Dafydd Lewis | In house SEO

We hear it all the time, paid links are blackhat, paid links are whitehat, unethical, part of the normal marketing operation of any business blah blah blah.  The discussion is irrelevant whatever you think about paid links they are here to stay.

Now before Googles witch hunt it was a free for all, people throwing money at paid links, loads of sites selling links and to be honest alot of the links were junk, ad blocks or irrelevant placement.  With paid links (no condom!) being “illegoogle” the world of buying links has completely changed.  It has put off a great many webmasters for fear of Googles hairy side (backhand slap :-).  Buying links (and not being caught) is now a lot more difficult because we all have to operate under the radar and we have to make certain demands on the way the link is presented.

I personally like this situation, buying links has become much more of a skill than it used to be and with many a webmaster unwilling to risk it, the power and value of expertly sourced paid links has increased significantly.