Marketing Pilgrim Live - Are Paid Links Evil?
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |
On this week’s episode of Marketing Pilgrim, I offer up my thoughts on whether paid links are evil and, more importantly, whether Google can actually spot them or not.
Note: For some reason Ustream didn’t capture the video smoothly, but the audio should be fine.
** Want Marketing Pilgrim updates in your inbox? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!
Similar posts you may like...
Save & Share: 
Category: Pilgrim Podcasts
Forward: Email This Post
August 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Oh, man, is it Tuesday already? I can’t believe I missed this again!
August 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
This seems to be the hottest topic on the net right now…heh
I’m starting to think that Google’s new motto should be… “we’re not evil, but your links are”
August 28th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Had a meeting so had to missed it, but just watched it and great stuff. Spot on!
August 28th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Paid links are unconstitutional? lol, that’s ridiculous. Honestly, I don’t see what is wrong with paid links. They are all over and Google is still by far the best search engine and the content is relevant 99.9% of the time. great points, btw
August 29th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Sometimes I feel I have got evidence that Google can detect paid links within content, but it is hard to be for sure because their link: command is so flaky.
Then there is the question about why they might discount openly declared but highly relevant links within cornerstone content (that happened to be paid), yet they don’t discount links to clients or offtopic links in a sidebar.
I would have loved some commentary on my ebay epinions rent.com interlinking, and in what way Ebay will benefit from Stumbleupon.
August 29th, 2007 at 9:20 am
“Sometimes I feel I have got evidence that Google can detect paid links within content”
If its relevant, and a one off link, I would love to here your theories how they can determine that. It just cannot be possible without significant collateral damage. My 2 cents at least.
August 29th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Google webmaster tools actually have a paid link reporting form. They say they’ll review each report they get and use this feedback to improve the algorithms and search results. In some cases they may also take individual action on sites.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:55 pm
[…] Marketing Pilgrim Live - Are Paid Links Evil? […]
October 10th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[…] are many ways Google can spot paid links. And whether paid links are evil or not is up for debate. Done properly, offering links through the above method is virtually undetectable. […]