Google Updates Webmaster Guidelines: Selling Links is Evil

Nov 23, 2007 - 8:53 am 9 by

John Honeck discovered new wording in Google's Webmaster Guidelines that reflects how Google views paid links. He reported his findings to Philipp Lenssen, who noticed the following change (italicized):

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

It looks like Google is now strictly enforcing rules that will penalize webmasters who sell links.

Do you think anything will change?

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Bing SEO

Bing Webmaster Tools Down Has Been Down Hours

Mar 19, 2025 - 1:10 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 19, 2025

Mar 19, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google Confirms Volatility Prior To March 2025 Core Update Was Not That Core Update

Mar 19, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google

Google Tests AI Overviews In Middle Of Search Results Page

Mar 19, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Expands Health Overviews & Adds What People Suggest In Search

Mar 19, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing SEO

Bing Webmaster Tools Copilot Feature Opens Up To All

Mar 19, 2025 - 7:31 am
Previous Story: Google AdSense Publishers React to Thanksgiving Day Slump