Google has demanded webmasters hide paid links through the use of code manipulation like 302 redirects, JavaScript, robots.txt and nofollows. This goes against their Webmaster Guidelines which state:

Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking." 

I argue that by mucking your links you are in fact displaying different content to the user than the search engines. You are also making pages for the SEs instead of the users.

I further argue that Google is inconsistent with this policy by stating:

Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites. 

Entry to the Yahoo directory requires payment – you are buying links. Google has justified this by stating that Yahoo has quality guidelines and human editing to keep spam out.

Unfortunately Google doesn’t think the rest of us are capable of such editorial discretion. And let’s face it; in some cases they are right.

So what’s a webmaster to do?

Selling links on websites is a practice much older than Google. While I love Google’s products and respect their business in this case I think they are dead wrong. To tell website owners to manipulate paid links is to tell them to break the Guidelines.

I won’t get into Google’s motives are here or the solutions for the problems they claim paid links create. Instead I want to focus on what website owners can do to mitigate this issue.

1. Take Responsibility - It is your website, make sure to exercise control over the sites you link to, paid for or not. 
2. Set a clear policy for link sales - Define the types of links you are willing to sell clearly and how the link sales will work. This helps you out by removing the gray areas that creep up later. One example of this is the 3 rules I set for my Free Link Giveaway at Linkers Union:

• Links will be reviewed to make sure the site is in good standing with the search engines (and likely to stay that way).
• No “adult content”. This is at my discretion.
• English only.

3. Be even-handed - The advantage of having a clear policy was that it reduces bad requests and when you do have to decline a request they usually understand. The down-side is you may have to decline requests from people you know and like. This came up for me when friends asked for links to gambling sites or sites in foreign languages. I have nothing against those sites but I couldn’t link to them because of the policies that were set up to protect everyone else. Again, my friends understood so there was no bad blood.
4. Post your policies in an obvious location - The best place to post your policies for link sales is on your Advertising or Disclosure pages. I suggest keeping the link in your footer on every page.

So what about Google?

Google claims to encourage sites that use editorial control so make sure you do. They are not likely to penalize websites for being on the up and up.

Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

If everything is in the open, the links you sell are to reputable sites that will help your users and you don’t add code to appease the search engines you are in line with Google’s webmaster Guidelines… whether Google wants to admit it or not!

The best policy for dealing with Google’s policy on link selling is to ignore it. If enough people tell Google to solve this issue on their own – the way they are supposed to - they will. Or they will at least handle the matter algorithmically and leave us alone about it.

Google does not want to offend too many people in their core market as that is bad business. In this case the fewer people that comply will make life better for everyone.

Thank you for reading. I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me, especially on the part about ignoring Google. For those of you I’ve reached please blog about this topic and let Google know they need a better solution.

Randall McCarley has over 10 years experience in marketing and design. He lives in Sacramento with his wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, pig and several tropical fish. He may be contacted through 14th Colony.