Today, I rant about Google. Probably because my Google stock has taken a dive over the past month. Also because, as Google continues to gain more control over the search industry, their policies are becoming increasingly ballsy.

Lets talk about purchasing text links. It’s widely known that Google is absolutely against link buying and selling in situations where the seller does not attach a nofollow attribute to the link. Google has gone so far as to threaten punishment on sites that both buy and sell links. Let’s review this selective policy.

Google frowns on any link buying or selling where the links pass PageRank. They state that, because their algorithm largely relies on links to determine website trust, webmasters should report websites that try to falsify that trust by purchasing links which pass PageRank.

This policy is complete bullshit. What’s amazing is that, while Google is openly against this policy, major reputable sites go on selling direct, PageRank passing links without consequence. It seems that Google is more interested in striking fear into the hearts of small-time webmasters than actually improving search. Maybe this guy has been the inspiration for their ’sell fear’ business strategy. Let’s look at some examples of websites that openly sell PageRank passing links, free of consequence.

Website Directories

First off, there are many ‘reputable’ website directories that directly infringe on this policy. BOTW, Yahoo and Business.com are just a few that come to mind. In order to be apart of any of these directories, you need to shell out some serious cash. For about $300 bucks per year, Yahoo will hook you up. BOTW is only $99 bucks per year and Business.com’s pricing policy is too complicated for me to understand at this time of night. In any case, each of these paid directories can provide you with a direct link that passes PageRank, once they’ve secured payment.

Press Release Services

Next, let’s look at PrNewswire, Pr Web and a slew of other press release services. Again, these services allow customers to post press releases, complete with keyword rich backlinks, for distribution to their partners across the web. In fact, the fee structure of at least one of the above clearly states that you need to pay more money for permanent releases with keyword-rich links.

Sponsorships

Act now and become of sponsor of ‘reputable’ professional organizations like National Association of Homebuilders, major sporting associations like the PGA or even of universities (too many to list) and you too can acquire a valuable backlink from reputable website.

So where then, Google, do you draw the line of when it’s okay to buy a link and when it is not? How can you go and punish small time bloggers making a few bucks off of link sales while major corporations are padding of pockets of corporate execs partially because of link sales? Come on Yahoo; at $300 bucks per year, per link, you’ve gotta be earning some serious coin.

It seems, so far, that Google’s campaign to keep webmasters in check has largely been unsuccessful. As an SEO in the trenches of SEO warfare, I still see competitors that own the search results pages (SERPs) as a result of questionable or outright black hat link purchases. Part of me frowns on the practice and the rest of me is just jealous. While I bust my hump to ‘legitimately’ improve the search ranking for clients, my competitors do little more than make strategic link purchases to achieve the same results.

While I understand the good intentions behind the policy, I think it’s important to practice it fairly. We know that search isn’t easy, Google, but that’s why we pay you the big bucks…

Tags: google | Category Rants