How to decrease your PageRank - easy - sell links!

Not all link selling is bad.


(Taken from Google's webmaster tools)

You would need to either deem the link nofollow, or redirect the link to a page that is blocked from Google's bot in the robots.txt file, and therein lies the problem. With most being fanatical about dofollow links, not everyone would be happy with a link that points to a page that google won't index, or a link that it nofollow.

Not sure about the link exchange programs. Have always had a impression that it is going to hamper the credibility of your website.

For me, its usually a big no when someone asks me to link exchange. What they ask of you, is almost never the same for you and your link ends up in the back o' beyond, collecting dust with a ton of other, more suspect links. What I actually like about Google's policy is that the people concerned with dofollow, tend to steer clear, and only the ones interested in link diversity would apply/ask. Gives you a lot less research to do as well, and shows that some out there is not all about the ranks.

well I am confused, are links a good thing or not? As things stand I would happily swop links with anyone, brief description and clearly on my links page. Are we saying google wont like me anymore if I do this?

Generally you won't get any SEO benefit from it, and you may risk being associated with a bad neighbourhood or a google may interpret you as a someone trying to manipulate rankings. So if you currently rank well, link exchanging MAY risk your position.

This is a fascinating area at the moment with buckets of confusions and conflicting opinions!

This is my opinion.

Are links a good thing or not? Yes they 100% are, have been, and I've no doubt will be for a long long time to come!

That is assuming you mean link building as god (ie google) intended. ie I think your content has changed my life, so I shall now link to you and spread the word..

Linking to me because I linked to you, although not bad, gives you very little benefit these days (reciprocal linking).

Going out and generating lots of sexy anchor text links all with an anchor of cheap printer inks pointing back to your site is bad bad bad.

Spending $50 and getting 500 crappy directory links is bad bad bad.

Having quality inbound links is good. It is not the be all and end all like it used to be, but it is still good.

Link building now (and arguably always was) is all about building a natural link profile. If I feel the urge to link to your site from my blog, I'm unlikely to link with an anchor text of "cheapest printer ink" but ,more likely to link using your website name, or maybe Rays Inks

Make sense?

There is a lot of talk at the moment about using non keyword targeted anchor text in links. Using words like Click here, etc. instead of a full on keyworded anchor text. One of the forums I am on has a list of these "keywords" that is used regularly on their sites. I should see if I can find them for you

Buying links (IMHO) is not a bad thing, if you do it the right way and its kept niche specific and follows Google's own guidelines. Plus, if its an authority site, or a big brands site that is unlikely to change, its all the better. Its still a link pointing back, even if its nofollow. Its diverse and natural looking.

My question, Is not selling links, a safe bet?

Do you mean, as in you have a PR5 blog, and you sell text links on the PR5 page?

If so, then no, thats bad thumbsdown