A paid link is an acquired link that requires the payment of a certain amount. These are used to especially influence a search engine’s ranking. A search engine views paid links to link schemes. If the links break its rules, they are meant to manipulate PageRank and can hurt rankings.
Types of Paid Links
- Sponsored Ads: Links that are placed within paid advertisements.
- Product Placement: Links included in paid product features.
- Buying links: that already exist in content.
- PBNs: are networks of sites that generate links to influence rankings.Â
- Guest Post links: Paying for backlinks in guest posts.
- Sponsored social media links: used by influencers and others.Â
- Webpage sidebars and footers – Buyer links located in a web page’s sidebar or footer section.
Are Paid Links Allowed?
Some paid links are not against Google’s policies. Links with nofollow or sponsored attributes are considered compliant but do not pass ranking benefits. If Google catches on to links that manipulate the system and the way they are used, those links will either be ignored or penalized the ranking.
Risks of Buying Links
- Google may ignore unnatural links.
- Manual penalties can devalue any site participating in link schemes, causing a loss in rankings.Â
- Link density should only be adept, and do not over-optimize to stay safe.
