Are paid links evil? Well that was the question posed in one of the sessions at the SES Conference in San Jose this year and I’ve got to tell you, it made for a heated discussion. On one side you have the search engines who say yes paid links are evil, we will find them, they will be discounted, and you will be noted. On the other side you have seasoned SEO professionals who know they work, know they can be done in a manner that can go undetected, and who claim it should not be up to the engines to police and discount this technique.

So where does this leave those of us who are still unsure about the issue? I would argue that, like usual, we are left with something somewhere in the middle. There are times in an SEO campaign where it may be worthwhile to pay for an incoming link. Let me give you an example. It would seem to be appropriate to pay for an incoming link from a site that is on topic and relevant to your own website, especially when the incoming link will likely drive a good portion of traffic on its own. This is basically just good advertising. If you decide to go down this road, remember that the overall number of paid links should be small in scale. They should be manually found with editorial factors taken into consideration before the purchase. Paids links should only be used to enhance an SEO program, not to be its major focus.

To be fair, the search engines must receive equal billing in this post. From the perspective of the search engines, paid links are not considered quality links. They are particularly concerned with links that are bought for the sole purpose of artificially inflating search engine rankings. In their minds the search results are not as relevant when the rankings are manipulated. They would much rather rank a site or page due to popularity and relevance. Most of the engines are good at detecting these paid links algorithmically, but when that does not work they will still resort to manual editing.

So what is the penalty for getting caught with a paid link? Right now they are simply setting the value of the link back to zero and moving on. Interestingly enough, however, they did mention that it definitely speaks to the character of the site publishing the link and to the site that purchased it. There were no further details given to clarify that statement, but I think it is safe to say that both websites’ reputations are tarnished in one way or another.

So what is the final takeaway? Apparently paid links done right still work and they work well. Search engines are getting better and better at detecting and discounting those links. If you want to do it, show some editorial intelligence and stay away from the link brokers. Good luck and be sure to keep us posted on your efforts. By the way, does anyone have any good quality links for sale? Just kidding!