High PR networks look like they are gaining traction - and working!

[SpottedFrogDesign]

Let me put a disclaimer here that I do not use high PR networks in any of my seo endeavors. That being said, they have always looked attractive - especially post panda where in content links from high pr websites are valuable.

I run seo campaigns for a large lot of websites & have been noticing my competition creeping past me who are using links from these networks to increase their positions for hard to attain keywords.

Has anyone here had experience building links using these types of networks? It looks like they are under google's radar for now & are a great way to get some powerful links to your site. Any thoughts on if google will catch onto these types of links if they are properly protected (limited footprint, revolving links, unique content, etc.)?

It's tough not to be at least interested in networks like this b/c of the results they provide.

[AnthonyMangia]

I want to say that I 100% agree with Ryan, but I will play devil's advocate.

There is a time and place for everything, including black hat SEO.  If your goals are well-aligned with short term success, then black hat SEO is probably the cheapest and most effective option you have.  To me, link building isn't an ethical consideration, but a business decision.  If black hat tactics fit my goals, or my clients' goals, and everybody is aware of the risk involved and all of the options at play, then why not?

There's no doubt about it - these are paid links, and as Ryan said, they will eventually be addressed by Google's Webspam team, and when that happens, you're going to lose a large share of your link portfolio (at best) or receive a penalty (at worst).  But there is no Matt Cutts fairy that haunts black hatters at night, preying on them as they dream of paid links and content farms.  It's economics, plain and simple.  I don't know what industry you are in or what your exact situation is, so it would be presumptuous of me to completely rule out black hat SEO strategies.

That said, I've yet to encounter a situation where I've needed to resort to black hat tactics, for personal projects or client work.  Just sayin...

[RyanKent]

Do you feel something like this, if done right, will be "busted" by Google?

Of course it will. It's only a matter of time.

Many people refer to Google as a nameless, faceless group. People often refer to "the government" in a similar manner. The Google spam team, headed by Matt Cutts, is a highly educated, experienced and savvy group of people. They are also very patient. Time is on their side. When they find a violation, there is no rush for them to quickly take action. They could choose to study sites for months to gather further information.

So how does one person or group run these 35-55 sites in a cost effective manner? The only possibility is all these sites need to be offered by one host. Each host is assigned their own C block, but some companies offer "seo hosting". I don't know for sure how it works but I imagine they pay for rack space to have their servers hosted with dozens of ISPs, thereby acquiring numerous C blocks.

Google can easily open one account with any one of these companies, capture all the IPs, then effectively take down every site on the network. The entire idea of "seo hosting" is to manipulate search engine results, so it is definitely a black hat technique.

You are always welcome to report any paid links or other information to Google. They do listen. It's important your report is not a "this site is outranking me and I don't like it" type of report. I have read Google's forums and it seems MANY of the complaints take that exact tone. You need to offer very specific, verifiable reasons as to why you believe the links are a violation of Google's policies. Your suspicions and feelings are not of value and will be received with the standard "thank you for your report and we will investigate the matter" and that will probably be the end of it. But if you can offer a thorough, logical analysis, then you are making it easy for the Spam Team to investigate the issue.

[SpottedFrogDesign]

Sorry, I should have been more specific with my initial question. A high PR network is a privately owned network of websites each hosted on different class c ip addresses, with unique or private whois information, no website footprint between the sites (the html structure / layout of each site is different), and all reflecting good PR ranging from 3-7 with no historical large fluctuations in PR.

Owners of these networks will sell in-content homepage text link advertisements for a monthly fee ranging from $80 per month to $150 per month. A network usually consists of 35-55 websites and the link to your site using your targeted keyword would be made available on each site, usually with a unique content "blurb" on each website of about 150 words. If you stop payment, your link is removed from the entire network.

This is a very "black hat" technique to attain rankings but it appears to be working well for huge serp gains. Do you feel something like this, if done right, will be "busted" by Google? It's not fair to engage in ethical SEO and be circumvented by the black hatters!

[AnthonyMangia]

Can you be more specific about what you mean by "high PR networks"?  Are you talking about Web 2.0 websites like Squidoo?  Or microsites / linkwheels?  I'm a bit confused.