, because they are worried that penalties will continue to be applied to the site as a result of having their card marked as a link buyer, even though they no longer buy backlinks that pass PR (or backlinks that attempt to pass PR, I should say).

My opinion from my own experience is that previous backlink buying doesn’t appear to have a negative effect on future efforts, so it doesn’t look to me like Google hold a grudge against a past history of buying backlinks that pass PR. But it would be great to know for sure.

I’m not too clear on whether or not Google are penalizing for backlink buying though as I say on the blog post, I’ve not been able to find any official line on this either way – my opinion is that it really doesn’t matter, it’s a waste of time so just don’t bother doing it, but a lot of the questions I’m getting about this are coming from clients who had hired SEO firms previously who were using a large number of paid backlinks without the client realizing – or understanding that there was potentially a problem with this, so when they discover this there is a panic about whether they will be penalized beyond the fact that the backlinks will mainly have no positive effect.

Any info would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Kev

however what about say direcoty links, with some featured, like yellowpages, surely yellow pages doesnt get frowned on by offering a company a paid option that shows their website address.

and similarly, in an e news publication, paid editorial are very commonly how a publication survives, would this be seen as a paid link, and if so why.

I understand there is a fine line between these things, but if there is a reputable portal with loads of quality conent, and many paying advertisers taking editorials, and featured business directory listings, why whould they be penalised for this.

sb..