Paid Links Presentation

Slide 1: Paid Links Matt Cutts Google Software Engineer SES San Jose, August 21, 2007

Slide 2: Are paid links evil? That's the wrong question. The right question: Do paid links that pass PageRank violate search engines’ quality guidelines? The answer to that question is yes.

Slide 3: Disclosing payments Washington Post, Dec. 12, 2006: “FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing Endorser Must Disclose Link to Seller” \"We wanted to make clear . . . if you're being paid, you should disclose that.“ -- Mary Engle, FTC associate director for advertising practices

Slide 4: Disclosure on the web The web is used by both people (surfers) and machines (search engines, etc.) What is adequate disclosure on the web? • Understandable by people • Understandable by machines

Slide 5: Clear disclosure to machines Clear disclosure: won’t pass PageRank • redirect through url blocked by robots.txt • redirect through url that does 302 • JavaScript • rel=“nofollow” on individual links • <meta name=“robots\" content=“nofollow\" /> on entire page

Slide 6: Practical considerations • You can buy links within search engine guidelines – AdBrite – Quigo – IndustryBrains – adCenter, YPN – any site that doesn’t pass PageRank in links • Buying paid links that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines – Paid PageRank-Passing (PPP) links

Slide 7: Types of paid links (These are fine) (These are against our guidelines)

Slide 8: Examples of PPP links

Slide 9: Link-buying obstacles It can be difficult to buy PPP links • Buy for a limited time? • Buy “run-of-site” links? • Buying links from “sloppy sellers”? • Checking if a link seller cloaks? • Can a competitor spot your paid links?

Slide 10: Google’s approach • Both algorithmic and human detection • Recent Rand Fishkin post about paid links – Detected all but one link algorithmically • Google is willing to take strong action against PPP links • This is an area Google is focusing on

Slide 11: Further reading • https://google.com/webmasters/tools/paidlinks?hl=en • http://mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/ • http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/ • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11 • http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-272304A1.p • http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2007/FCC-07-42A4.html