4 ms·

I'm selling complete ads, that certainly contain links, just like Google does. They are contained in posts clearly marked as sponsored posts. These are not link

by toddh 12y ago

I'm selling complete ads, that certainly contain links, just like Google does. They are contained in posts clearly marked as sponsored posts. These are not link farms, spam, or payed links. Advertising should not be a crime.

Donzo 12y ago
If you are selling "ads" that transfer PageRank, you are selling links. I do not care that you do this, but you should be aware of what you are doing.
- toddh 12y ago
  My understanding is selling links is an SEO scam. Are my "ads" a SEO scam or are they real companies to trying to sell real products to real people? How can you conflate the two?
  - jonknee 12y ago
    Would your advertisers be fine with you adding nofollow? If so, do that and you're fine. If they aren't fine with nofollow you should realize that the other stuff is window dressing and you're really selling pretty links (which means watch out, Google is looking to penalize you). Real companies selling real products to real people get in trouble for scuzzy SEO all the time. JC Penny comes to mind. Or RapGenius (though they aren't even selling anything!). It's the techniques used that are the issue, not what is being promoted.
    - toddh 12y ago
      Shouldn't we be talking content and not form? Let's say a reader of mine is searching for a job and my site has a new great job at Apple. Apple advertises on my site because it attracts a certain kind of person. Shouldn't that person be shown my ad because it's both timely and highly relevant? That the job is on my site is a valuable signal. I don't use an ad service, I place every single ad and I have done so since the start. I check every single link. I check every single ad. I personally talk with every single advertiser. It's not hard for me to imagine an algorithm that does similar sorts of calculations. Oh, this link goes to apple. I've heard of them before. It's for a job. Scalability Engineer seems to be a valid occupation. Looks OK to me. You are saying all such signals have no value and should be filtered by nofollow? In actuality I've not given nofollow much thought. I guess I may now. I've lived by the idea of creating quality content, being honest, and doing a good job, thinking Google will figure it out. That unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case. The irony in this age of targeting and personalization valuable signals are being lost.
      - jonknee 12y ago
        Yes, none of that is problematic. You should just make sure you're not indiscriminately linking to third parties who pay for the privilege. In your case nofollow would be very simple and would prevent any damage. Quality content is awesome and I'm sure your site is great, but Google's thought process here is that your site's reputation should only be handed on to sites that earn it organically (e.g. not through their buying it). It's really for your own benefit, with the way PageRank works your outgoing links are votes that are as powerful as your page's reputation is good. If you link to bad sites your page's reputation takes a hit and thus your PageRank goes down. If I pay you to vouch for me (e.g. link to me) that only means that I have money. If you vouch for me without any money that's a much better signal that I have quality content.
  - Donzo 12y ago
    It's not a "scam" per say. Google has established these rules to prevent the commoditization of PageRank. They want links to represent an editorial choice and indicator of quality, not marketing budget. There is nothing wrong with selling ads and visibility on your site to companies that wish to purchase this, but you should nofollow the links to prevent running afoul of Google's TOU. Again, I don't care if you sell links on Fiverr and make a million dollars. I'm just explaining the rules to you.
jonknee 12y ago
You're in dangerous territory and are not selling "complete ads". You're selling links. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-reminder-about-selling-links.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-reminde... > Please be wary if someone approaches you and wants to pay you for links or "advertorial" pages on your site that pass PageRank. Selling links (or entire advertorial pages with embedded links) that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines, and Google does take action on such violations.
liveoneggs 12y ago
you need to proxy paid links through another domain to make it clear that they're ads, or something.

by toddh 12y ago

Donzo 12y ago

If you are selling "ads" that transfer PageRank, you are selling links. I do not care that you do this, but you should be aware of what you are doing.

toddh 12y ago
My understanding is selling links is an SEO scam. Are my "ads" a SEO scam or are they real companies to trying to sell real products to real people? How can you conflate the two?
- jonknee 12y ago
  Would your advertisers be fine with you adding nofollow? If so, do that and you're fine. If they aren't fine with nofollow you should realize that the other stuff is window dressing and you're really selling pretty links (which means watch out, Google is looking to penalize you). Real companies selling real products to real people get in trouble for scuzzy SEO all the time. JC Penny comes to mind. Or RapGenius (though they aren't even selling anything!). It's the techniques used that are the issue, not what is being promoted.
  - toddh 12y ago
    Shouldn't we be talking content and not form? Let's say a reader of mine is searching for a job and my site has a new great job at Apple. Apple advertises on my site because it attracts a certain kind of person. Shouldn't that person be shown my ad because it's both timely and highly relevant? That the job is on my site is a valuable signal. I don't use an ad service, I place every single ad and I have done so since the start. I check every single link. I check every single ad. I personally talk with every single advertiser. It's not hard for me to imagine an algorithm that does similar sorts of calculations. Oh, this link goes to apple. I've heard of them before. It's for a job. Scalability Engineer seems to be a valid occupation. Looks OK to me. You are saying all such signals have no value and should be filtered by nofollow? In actuality I've not given nofollow much thought. I guess I may now. I've lived by the idea of creating quality content, being honest, and doing a good job, thinking Google will figure it out. That unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case. The irony in this age of targeting and personalization valuable signals are being lost.
    - jonknee 12y ago
      Yes, none of that is problematic. You should just make sure you're not indiscriminately linking to third parties who pay for the privilege. In your case nofollow would be very simple and would prevent any damage. Quality content is awesome and I'm sure your site is great, but Google's thought process here is that your site's reputation should only be handed on to sites that earn it organically (e.g. not through their buying it). It's really for your own benefit, with the way PageRank works your outgoing links are votes that are as powerful as your page's reputation is good. If you link to bad sites your page's reputation takes a hit and thus your PageRank goes down. If I pay you to vouch for me (e.g. link to me) that only means that I have money. If you vouch for me without any money that's a much better signal that I have quality content.
- Donzo 12y ago
  It's not a "scam" per say. Google has established these rules to prevent the commoditization of PageRank. They want links to represent an editorial choice and indicator of quality, not marketing budget. There is nothing wrong with selling ads and visibility on your site to companies that wish to purchase this, but you should nofollow the links to prevent running afoul of Google's TOU. Again, I don't care if you sell links on Fiverr and make a million dollars. I'm just explaining the rules to you.

jonknee 12y ago

You're in dangerous territory and are not selling "complete ads". You're selling links. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-reminder-about-selling-links.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-reminde... > Please be wary if someone approaches you and wants to pay you for links or "advertorial" pages on your site that pass PageRank. Selling links (or entire advertorial pages with embedded links) that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines, and Google does take action on such violations.

liveoneggs 12y ago

you need to proxy paid links through another domain to make it clear that they're ads, or something.