Selling links on your website.

[Erin Heiner]

My understanding is that selling links or taking money for inserting someone else's link inside of your already existing article is a NO NO. Is this true? If so, how does Google even know if you sold a link?

 

[xReminisce]

Google has eyes everywhere.
just think of it this way, how does "Google Assistant" know when you said "Hey Google".
They care clearly hearing everything you say, and responding accordingly to the keywords programmed.
However, do you truly know what they do with the excess data?

Google does not like people linking to another site unless its relevant, needed and necessary

In google's words "It's okay to link to a third-party site for more information."
https://developers.google.com/style/links-external

 

[akunbajak]

Google doesn't care that much. If they detect your post are sponsored, the link will be devalued

 

[Erin Heiner]

Google has eyes everywhere.
just think of it this way, how does "Google Assistant" know when you said "Hey Google".
They care clearly hearing everything you say, and responding accordingly to the keywords programmed.
However, do you truly know what they do with the excess data?

Google does not like people linking to another site unless its relevant, needed and necessary

In google's words "It's okay to link to a third-party site for more information."
https://developers.google.com/style/links-external

Well, are you saying that it is ok to sell links as long as the links are relevant? Like I have an article that is about the TOP 10 Best Laptops of 2021. Someone wants to pay me for a link to be placed inside to their article on TOP 10 Best Desktops of 2021.

 

[Erin Heiner]

Google doesn't care that much. If they detect your post are sponsored, the link will be devalued

And you are saying that it is ok, because worst case scenario is that the person paying for the link just would NOT have any link juice passed to them. But your site will remain totally fine. So in reality the only person that will get devalued is the buyer?

 

[xReminisce]

Well, are you saying that it is ok to sell links as long as the links are relevant? Like I have an article that is about the TOP 10 Best Laptops of 2021. Someone wants to pay me for a link to be placed inside to their article on TOP 10 Best Desktops of 2021.

I'll put it this way for you.
Nothing is considered "OK" for google.
Do it discreetly, do it smart, don't leave footprints, don't leave trails behind.

 

[Angelina Rivnaya]

if they are not marked as sponsored, it will not be a problem.

 

[Erin Heiner]

if they are not marked as sponsored, it will not be a problem.

Now you are getting into a different area I believe..? Sponsored is when someone sends a product free for review, and we are required to place a sponsored disclaimer under FCC regulations. Or maybe I misunderstood what you were trying to say?

 

[GNews]

Bottom line,

If you're cheating...............you shouldn't be surprised it catches up to you.

It's not a hard concept to understand.

Play the game at your own risk.

If you're buying niche inserts.. OF COURSE it's a shady practice. The end. Stop selling yourself dreams.

 

[Erin Heiner]

Bottom line,

If you're cheating...............you shouldn't be surprised it catches up to you.

It's not a hard concept to understand.

Play the game at your own risk.

If you're buying niche inserts.. OF COURSE it's a shady practice. The end. Stop selling yourself dreams.

Well, I don't think I'm cheating in any way. I am being approached by others wanting to buy links off my site. It is starting to happen enough that I am questioning whether I should take the money or if it is just Google coming around trying to devalue my site.

 

[GNews]

Well, I don't think I'm cheating in any way. I am being approached by others wanting to buy links off my site. It is starting to happen enough that I am questioning whether I should take the money or if it is just Google coming around trying to devalue my site.

I was referring more to buying them than selling

Selling.................. depends on what the site is worth to you

It can/will create a drop if you do it consistently for a few months... maybe a year if you're lucky

Inevitable with consistently adding links

I did it for high paying clients on my oldest site.

 

[polecat]

It's fine normally. If you are talking about I think you are over Niche Edits being quite often hacked by people then yes buying them would probably be a bad idea unless you just say attaching to say a web 2.0 or a site you don't care about .

If you are talking about non hacked Niche Edits then as long it's relevant then not much risk to you .

You can as well depending on your site or sites make fairly good money from selling Niche Edits.

The only way Google will know if you sold a link if you admit it if not I don't think Google can tell that easy unless for some Reason Google maybe spys on you .

 

[GNews]

"I dont think Google can tell"

That's the equivalent of somebody saying "I'm not addicted"

 

[Dj Co2]

It's safe to do it as long as

1. You're not overdoing it.
2. You're not linking out to casino/adult/crappy websites.

 

[SEOWhizz]

Now you are getting into a different area I believe..? Sponsored is when someone sends a product free for review, and we are required to place a sponsored disclaimer under FCC regulations. Or maybe I misunderstood what you were trying to say?

I believe Angelina may be referring to the fact that Google will likely detect sponsored post footprints, like:
- Marking the actual post, ex. "This is a sponsored post";
- Marking the link as paid using the attribute: rel="sponsored".

 

[AngelSeo]

It's safe to do it as long as

1. You're not overdoing it.
2. You're not linking out to casino/adult/crappy websites.

Except you can check ventsmagazine .com
100+ casino links on the homepage, 15k+ sold guests posts in the past 2 years, 30k and more tier 2 referring domains, still going strong. And this is not sole example, Google is kinda shit nowadays at detecting those.

 

[Dj Co2]

Except you can check ventsmagazine .com
100+ casino links on the homepage, 15k+ sold guests posts in the past 2 years, 30k and more tier 2 referring domains, still going strong. And this is not sole example, Google is kinda shit nowadays at detecting those.

If they haven't gotten their ass kicked yet then it doesn't mean that they won't get it kicked in future, but sure, they're making money right now.

 

[693840]

Google has eyes everywhere.
just think of it this way, how does "Google Assistant" know when you said "Hey Google".
They care clearly hearing everything you say, and responding accordingly to the keywords programmed.
However, do you truly know what they do with the excess data?

Google does not like people linking to another site unless its relevant, needed and necessary

In google's words "It's okay to link to a third-party site for more information."
https://developers.google.com/style/links-external

This is why linking to related informational content with branded or generic anchor text is very good. It shows that the user can find more information on that page. Randomly placing 'Web Development company in Delhi' in an article about coding is a no-go and considered more risky, as it's irrelevant for the user.

 

[AngelSeo]

If they haven't gotten their ass kicked yet then it doesn't mean that they won't get it kicked in future, but sure, they're making money right now.

Well I follow them like for a year+ waiting to see when Google will finally wake up - so far this guys made like $100k from selling links for a year, Google penalty is nowhere to be seen. I think is well worth it.

 

[rafark]

My understanding is that selling links or taking money for inserting someone else's link inside of your already existing article is a NO NO. Is this true? If so, how does Google even know if you sold a link?

Short answer: it can’t. Google only tells you that because it has to, it’s just corporate bs.

Only very recently google announced it will be giving a special meaning to links that have the rel sponsored attribute value, but if you bought or sold a link and it doesn’t have that attribute value, you don’t have to worry since google will NOT know a transaction was made. Well unless you bought blogroll or footer links. Don’t do that.