Free Gifts for links, This will turn into a rant!
I have some high traffic sites in the UK and often get sent free stuff to play with, but at the end of the day it’s my choice to decide whether or not I blog about them. Now recently Graywolf raised the subject about a Guy being Guilty of Link Payola, but wait a minute am I …
People have sent me gifts and I have linked to them ( the only person i have linked to in this whole post hasn’t sent me any gift or asked for anything in return):
Microsoft adCenter, Microsoft Live, Google Adwords, Lenovo, Berocca, Sumolounge too name a few, what about Mel Carson or Matt Cutts I have had gifts from them too, Vanessa Fox took me home and I drank her wine one night oh my god !!
The fact that I have been taken to dinner and had drinks with so so many people, can I not talk about these things or link to them for fear that My blog will be penalised or worse their sites ( makes no difference because this post will never rank anyway) Should I NOFOLLOW everything because I know that a link is a vote of confidence in the eyes of a search engine, and it should if all things are equal influence the search engines, but for gods sake that’s what the search engines want isn’t it, isn’t Google a link based Search Engine?
Do you want the web to read something like, “Yes it is a great book you should read it, I would have linked to it but I don’t want the site that I purchased it from penalised although the site has a sale on and you can get it 20% cheap than Amazon, I also bought my wife a new car it’s awesome, I dare not link to the garage because it’s local to me and I would not want to hurt their search engine rankings, I went to London in august with my wife and kids I would tell you what a great places to visit with kids are, but I’m too scared to link just in case they get a penalty just like me !”
Now this is turning into a rant and that pisses me off, I TESTED AN OFF THE SHELF AUTOMATED SPAM TOOL AND THE SITE I TESTED IT ON RANKS TOP 10 .. but you guessed it I’m not going to link to that either I wouldn’t want them to get a penalty either, the fact that I’m a SEO means I can’t just link out any more and therefore maybe just maybe I shouldn’t blog either. btw the Sumo Lounge is friggin awesome and I’m going to get Dan Horton to blog about so that, and you know what I’m going to make him link to their site … and maybe even twice !!!
DaveN
14 Comments
Robert - http://www.propdata.co.za/
Sadie - http://www.amfireinteractive.com
Absolutely Hilarious!
Got hooked to your site…good stuff.
graywolf - http://www.wolf-howl.com
I dont have a problem with sponsored or paid links at all. What I have a problem with is G nuking PPP while Guy gets away scott free. Is it a google rule or is it not? Or is it only a google rule if an SEO is involved?
bigcrags - http://www.adamchristie.co.uk
If MP’s and government ministers can get away with cash for questions for so long, then why the hell shouldn’t I get a free baseball cap in return for a link. Purely hypothetical of course. No-one has ever given me a free lunch, a shiny new gadget, or a baseball cap for that matter.
Matt Sawyer - http://www.datadial.net
Seriously, I don’t see how anyone could get penalised for this. Matt Cutts is up to it all the time. I get bored of reading abour what damn cat toys he’s been playing with, or what he’s been up to with his Omron pedometer…..
Vinay - http://www.juretic.com/
The entire discussion taking the blogosphere over Paid Links & Guy is so insane! Seriouly, I didn’t find anything wrong about him or what he did.
I got a job recently with an Internet Marketing Agency and I blogged about it linked back to them.. does that mean I linked just because they gave me offer? Or is this paid link by any chance? Or should I even inform my visitors that I am linking to my company’s site since they gave me a job?
Its just insane totally…! I linked to the site as I wanted my visitor to know who they were. Its all based on my interest
Good rant here though.. had few mins of good time
Peter Young - http://holisticsearch.co.uk
The Paid Links/Sponsorship (etc) debate isn’t going to go away quickly imo, or at least until some serious thought it put into 1) Setting appropriate guidelines – current ones are a bit ‘loose’ imo – and 2) Policing it effectively – the ‘if we catch you approach creates too much of a multitiered environment’
BTW, was there beer involved before that post?
Mike - http://www.mercurythread.co.uk/
Nice rant. I wish I got sent free stuff
Jim Gianoglio - http://www.lunametrics.com
Dave – Keep ranting! (It makes for fun reading).
Obviously, Google had to implement some form of protection against paid links. But now they find themselves on the slippery slope (or at least that’s how I see it). Where do they (or can they) stop – will they ever penalize bloggers who blog about products that were “gifted” to them? Time will tell.
Yura - http://www.seorefugee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10624
Seriously, Google should determine which links to trust themselves, without making bloggers worry about safe linking or policies. Heck, the web resembles *real* life. Learn to live in it, Google.
Mike Dammann - http://www.firetown.com
Some people only blog about something when they see a reason for it. A reason to promote something, scratch someone’s back etc. If someone gives me a gift, I will get them back somehow. Heck, I link to some mom and pop shops if I think they’re doing a great job. If you get into such personal aspects, then you are part of the reason that the internet has become such a boring place. Sad to see posts like the one Michael Gray has published. Seen many similar ones, but this one took the cake and gave Google pandering a whole new meaning.
Rob Nichols - http://www.torxweb.com
I feel like sometimes there should be more guidelines. I have a competitor for one of my sites that was giving away subscriptions to anyone who linked back to him. I feel like these would be paid links. He posted this all over his blog, so Google should be able to see this is going on… Yet the inbound links from other members of this blog has pushed him to number one in the SERPs. Giving someone a link in an informative review of a free product… Isn’t this what half the web is anyways… Great Rant.
Tom Waite - http://www.bingoparadise.co.uk/
Nice ranting there!
We spend a lot of time worrying about who we link to and whether we should add no follow tags or not….
Craig - http://www.lovetoplaybingo.co.uk/
You can only get penalized by Google if are caught selling links. If someone sends you freebies and you happen to write a blog post and link to them, that does not mean they bought the link of you. If you went to a major supermarket and got a free tester in store, that does not mean if you blogged about it and you linked to them this could get penalized, you have to think of it as, you chose to link to them, you did not have to.