Comments on: SEO 101 – Paid Links: To Buy or Not To Buy

By: Donna Menner

Donna Menner — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:57:28 +0000

I never heard of nofollow links – but then I am a newbie at this. Just launched my first website and I find link building daunting. I am a drop-shipper and we were told at a SCORE seminar that we should get the manufacturers of my products to put me on their websites in the locations/where to buy. Trouble is, most only seem to offer a form or whatever where people search by zip code. This totally leaves me out because I am ecommerce only – no actual stores. I am talking to them about it but getting nowhere.

I am finding getting quality inbound links to be extremely difficult.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:23:36 +0000

Hi Jack,

Were you the kid who tattled on all the others?

Love,
Julie

By: Jack Pumper

Jack Pumper — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:14:21 +0000

Why feel bad about reporting? I don’t see any favors owed.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:22:21 +0000

Hi SEOKing…

WTF does cohearse mean?

Buying links can be against Google’s guidelines but they aren’t the only search engine out there. Some clubs may not allow black members. Does that mean that we should just accept it and not let black members into OUR clubs? I think that always playing by the (possibly asinine) rules is just as bad for your desired “collective society where bad behaviour is not tolerated” as going against the grain.

Making society live in fear of justice??? We’re in advertising!!! I agree that it does seem unfair when businesses go about things in perfectly Google-friendly ways, only to get kicked in the teeth by sites who don’t play by the rules. However, this is still about what ONE search engine says is a bad thing to do. It’s not illegal, it’s a violation of guidelines. If they revise their guidelines tomorrow and say it’s fine to buy links, what will you whine about then? This company has more money than me and it’s not fair? There is always going to be some way that someone else has the upper hand.

I do see, and respect, your point about a level playing field…I just don’t see that it’s truly a possibility.

By: seoking

seoking — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:00:39 +0000

Further more your reference to “tattling on someone”…this kind of thinking is what creates a society of selfish individuals rather than a collective society where bad behaviour is not tolerated…with those that do wrong conjuring up words like snitch, grass and tell tale to cohearse others into not exposing their wrongdoings….and rather than addressing their own behaviour they then use the influence of their counterparts to make out the practise of exposing wrongdoing is really the wrong behaviour….making society live in fear of justice.

By: seoking

seoking — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:42:26 +0000

Yes, its about buying links which is against Googles guidelines, the same way taking drugs is against IOC rules, scratching the ball in cricket, fiddling the weights in horse racing….the rules are there to make a level playing field, to make a fairer society…and the outcome of someone breaking the rules is that those that are rightfully following the rules are cheated…therefore cheats should be exposed…like the USA relay team in Sydney getting stripped of their gold medals..Nigeria came second and without the drugs cheat Pettigrew they would have won, although they have been reawarded gold medals they don’t have the same sense of victory and achievement that these athletes trained all their lifes for. In the same way many businesses put a lot of effort and time into their websites only to be cheated !

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:56:35 +0000

@seoking I can’t believe that you can’t do your job well without tattling on someone.

Also, while I’m on my high horse I’d like to say that it’s pretty poor form to try and entrap someone. This is about buying links, not molesting children.

By: seoking

seoking — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:50:22 +0000

I work in a very very competitive niche and 90% of my competitors (the ones that are all ranked above us) are buying links from the same review site. It so obvious…especially when you see the anchor text they use,,eg..”buy keyword”…this site also uses an image for “advertise here” to avoid detection from bots, they don’t use no follow on the links. Ive contacted them pretending I want to buy links and made it obvious, eg Do you sell those links down the side…I want to buy a text link with the anchor text…..???? for seo purposes to pass pagerank to my website…let me know the price etc…And the reply was yes they do and it costs so much per year, so OF COURSE I HAVE REPORTED THEM…

I can’t believe some people think thats its like a witch hunt or you are some kind of supergrass or tell tale if you report them.

By: Tamar Weinberg

Tamar Weinberg — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:36:02 +0000

LOL beats me.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:01:48 +0000

Ha! Hi Tamar!! Damn, who WAS it??