[Simon]

I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to create any bias if I can help it - so i'll save my own views (and a couple of articles on the subject) for later in the discussion, if it gets that far! I wanted to ask it here because hopefully everyone won't be an SEO fanatic lol.

My question is this - do you think that buying and selling links is bad? This can include links sold for search engine ranking purposes, traffic building, paid blog posting, paid banner advertising etc...

I'd be interested to know what the average webmaster thinks.

[chuckroast]

Hi Simon

I personally see no problem with it.
I run a number of sites in which I have paid for advertising to build and leverage a user base.
I also offer links for sale on my sites only offset the expenses.

I do believe their should be a code of ethics a webmaster should follow.

For example I've seen websites that rank high in the search indexes and or highly linked on popular sites. Only to take you to a page full of ads or a parking page full of ads. Zero content what so ever. Those sites bother me.

--

[Simon]

Thanks for the reply chuck. I totally agree about the spam pages filled with ads and no content.

What sparked me to ask this was a post I recently read on Matt Cutt's blog about reporting of paid links. He is head of Google's link spam team, and it looks like they will be starting a war on paid links. Quite arrogant to believe they can control the market like that, but still.

As you might have guessed, I'm very much in favour of the free market, and of paid links! If you read all the comments on the blog post mentioned earlier, they are at least 10:1 in favour of paid links I'd say.

To cut short what may otherwise turn into a rant - its funny how Google's search placement algorithm is 90% based on links (numbers and quality), and to compensate for that short-fall they target the people trying to legitimately pursue capitalism.

[chuckroast]

Simon

Thanks for the link.
Matt Cutts is a big tool and here's why..
From what I can tell, it looks like they are attempting to use the reported links to build a database of all the different "competition's" code styling. So they can give a certain weight in the search results.

If you notice he never expressly states that "you can't" sell text links.
Also, there is no payoff for anyone actually reporting sites. So I'm sure it will only be used by competing webmasters, in which Google still wins, cause they still get their data.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by chuckroast

Matt Cutts is a big tool and here's why..

Haha, I wasn't going to say it quite like that but I can't really argue with that statement. If you read parts of his blogs he makes claims about Google's ability to do certain things (such as detect certain link types) that are quite frankly laughable.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially since very soon I'll officially be part of the enemy - a link mongering broker, and with an automated distribution system no less! I think I'm right in saying we will be the first people to use real search engine technology to properly place html links - hoping it holds out under heavy load though. I'm hoping he'll give us a mention after we launch actually! lol