Do You Buy Text Links?

Do you buy text links? Should you buy text links?

I stumbled on an interesting thread on the subject of buying text links on MattCutts.com. Matt Cutts is the head of Google's Webspam team. Here is the link to the full thread.. In essence, it seems Google's stance is that purchasing text links to enhance PageRank is bad. Matt's Blog, however, is a pretty good read.

This stance by Google regarding buying text links ignores several fundamental issues. The first being that the market for buying text links & selling text links existed long before Google did - let alone Google Page Rank. Google now has a Gazillion Dollar market cap precisely because webmasters & online marketers are buying text links from Google. They call it Adwords, though.

There are several reasons that webmasters and marketers might buy text links (or sell text links). The percieved value in enhanced Page Rank is just one possible reason. An equally important reason could be traffic from related sites. To a certain degree, the whole Text Link argument is absurd. If, for example, Google decided to devalue inbound text links which they determine to be "purchased" in determining relevance, would that cause the market for Text Links to fall? Perhaps not. Those sites which are getting traffic & conversions through text links - but no longer receiving any meaningful traffic through Google because they have devalued those links, still need traffic. Buying more text links might do the trick...

The principles behind any SEO campaign, online marketing campaign, advertising campaign, or any other form of marketing activity has close ties to Darwinism... Survival of the fittest. In the end, the free market will determine which dies, survives, or thrives - not Google or any other corporation. With few exceptions, SEO, whether through buying text links or other methods is an effort to reach consumers who will convert into revenue. It doesn't make any sense to optimize for "red widgets" if you do not actually offer "red widgets" or any ancillary products/services. Obviously, there are a few "broad market" products that would be an exception - but the majority of SEO efforts are designed to provide targeted traffic for a targeted product or service. Google strives to provide relevant results & so do most SEO Campaigns. No conflict there.

Buying Text Links could be seen as a form competition to Google Adwords/Adsense... albeit a relatively small one. As more businesses become aware of Adwords & PPC costs rise from competition, advertisers will HAVE to seek out alternative forms of advertising that can produce the desired return on investment. Buying text links could be among those alternative traffic sources.

Capitalism and free markets have profits at their core. If an activity ceases to be profitable, it will cease to exist or diminish in prominence. Simple stuff. Given that text links were being bought & sold prior to Google's existence leads one to believe the business of buying text links or selling text links will be a profitable activity regardless of Google's stance on it or any actions they take to detect/deprecate purchased text links.

By the way, most sites that are ranking well on Google for a competitive term have a LOT of backlinks. Chances are many of those were purchased... either with cash money or reciprocal links. How search engines plan to determine relevance without weighing backlinks (including purchased ones) remains a mystery. Good luck, Guys ;)