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
-
Unsolved Google Ads Not Getting Clicks or Impressions
I have been running some google ads - in the past 7 days I've had no clicks or impressions is this common? #ads
Paid Search Marketing | | PermaTherm0 -
Google Product Ads
Hi,
Paid Search Marketing | | ChrisHolgate
I was wondering if I could ask is perhaps someone could give me some clarification as to how the amount we bid on Google Product Ads reflects the product positioning on Google Shopping? We have a Google Product Data Feed which is then linked up to our Adwords account so that we can determine a PPC bid amount. In instances like this it doesn't seem to make sense that one person may be paying 10ppc and another 20ppc when the buyers criteria for sorting merchants was purely down to the price. Since the buyer has the option to sort their products in price from minimum to maximum the sort order cannot be manipulated by Google based on the amount the merchant was paying. As such, how is determining a cost per click figure relevant when the customer is searching by base price low > high on Google Shopping? Surely I should just set the limit to £0.01 and rely on the customer determining the sort order (which ultimately will lead to a higher conversion rate) than allowing Google to skew the results based on bidding 20-30 times this amount? I should state that I'm in the UK. I do realise that a high PPC amount will increase our chance of exposure on standard search pages but my question does relate solely to results listed on Google Shopping. Thanks for your help! Chris0 -
How to track in Google Analytics 2 different subdomains (one for website, the other for PPC landing pages)
Hello Mozers! I have a website with organic visits/goals on www.site.com and a few AdWords Campaign landing pages on lp.site.com whose goals are tracked with both adwords conversion monitoring AND analytics (not imported from analytics into Adword). The landing pages of the campaign have nothing to do with the web site (different cms, they don't link each other, totally isolated) and viceversa. Given that, what would it be the best practice to configure Google Analytics to track the website (www.site.com) AND a PPC campagin (lp.site.com)? I have been told to set up different views of the same property, but do I really need that? Please let me know what are you thinking. Thank you very much. DoMiSoL Rossini
Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL0 -
Do UTM Parameters reflect in Google Analytics
Hi, We have recently enabled auto tagging in our URLs but not sure if tagging is working correctly. Does Google Analytics shows the utm parameters also in URLs in Google Analytics OR Google shows only the base url (after removing utm parameters) in Analytics. For example: Will http://www.abc.com/?utm_source=Indiaweb&utm_medium=Display&utm_campaign=CPC&utm_content=NRI_newprojects&utm_term=US be shown as is in Google Analytics under PAID Tab or only http://www.abc.com/ will be shown and the utm parameters will be removed in Analytics if auto tagging is enabled. Thanks in Advance 🙂 Regards Anirban
Paid Search Marketing | | vivekrathore0 -
How Do I Track AdCenter Keyword Data in Google Analytics?
Like everyone else, I am looking for new ways to gather as much keyword data as I can in the wake of the dreaded (not provided) epidemic. This question focuses on keyword data from Paid Search. We all know this is very simple with AdWords because the data is right there in Google Analytics. MSN adCenter, however, is a different story as these parameters need to be added to the end of each destination URL. Here are the parameters I'm using: utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={QueryString}&utm_content={AdID}&utm_campaign=Leads Everything is working well with the exception of {QueryString} which is returning nothing. I would really like to solve this issue because I do not have the time to add specific parameters for each keyword in all of my campaigns. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Paid Search Marketing | | IDASEO0 -
Can I dynamically add city name to my PPC ad text and URL based on the user's search?
I have looked into DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion), but have not found a solution and thought that some excellent Mozzer might be able to help. Here is the idea: We have landing pages for hundreds of cities. The local content on each of these cities changes page to page, however the keywords that we are going after are the same. So, I am trying to create a dynamic ad group that looks something like this: Headline: {City Name} {Keyword} Description: We cover {City Name} {Keyword}, get more info now! URL: http://www.website.com/{City Name} Please let me know if you can assist with this, B
Paid Search Marketing | | Reis_Inc.0 -
Why doesn't exact match appear to be working for me in Google AdWords tool?
Hi guys, I recently read Rand's article here and tried out the exact match symbols on my keywords. However, these don't appear to be working for me as the results aren't showing up as they do in the above SEOmoz article (attached screenshot). What am I doing wrong? Google_AdWords__Keyword_Tool-20130511-115528.jpg.jpg?resizeSmall&width=832
Paid Search Marketing | | featherseo0 -
Google Adwords Clicks v.s. Google Analytics Visits
Hi Guys, This question has been asked several times before but after doing some research, I haven't really found the right solution and/or explanation. I'm currently seeing a 30-50% discrepancy in Adwords Clicks and Analytics Visits, where there are more clicks than visits in most situations. E.g. 74,127 clicks v.s. 46,845 visits (34 add-to-carts, 67 initiated orders, and a revenue of $12,000). Can anybody in the forum help explain this? Thank you, Jurgen P.S. I've also looked at all the tracking codes and everything seems to be alright, I've checked if any internal redirects are stripping off parameters but to no avail. Lastly, I'm not sure if this is a behavioral issue here in SEA--will first click (Adwords) and last click attribution (Analytics) be the only explanation? P.S.S. I'm seeing the same discrepancies with Facebook ads and Analytics.
Paid Search Marketing | | JurgenEstanislao0