What is the definition of 'Paid links' for Google ?
-
Many high authority sites are doing paid text linking and linking sites through 'Sponosred linking' sections, But, Google does not seem to be bothered. Just because they are already ruling the industry. Sponsored links are obviously not natural, they are absolutely paid, still Google is giving them priority that is why only people are paying huge for them.
Please go through the website http://goo.gl/tgfH and see "Sponored link" section
So, What actually Google considers as paid link?
-
How do you know Google is not considering these paid links? The site owner does believe Google is considering them paid links and that his traffic is reduced because of it.
Please read his post at http://www.seroundtable.com/sponsored-links-12978.html for background on his view of the links on his site and Google.
-
And as noted in my response above, I do not work for Google, So therefore I nor any (IMHO) can answer that question on this board.
The only answer that can be given (once again IMHO) on that specific question would be speculation and conjuncture. (as i clearly already stated my opinion above)
-
But the question is why Google is not considering these links as paid links and not taking action against them?
-
Hi,
Yes, In my opinion those would be paid links
Only one is No-Followed (which is also weird, do they actually have a pay structure for paying for a follow link?) Also there is no Javascript redirect, so this looks like a plain HTML link, that is supposed to be a "Sponsored Link" but does not follow the guidelines below, so it most probably in my opinion is a paid link, but since I do not work for Google, I could not (and not sure who could) tell you why this site has not been penalized for selling links. Maybe it is because the sponsored link is in return for content?
Even below cited from Google, as in everything with Google, It is referred to as "Guidelines" not rules... So this means just in the verbiage it is at the discretion of Google on how closely or far away these "guidelines" are followed at, before a penalty is leveraged. Although this does seem to be the EXACT behaviour Google is looking out for at the moment, from a very visible SEO site - Maybe his social reputation and contribution to the SE community gains him the leverage to do this (since he is doing it "tastefully", as it could just be a mistake (LOL)
"Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as:
- Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the <a>tag</a>
<a>* Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file"</a>
<a>Source</a>
<a></a>http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736
- Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the <a>tag</a>
-
If you pay for a link, it's a payed link. I don't think there is any difference in a sponsored link or just some link in a blogpost on some random website. As you also pointed out, Google doesn't seem to bother much, but if they find out you bought it, you can get a penalty because of it.
But,.. if a sponsored link is a payed link. Would an article submission on some pay-for-your-article-submission-website with any links in that article be also a payed links? And what about signing up for Le Web simply for your link in their directory? I don't know!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Adwords GEO Targeting Via Checkin
Hi There, I have done a fair bit of searching for the answer to my question but to no avail, maybe it's not possible. With Google AdWords is it possible to target check-ins to premises. So say someone visits a place or checks-in, they get to a see an Ad. I can't see how it would be possible but maybe they have Googled the business, then they walk in and Google shows the ad based on IP address. So for example. people who visited the Rose & Crown in York could be shown hangover cures the next day, whilst they are laid-up in bed? Cheers Mozzers. Neil
Paid Search Marketing | | nezona1 -
Impressions data: Google Webmaster Tools VS Google AdWords
Dear community, I was doing some research within Google Webmaster Tools (WMT) keyword data when I noticed that the impressions within this tool are quite different compared to the keyword impression data provided by Google AdWords (ADW). Some specs about the situation: Date: December 2014 (31 days). Keyword: brand + main keyword* (e.g. amazon shoes, if Amazon would have been the client) Visitors come from: the Netherlands (>97%). Search volume: 3,8 K for this branded keyword last year (December 2013), of which >99% came from the Netherlands (source: Google Keyword Planner). Search query data: "impressions" for Google WMT (organic keyword impressions) and “impressions” for Google ADW (paid keyword impressions). Of course the ADW keyword is [exact]. So, what's wrong? The data doesn’t match, while I expected approximately the same amount of impressions assuming the keywords are: both [exact] keywords; (check! ✓) within the same period of time; (check! ✓) the Ad is being displayed "all the time" (check! ✓) the domain/page is being indexed "all the time" (check! ✓) How much of a difference is there? Organic impressions: 7,4 K (source: Google WMT) Paid impressions: 2,1 K (source: Google ADW) Note that the search volume according to Google Keyword Planner of last year is somewhere in between: 3,8K. The search volume from this tool of last December is not available just yet (but I don’t expect much difference here since Google Trends shows a steady search volume). If the difference would have been 10-20%, I wouldn't be surprised at all, but this is huge. **What could explain the differences? ** If a lot of people were using AdBlockers (they do, but not nearly as massively (around 10%)). If we would have made mistakes in AdWords: budget, bidding, targeting etc. - This is not the case, got this confirmed by the manager who double-checked the data and settings. Also: since it’s a branded keyword it’s really cheap for us and easy to get high quality scores. If we would have made mistakes regarding indexing/crawling that would have caused an extreme loss in domain visibility in the SERP's: possibly caused by robots.txt, a noindex-tag, server problems etc. This was not the case and Google WebmasterTools says the average position was 1,0 during the complete month. "Something else" went wrong during that specific period of time with this specific domain. I don’t think so because I checked multiple months and multiple other domains of other clients. These gave me the same relative results (okay, some were a bit closer: 30 K paid impressions vs 62 K organic impressions for instance, still a big difference). What other possibilities are left? The impressions from Google WMT and Google ADW are not the same, even though they are called the same and therefore suggest they should be (about) the same. AdWords just randomly fails to display and/or measure some branded ads (even though there is plenty of budget, bidding is fine and QS is 10/10). Definitions of "impressions" for both tools according Google: AdWords definition of "impressions" WebmasterTools definition of "impressions" Hope someone has some more suggestions or useful links! Thanks in advance! Ektor Tsolodimos
Paid Search Marketing | | BlueMango0 -
Best paid tool for content promotion
As the title suggests, what are the best paid tools available for content promotion?
Paid Search Marketing | | RikkiD220 -
Google Analytics Code
I have an ecommerce website and have installed the Google Analytics Code. i am also spending the money for google adwords. i m getting clicks and as well as orders but in google analytics it show that i am getting all the traffic from organic search results whereas my daily budget get exhausted and i do get business for the keywords i bid. i want to ask is there a problem with adwords or anlytics. Or have i placed the wrong code or have placed the code not in a proper format.
Paid Search Marketing | | seosogo0 -
Why you should never use Google Adwords To Conduct Key Word Research
Buongiorno from 22 degrees C too damn humid Wetherby UK, The other day a client wanted to know how much a ppc campaign would cost with a specific bank of keywords. So off i went and loaded in the key words and set the ads thinking it was not live.... A week later i get a tap on the shoulder asking why weve been invoiced for £xxxx oh dio mio!! The damn campaign went to live. So ive got two questions: 1. Do Google adwords automatically go to Live once youve loaded up phrases and ads, i really thought it would have made it more obvious, A " Would you like your campaign to go live" prompt would have been appreciated. 2. As a safety measure is configuring a Google Alert in Analytics to ping when paid traffic is picked up not a bad idea just so ive got a warning sytem set up so to speak. Grazie tanto,
Paid Search Marketing | | Nightwing
David1 -
Google Analytics Matched Search Query Not Working
On Google analytics for our clients when you check the Matched Search Query under Traffic Sources > Overview, it says "There is no data for this view.". I have Google searched it and i am not finding my answer to why this is not displaying my information. On my personal analytics account when i clicked on matched search query it displays exactly what the person searched when it trigered my adwords ad. I have no idea why this account doesn't display the same info when it appears to be setup in the same way. Example: If i am broad match targeting the keyword "outdoor sports", and someone searched "Canadian outdoor sports for kids" It would show exactly what they searched under Matched Search Query. Anyone know how to resolve this issue?
Paid Search Marketing | | VITALBGS0 -
SIte wide links by google display / adsense
hey guys, I had a quick question about my back links that might be coming from adsense. I am trying to help my father our on his site and help him recover from penguin. unfortunately his company hired some shady SEOers to do "SEO". little did my dad know the BLs he were getting might be spammy, thats what I am checking now. When I ran a BL report on him ( i use two tools, SEO spyglass and OSE ) i found that there were many "sitewide" links, but i dont think there were placed there by the webmaster, i think they come from adsense. I know he has a PPC campaign where the daily spend is 3k/ day so I know its very possible that this might be the case. If my tool is picking up BLs from these sites ( which are niche related ) does google count these links for ranking purposes? and might this hurt my rankings if google just sees these as "sitewide links"
Paid Search Marketing | | david3050 -
Google Analytics and Adwords Tracking Codes
A site I help someone with in link building was recently redesigned. I do not have access to the site in any way. Well, after the redesign, no conversions were tracking in Adwords and Analytics ecommerce tracking showed no transactions and no amounts. I found the Analytics code and sent it to their programmer. I have linked the Adwords and Analytics accounts. So now conversions are tracked in Adwords and transactions are tracked in Analytics. However, amounts have vanished and not returned. I'm not technically savvy enough to figure this out. How do I get this Analytics code to track transaction amounts so that they appear in Adwords and in Analytics ecommerce tracking?
Paid Search Marketing | | DanDeceuster0