Industry News & Trends
Don't Sweat Paid Links
By Michael Murray, VP-Search Engine Marketing
In its passion for the most relevant results, Google seems to be striking some nerves and putting fear into marketers who buy paid links.
Look at the issue as a yellow caution light that comes and goes depending on who controls the traffic on any given day. I wouldn't abandon efforts to secure links just because you think you might get banned.
Matt Cutts, the popular Google engineer, found himself in the thick of things at the Search Engine Strategies conference this month in San Jose, Calif. One afternoon, a panel of search engine marketers pounded him with rhetoric, including some sound reasoning about paid links.
At the heart of the matter is PageRank, the device Google created to convey the authority of a given website page. Higher green bars (up to 10) reflect better links in terms of their credibility, not just pure volume. Once it became clear that Google factored links into its ranking algorithm, businesses starting rounding up as many as possible - cheap and fast.
However, it's the nature and quality of the links (not the amount) that matters - the relevant traffic each website gets. Authoritative websites (that other decent websites link to) can pass along some "link juice" simply by linking to other websites. Securing a link from CNN is always better than a link from Uncle Bob's bike shop.
Paid links muddy the waters when a paid link from one website doesn't always go to a relevant website.
Google isn't exactly opposed to paid links. They're a reality of commercial internet world. Matt suggests website owners simply take steps to make sure they don't pass along the PageRank when selling links. Technical steps could include a "no follow" tag in the source code. The tag essentially tells Google not to credit any PageRank to websites getting the links.
Critics argue that Google created PageRank so it can deal with the problem, rather than burden website owners with adjusting its pages to make sure other websites don't benefit from PageRank's influence. What website marketers don't always say is that the value of the paid links they sell will diminish if PageRank isn't part of the picture.
At the conference, Fathom SEO caught up with Matt who clarified that Google won't automatically ban a website just because it sells paid links. For example, we discussed an earlier panel point about websites that have an editorial review before awarding a paid link. In other words, some directories offer paid links after they evaluate a website's merits and relevancy. According to Matt, Google would quickly look at the quality of the websites that the directory links to before deciding if this directory is worth penalizing. In addition, Google has a tiered penalty approach that can range from a single page to the entire website.
Until this unfortunate link ordeal has more clarity, I encourage website marketers to continue seeking paid links from relevant websites. I don't see why a home builder can't link to an interior decorator - they have a lot in common.
With the future a little in doubt, pursue paid links that actually deliver traffic and don't worry too much about how the link may influence the natural search engine rankings. We call that gravy around our office.