Google: Even Big Sites Aren't Allowed To Sell Or Buy Links

Feb 7, 2018 - 8:13 am 15 by

Google Rolling Dice

Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that even big sites that do paid links, buying or selling of links to pass PageRank or manipulate the Google search results, can be penalized and it is against Google's webmaster guidelines.

The accusations came up a couple of months ago that Wix, the popular free CMS platform, was informing their customers to link to Wix with specific anchor text. In which John Mueller said size of a site doesn't matter, Google can penalize any site, even penalize themselves for paid links.

Here is the accusation:

Here is the response:

Of course, Wix didn't chime in to any of these allegations.

The truth is, Google's thing now is that buying links is throwing money out of the window and they devalue those links vs demote those links.

Honestly, I am a bit tired of covering paid link stories but whatever. :)

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up January 29 & 30th

Jan 30, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Maps

Google Maps Service Area Business Access Request Link

Jan 30, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google: Why 100 Negative Keywords For Google Ads PMax Campaigns

Jan 30, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Gains Batch Price Editing & Moving Menu Items

Jan 30, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Overviews Go Deeper With Gemini 2.0?

Jan 30, 2025 - 7:11 am
Bing Search

Microsoft Bing Advertising Revenue Up 21%

Jan 30, 2025 - 7:05 am
Previous Story: Google AdWords To Crack Down On Ticket Resellers