SEO: Paid Links
Transcript:
Hey folks. My name is Charles Lumpkin. Today I want to talk to you about SEO and (insert ominous dun dun dun) paid links. Paid links is like the biggest four letter word in the SEO world, and the reason it is this way is because Google and others, specifically Google, has made a hard and right stand against it.
Now, if you get caught, supposedly you’ll get banned. I’ve had sites banned, so it is possible to get banned. I’ve also known others who have had sites banned, but let me tell you the honest and ragged truth.
The truth is that most of the largest sites on the internet pay for links. Most of the largest retailers pay for links. They don’t advertise it. They don’t say, “Hey Google. Thanks for coming around for our quarterly meeting. We’re paying for some links.” They don’t say that, but it’s the truth, and do you know why people pay for links? If you do it right, it works. I’m not kidding.
Now, before you get all crazy on me. It’s important to do this with caution. So if you’ve got one site that you have in a market, you have to walk on this line gingerly. If you’re wanting to expand your presence in a market, I’d recommend starting another site and trying out some paid links on that guy. No harm. No foul. If it tanks, it tanks. Cool.
Paid links can work. I’m going to catch so much flack for this video, you don’t even know, but I have to say it. Think about it. It’s a strategy, but you have to be careful with it. My name is Charles Lumpkin, and you can find more of me at CharlesLumpkin.com. Thank you.
Laura December 9, 2009
Seems to be the biggest factor is whether there are PEOPLE behind the links, screening the quality or not. At least, that is what Google SAYS. So small personal sites can get away with selling screened links, and so can big reputable directories like Yahoo did. Seems to me the problem with paying for links is discovering the quality before you sink a boodle.
charleslumpkin December 9, 2009
I know of many large retail and lead generation companies that are pretty shameless with link buys. Many larger sites spend tens of thousands of dollars a month on links explicitly used for SEO purposes.
They do say people edited links are OK – sortoff. Yahoo directory is still a paid link that definitely works and is legit in Google's eyes, but there are a whole host of other places to buy links from that also work.
Don't shoot the messenger!
Wei Yang December 11, 2009
I think a much more useful video would be what to do when your site gets banned from buying/selling links.
Yeah, I don't get why Yahoo!, Best of the Web and Campus Blvd get to charge for links but thousands of other smaller sites do not.
Ironically, large sites are the ones that really don't NEED to be paying for links.