How Google Identifies a Paid Text Link
By Igor Mordkovich on Dec 21, 2006 in Link Building, General, Online Marketing, SEO
While reading a blog post by Rand Fishkin on paid links I saw a question being brought up by one of the readers about Google’s knowledge and identification process of a paid text link on the web-page. Rand gave a pretty good and quick explanation…
“…they look at patterns of links algorithmically, when they were acquired, whether the same groups of sites all seem to be linking to irrelevant sites. They’re also looking individually (with human eyes) at certain sites that seem to pass high PageRank or high value (like student newspapers at colleges or TV & Radio station sites, etc.)
I’ve decided to add a bit here on the subject as well.
I believe that another way Google identifies paid links is … they look for words such as “Advertise here, add link, text link, etc” near the outgoing link on that web-page.
Also they might be looking at the positioning of the link. More value to it if it’s within content … less if it’s in a table with 10 more links right beside it. More value if it’s in the center cell … less if it’s all the way on the bottom or on the right or left side cell column.
The relevancy of outgoing links on that referring site is also important. If the website is about health supplies, having 5 links all ranging from hosting companies to home decor is just unnatural.
What else matters is the time when the document (page text) was created and when the links were added to it. Think about it.
Also, they are definitely looking at some sites “manually”. Especially the ones with high value in the referring link. As Rand pointed out (news, college .edu, etc. websites).
Another indicator is … how often does that website add and remove text links from static pages. If this website adds links and then removes them and then adds new links again … all into one “cell” on the website, it is a clear indicator of a paid “advertisement” text link.
To learn more about linking I would suggest reading Debra’s blog.
Do you have something to add? Seen any other ways Google can identify paid text links? Share your thoughts here.
Good points Igor.
We also forget to that there isn’t anything to stop Google or Y! or MSN or anyone else with a vested link text algo interest from signing up for some of these well known text link advertising services and browsing their inventory.
Other networks, such as the DP COOP was similarly easy to identify too. Can’t recall the specifics, but I believe it used some form of writable include which could be read to show the participants.
rob | Jan 4, 2007 | Reply
Good point Rob.
SEOs forget that what we/they see … search engines can also see it.
Thanks for commenting.
Igor Mordkovich | Jan 4, 2007 | Reply
Seriously, I didn’t know they track paid links! So what do they actually recommend on the web? Are paid links frowned upon by Google?
Kian Ann | Jan 6, 2007 | Reply
Kian … they ask to use a “no-follow” tag which pretty much puts a “condom” on the link. This tells Google that you are not necessarily linking to this certain website because it’s good or relevant.
Igor Mordkovich | Jan 6, 2007 | Reply
How do you get links to your page if you do not pay for them? Thank you!
Lynnea
Lynnea | Feb 17, 2007 | Reply
very well structured, and yes good points. Hmm will have to consider my articles now
boythatmarkets | Aug 5, 2007 | Reply
Putting a condom on a link? ha ha That’s funny.
It’s more like “The girl said no”!
You are on the right track Igor, but I’m convinced that Google isn’t looking for “Advertise here, add link, text link, etc”. They are looking past that.
I’ve been working on the Paid Link Detector at Text Link Center for some time now and we don’t need the “Advertise here” method. It would actually more difficult!
Brandon Drury | Oct 5, 2007 | Reply
How do you get links to your site if you don’t pay for them.
Well - you can do links exchange but 2 way links aren’t as valable from what google says. (eg: a one way link means your site is more liked then having to give one back).
You can get some one way links - I think these are fine.
And finally you can pay for links. I think google doesn’t like this and will try more and more in the future to reduce its impact but I do it and I think its fine. Don’t do to many each month (tops 30) but then who would want to spend more anyway.
… I do paid links as at the moment its a great way to promote a site.
Adam Adairs
website design melbourne australia
www.globalsolutionis.com.au
Adam Adairs | Nov 9, 2007 | Reply