Google Wants You To Report Paid Links. WTF?
Matt Cutts, de facto spokesperson of Google in the blogosphere, posts here how to report paid links to Google. The meat of the discussion (although quite implied) is that Google wants to downgrade sites that sell links. Now I’m not one to question Google’s methods, but this sounds like discrimination to me. And it sounds like Google is admitting that their algorithm still cannot match human intelligence when it comes to filtering content.
Tony Hung, over at Deep Jive Interests, wonders whether this is Google’s Achilles’ heel.
Personally, I’m beginning to wonder whether or not if Google will EVER be able to meaningfully track paid links if they’re not overtly notified as such on your blog. Google’s worries are valid: paid links are fine for traffic, but not when it comes to alerting search engine results — or page rank. The problem is that links can be paid for and sold without any notification on your blog, and there would be impossible to tell. For example, not that I would do it (or AM doing it for that matter), but there is no way of knowing whether or not reviews of anything, including web2.0 properties, have been discretely paid for behind Google’s back. The presumption is that the link is “organic” and that its ranking in Google is based on the worth I’m placing towards the link destination.
Wait a minute. So does this mean each and every blog that sells links–yes, even through Text Link Ads and other similar link programs–run the chance of getting downgraded in their pagerank/trustrank? We are opening a very big can of worms here, so to speak. It’s not only the ethical issues (i.e., what constitutes link spamming? How many paid links is too much?). It’s also the business issues I’m concerned with.
Is this the end of TLA, ReviewMe, and even other paid link/review programs? Is this the end of private link sales on sites and blogs? A lot of blogs and sites thrive on paid links and affiliate marketing. And I don’t think all sites that sell links and ad space are bad. Yes, some sites live solely for the purpose of selling links. But this doesn’t mean all sites that sell links are like that.
Then there’s the question of abuse. It’s like DIGG users ganging on certain other DIGG users, burying stories en masse. What if a group of no-gooders decides to gang up on sites they don’t like, and report to Google as link sellers? What if competitors report each other? What if I decide to report sites out of the blue?
This might make people who write PayPerPost or ReviewMe articles choose not to disclose their writing for compensation.
[...] Reactions are coming from all across the web in reference to what some feel is Google’s real intent. For example Jack of All Blogs says: [...]
Google Wants to Tell You How to Run Your Website - SEO Class.com said this on April 16, 2007 11:14 am
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HelloWorld said this on April 28, 2007 5:50 pm
[...] However I’m quite concerned with the fact that Google is now penalizing sites that sell text links. Maybe they’re not directly downgrading the search ranking of these sites, but some argue that Google is downgrading the link juice from these sites. That means that even if your blog or site is already a trusted site with high authority, your links to external sites (particularly those identified as paid links) are likely to not be given much weight by Google’s algorithm in computing for the linked site’s authority or credibility. [...]
Re-Thinking Paid Links » Jack Of All Blogs said this on May 6, 2007 11:52 am
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[...] What was that again about Google saying paid links were bad? [...]
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