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PR 8 Links from Google.com Only $1,995

posted on June 11, 2007


As the debate over paid links continues in reaction to Google’s recent line in the sand it may shock many that Google is currently offering paid links on Google.com for the very reasonable price of just $1,995 – and as an added bonus you’ll also receive a free Google Mini.

Yesterday while digging through a competitor’s backlinks for a client I noticed a domain that seemed remarkably out of place: google.com. In addition to adding themselves to a large number of low quality directories, the competitor had discovered that if you purchase the Google Mini you have the privilege of contributing to their exceedingly large list of “customer success stories“. While many of these success stories are for established and recognizable businesses who sincerely appreciate the advanced search capabilities the Mini provides, others are undoubtedly as pleased with their new link as their new Google Mini.


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  • http://www.brianchappell.com Brian Chappell

    HA. Nice find Scott. Why wouldn’t G Nofollow those. Hypocrites!

  • http://searchenginetigers.com Simon Heseltine

    What’s the under / over on when they’re no-followed? 10 minutes after Matt reads this? ;)

    BTW Scott, I only see that as a PR7, I checked different datacenters, and they’re all showing the same…

  • http://www.artisaninteractive.com Scott Woodard

    Simon, I’d go with the over on 10 minutes and the under for an hour. ;)

  • http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog SEO Refugee Blog

    Beautiful! Great find Scott! I see a PR7 as well but the point remains they are breaking more than a few of their own guidelines.

  • http://www.appliancejournal.com Postoholic

    Scott, I’ve tried a link: search for a few of the companies listed on the customers stories page and don’t see a link from Google (Google directory not counting).

    Nevertheless, an interesting story.

  • http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog SEO Refugee Blog

    Postoholic, where are you doing the search? If it’s on Google you should know that that’s about the worst information you could get.

    Check out the second result on .

  • http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog SEO Refugee Blog

    woops… looks like my link to the Yahoo search didn’t work. Here’s the url to copy and paste: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/advsearch?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bili a.se%2F&bwm=i&bwmo=d&bwmf=s

  • http://www.appliancejournal.com Postoholic

    SEO Refugee, I’m certainly not an SEO expert :)

    But is it incorrect to assume that if Google link: search does not show a link, then that means that Google does not count it as a backlink, no matter what Yahoo thinks on the subject?

  • http://www.mikroproje.com dnn

    That’s good, but i don’t see pr8 link yet.

  • http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog SEO Refugee Blog

    Yeah, that’s incorrect. Google purposefully only displays a small sampling of the links they count. For example, a Google link: search for my site shows about 244 links. However, if I log in to Webmaster Central, they show me over 11 thousand links.

  • http://www.reubenyau.com Reuben Yau

    I hate posts like this.

    You make it sound like these companies are specifically paying for the link, which is not really true now is it. I know of one company that’s missing, so this isn’t even a complete client list.

    Matt’s posts talks about links specifically: “paid links that flow PageRank and attempt to game Google’s rankings”.

    Since there are 100+ links on that page and the link text is the company name, it’s not trying to game the system, it’s just a list of happy customers. Take a look at Matt’s example of the paid links that they’re looking for:

    http://www.mattcutts.com/images/example-paid-links.png

    So while the list is huge and horrible from a UI point of view, it’s not like Google is specifically selling links.

  • http://www.artisaninteractive.com Scott Woodard

    Reuben, I had no intention of making it sound like Google was selling links – they clearly aren’t. This was more of a light-hearted piece of irony that made me smile when I saw it.

  • http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog SEO Refugee Blog

    Reuben, this reminds me of a tactic ticket scalpers use. They sell a cheap coffee mug for 300 bucks and include 2 free tickets to some sold out game. Now granted, a Google Mini isn’t a cheap coffee mug but you certainly can’t tell me that those Google links are affecting the rankings. The only reason Google gave those people links is because they’ve purchased a product from them so really, yes, it is exactly like Google is selling links.

    If you say that wasn’t the intent then would selling links without mentioning PageRank or SERPs then be OK?

  • http://www.brianchappell.com Brian Chappell

    Your obv. missing the whole point Reuben. The fact of the matter is. X company bought something from Google, and is then given a link.

    Google has explained to webmasters to NOFOLLOW any link that isnt an actual VOTE for that site. These sites wouldn’t get a vote if they had not BOUGHT something from Google. Google is being a hypocrite, end of story.

  • http://www.reubenyau.com Reuben Yau

    Scott – thanks for the clarification – I guess my reaction was inclusive of some of the comments.

    SEORBlog
    Please don’t liken this to an illegal workaround like scalping…

    If they are affecting rankings, what term do you think they’re affecting? I’d guess the company name since that’s the link text. You think an organization that’s large enough to want to buy a Google mini isn’t going to be found for its company name if they don’t get a link from Google?

    Brian
    I’m not missing the point, I understand people think Google is hypocritical in the link selling, but the original intention of the vendor is to buy an appliance, not to get a link. The link is just a bonus and as I said, not every customer gets a link.

    A company site linking to its customers is not a bad thing, it’s a totally valid link. The links aren’t meant to be ads and they’re not intended to manipulate the PR algo so there’s no need to nofollow them. These links are in a totally different category to links that are primarily bought as ads.

    Do a search for “our clients” – are all those 254M results manipulating the PR algo and need to be nofollowed?

  • http://www.technologyevangelist.com Ed Kohler

    The link is certainly something of added value beyond the product being purchased.

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  • http://www.seoish.com SEOish

    Great Catch. Nice article.

  • WebGeek

    Wow, $1995 for a lifetime PR7 link, without nofollow? Not bad. :) Over 2 years, that would beat a rented link that costs $85/mo. Better than most paid PR7 link prices, wouldn’t you say?

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  • http://bushidoblog.com.ar Dario

    “What if a site wants to buy links purely for visitor click traffic, to build buzz, or to support another site? In that situation, I would use the rel=”nofollow” attribute.” -Matt Cutts 9/1/05

    We could always report it as a paid link :P
    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/

  • http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/ WebGeek

    LOL. Awesome! Let’s report it. 8)

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    I was think about getting a Google Mini for Marketing Pilgrim. ;-)

    Nice scoop Scott!

  • http://www.seorefugee.com/seoblog SEO Refugee Blog

    Reuben, not to beat a dead horse ;) but you say “If they are affecting rankings, what term do you think they’re affecting? I’d guess the company name since that’s the link text. You think an organization that’s large enough to want to buy a Google mini isn’t going to be found for its company name if they don’t get a link from Google?”

    Do you really think a link of this nature would only affect your SERPs for the anchor text? Also, what if I were California Mortgage Loans LLC? That would be some decent anchor text. Sort of like ABC Fine Wine and Spirits…

  • http://www.brianchappell.com Brian Chappell

    Indeed. Having a trusted, authority link can have an impact on the authority of the ENTIRE site. Its not merely a matter of helping you rank higher for your site name. It helps your entire site out as well as variations around your site name.

    Prime example. SEO Refugee posts here and obtains a PR7 homepage link to increase his ranking for “SEO BLOG” since his site name is SEO Refugee, he works in the anchor text, SEO Refugee Blog ;)

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  • http://www.doshdosh.com/ Maki

    It would be nice to get a link from the Big Daddy, even though its amongst 565 links.

    Thanks for the tip, Scott.

  • http://tech-traps.blogspot.com/ Marc

    I believe this does count as selling links!

    Google should be worrying about all the adsense powered spam sites in its index.

    And I know many people who would pay 2k just for a link of PR8 from google, so it looks like a scalpers trick to me.

    I bet they mention that link when they are trying to make a sale for google mini!

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  • http://www.webpromotioner.com Kausik Dutta

    It’s indeed a great find. But do you know if some body signup for their service are they going to show that site surely ? I think they are not showing all sites straight forward. Only the industry leading sites might be on that list. But I must say finding that url is a big credit for you.

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  • Jimmy

    it is really cool! Google is Selling links, Any one can suggest me from where we can contact for the links. i need some High Pr links Pr7 Pr 8 Do contact me for this certvista (@) gmail.com

  • http://www.naevius.com/ john33

    i’m shocked too :) hehehe…

  • http://www.npgb.org William

    How can google sell links!? That is weird! Did they only make this PageRank system to make money?
    - William

  • http://http//www.had.si/blog had

    “Only $1,995″

    :) yes, it’s only :)

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    That’s okay, I’ll just put it on my credit card.

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    This is really amazing, if google is selling links PR8 ones, Well i guess this all to gain the ranking in search engines thats all.

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    Nothing surprises me anymore.

  • http://www.us-experts.com us-experts

    i read this article
    its very expert

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  • http://www.articlesnatch.com/blog/ Matt Ellsworth

    I think this just shows that you can sell links on your page – so long as you charge $1995 for a product and give them a link on the site as well.

  • http://www.korkakorka.com korku

    thanks.Superrr

  • http://www.diziplanet.org Divx

    Yeah, that’s incorrect. Google purposefully only displays a small sampling of the links they count. For example, a Google link: search for my site shows about 244 links. However, if I log in to Webmaster Central, they show me over 11 thousand links. great idea…

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    o kadar para verilmez googla link için…

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    I’d like to buy a link there ;)

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    I don’t understand why it’s ok for google to sell links but everyone else cannot do it?

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    All Google has to do is `nofollow` those links. They don`t, so what does that tell you?

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    An eye opener, just stumbled upon this post and digging further.

    On the surface of it the same story getting repeated.

    “And the story is I’m on the top and I wouldn’t let you go above me.”

    So in the end it is going be a duet, Google Vs. Microsoft.

    I’m watching how world is being shaped….

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    Geoff, nowadays links from references with ` nofollow ` has not to sense for google

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    this seems interesting..

    I think the most interesting part, google makes this job unknown so we dont know exactly what is happening.. if google is counting or not.. is nofollow links work for something or not.. so there is always a hope :)

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    this is very dis-heartening to hear. if they are policing the industry how can they themselves sell links?

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    How can google sell links!? That is weird! Did they only make this PageRank system to make money?

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    What’s the under / over on when they’re no-followed? 10 minutes after Matt reads this?

    BTW Scott, I only see that as a PR7, I checked different datacenters, and they’re all showing the same…

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