Matt Cutts on Paid Links

[John Allen]

Matt Cutts has gone on record again stating Google's position on paid links. Most websites' Page Rank went down when G did their last tool (fool) bar update. Many people are speculating that the drop is from Google devaluing paid links.

Matt seems to be recommending that all paid links should be nofollowed (if a site wants to do well in Google).

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015822.html

[BossWebmaster]

Some are accusing this devaluing of paid links to be a ploy to increase google's profit margins with adwords. My opinion is I'm sure it didn't hurt it.

[gibex]

yeah, G is loosing money!

[BossWebmaster]

I don't know about losing money, they're certainly trying to make more though.

[gibex]

I'm talking about the money from the links outside of adwords.

[Dwell Atlanta]

WHAT??!?!?!?! thanks for this post. I was about to pay the best of the web directory and all kinds of other sites.

[gibex]

isn't bad to pay for some directories, just choose good ones

[seoai]

I really believe it's Google's way of continuing to become better. So many sites out there have diregarded content and building a great site, for buying links and ranking highly.

[Dave Kovaleski]

Its a natural progression, as people find loop holes Google will find a way to de-value that loop hole. The Google saga continues..........

[dylan]

Most of my competitors have used high amounts of paid links. I'm curious to see what happens to my rankings. I haven't ever paid for a link.