Is there a paid link hierarchy?

[KempRugeLawGroup]

It seems like the more I learn about my competition's links, the less I understand about the penalties associated with paid links. Martindale-hubbard (in my industry) basically sells links to every lawyer out there, but none of the websites with those links are penalized. I'm sure you all have services like that in your various industries. Granted, Martindale-hubbard is involved in the legal community and it's tied to Lexis Nexis, but any small amount of research would tell you that paid links are a part of their service.

Why does this company (and companies that use them) not get penalized? Did the penguin update just go after companies that got links from really seedy, foreign companies with gambling/porn/medication link profiles?

I keep reading on this forum and other places that paid links are bad, but it looks to me like there are fundamental differences in the penalties for paid links purchased from one company vs another. Is that the case or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Ruben

[TakeshiYoung]

Paid links are a tricky area, and there are a lot of loopholes.

If a company is straight up selling you a link for money, just to manipulate Google's rankings, then that's a definite no-no.

However, if you are paying for a service Martindale-Hubbard that also happens to include a link, that could be seen as ok. Many directories also get around this by charging you a "review fee" and not guaranteeing inclusion, therefore making the payment about the service rather than the actual link.

A good rule of thumb when evaluating links is to ask yourself "Would I still want this link, even if it had no impact on Google?" if the answer is yes, then it's probably a good link. Also, evaluate the site to make sure it is high quality and in Google's graces, i.e. does it have pagerank, are its pages indexed, do they link to spammy sites or only quality ones, etc.

[stever999]

It really depends... The big "no no's" are link farms charging for links to anywhere and anyone... The Martindale website looks fairly reputable and specific to your industry and if you look at the Moz rating the DA is 89 again highlighting it's a reputable site.

My advice would be, if you're paying for a profile (rather than just a link) on a reputable site specific to your industry you should be OK. As well as the SEO benefit you will also see traffic from the site itself if they have the user base!