I am working on the link building strategy and just wondered how the search engines judge the links you pay for? Do reciprocal links get more weight than these paid links?

Great question. In terms of how search engines judge the links that you pay for, consider the fact that the search engines specifically Google and Yahoo are not fans of paid links. This was a hot topic at SES San Jose this summer as the most talked about session was "Are Paid Links Evil?" I attended that session and was taken aback about how much disdain Google had for sites that sold and to a lesser extent purchased paid links. I felt sorry for Google's Matt Cutts as he was getting roasted by the other members of the panel. Google's stance on paid links was summed up by Matt when she stated:

"Do paid links that pass PageRank violate search engines' quality guidelines? The answer to that is yes."

So how do the search engines judge the links that you pay for? Well the engines base that on a number of items, but the two outstanding factors are volume and relevancy of the links that you acquire. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the search engines are all about relevancy.

Here's the thing with paid links. For the past couple of years search engine marketers and SEO firms have been telling their clients to buy links to improve their ranking in the search engines. The thing is that you cannot necessarily "buy your way to the top" of the search engine rankings. Search engines such as Google, ASK and to a lesser extent Yahoo and Windows Live are all about relevancy. So just because a site has a huge external link inventory, does not mean thet will have top rankings esecially if the links are not related to the site. Case in point, you can go out and purchase a ton of links for your site. So your external link inventory inflates from let's say 1,000 links to over 20,000 links in a short time period. The engines are smart enought to figure out that these links were not acquired in a natural fashion and that they were not earned. In turn they may then de-value these links. Do you see how this can work against you?

Then there is the relevancy factor. More often than not, receiving a quality link from say a Page Rank 6 or 7 site in your industry will provide more value than say dozens of PR 0-3 paid directory listings. While we don't know the exact threshold for the search engines, we do know that there are a number of relvancy factors that the search engines take into account when placing a value on links.

Do Reciprocal Links Get More Weight than Paid Links?

The second question from Matt is difficult to answer. Do reciprocal links get more weight than paid links? We have just discussed how the search engines, in particular Google, treat paid links. Based on the fact that the engines are now beginning to "penalize" sites that participate in paid links scheme to improve their search engine rankings (as was evident with last month's PageRank update by Google), at this time reciprocal links probably carry more weight providing that they are from industry related sites and are authoritative sites (with PR of 4+). Having said that, when link building, the goal should be to seek one way links, as these carry the most weight with the search engines. Too many reciprocal links can also get you penalized by the engines. (Reciprocal linking was the original idea behind link farms - 'you link to me, I'll link to you' - the engines were quick to catch on and began de-valuing sites that participated in these "reciprocal link farms"). When seeking reciprocal links there are a couple of things to remember:

1. Be Selective - look for relevant sites that preferrably have a higher PageRank and are more authoritative to exchange links with.
2. Pace Yourself - Don't over do it with reciprocal linking. Like a piece of chocolate cake to a person who is on a diet, reciprocal linking is OK if done in moderation.

To address the question, reciprocal links can get more weight than paid links. However, it depends on the relevancy factor and authority of the linking source. The same can be said for paid links, they can carry more weight if they are from a more authoritative and reputable source.

The best way and more importantly the most effective way to build your external link inventory is through your content. Creating new, informative and preferably unique content that other sites find useful can quickly improve your link inventory. One of the best ways to do this is through fresh content via articles, and frequent optimized blog posts on hot topics. This process of "link baiting" is the best way to build your external link inventory in a "nature manner" which is looked favorably by the search engines.

Be careful when buying links (avoid purchasing mass links from paid directories) and be careful when exchanging links with other sites (avoid link farms). Chances are that a quality link from a PR 6 related industry site will carry more weight than dozens of paid links from PR 0-3 directories.

I hope this answers your question.

Here are a couple of resources on paid links:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/
http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2007/08/are_paid_links.html
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/014573.html
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/04/google-wants-you-to-disclose-the-paid-links-it-cant-find.html


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