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I am about tired of this topic so before I just become totally fed up with it I had better say my piece on the whole mess.  To me the simple reality is this, there will never be a way to know 100% if links are purchased or traded for or natural.  No matter what system or algorithm anyone comes up with all the SEO community will do is adapt and find a new way around things. 

My solution, just quit crying about it and I mean everyone.

• Google should stop whining and their soliciation for people to become "link NARC's" is just plain stupid. Seriously if you have time to run around trying to find paid links with out rel="nofollow" condoms on them and then go tattle to Google about it please get a life, a date or at least a Nintendo Wii.
• All the bloggers like Chris Garrett that are so concerned about new services that you can hire to go do blog commenting on your behalf should also eat a valium for god sakes.  Who the heck cares if Joe comments in your blog with good content or someone he hires.  Get this through your thick blogger skull, more comments are GOOD for your blog so long at they are on topic and do not link to content you object to.  At this blog you can link to anything other then porn, pharm or gambling when you comment, if your comment is useful and on topic.
• All the SEO folks so worried that paid links will stop working, be smart.  Don't buy links from people that put "sponsored links" or other nonsense near your links.  Hire cheap copywriters and give people free content as a way to "buy links".  Hire a few overseas people to do manual link building or use intelligent networks.

See to me this just isn't a problem for anyone.  If a person buys links and pushes a rank higher good for them.  If their site sucks and does not convert then it won't matter, they won't be able to keep buying links for very long.  There are so many things that make a website successful, ranking is only one component and while it can be commoditized to a degree that can only take you so far.  As the Libertarians would tell us the visitors will handle everything if you just trust in the wisdom of the free market.

Instead of whining about SEOs, specifically the Black and Gray Hats among us, Google, Yahoo and everyone should be saying thank you to us.  Look at how much better search results are today then say in 2002.  Why do you think that is?  Because SEOs keep pushing the system and making content and links better and better that's why.  With out us you would still be looking at results like Lycos provided back in the days when someone actually used it!

So what should Google do?  Make their algorithm better that's what. Remember when to rank for a term the term actually had to exist somewhere on the page.  Today I could put up a page with a picture of a car on it, write text about tennis balls and call the domain /peanuts.htm and title tag it "elephant butts are gray" but if I got enough links that said "kangeroo rat" pointing to it, I could get into the top ten for "kangeroo rat".

Now is that my fault?  Am I the one who is out of line for working the system the way it was designed?  Further this is not 1999 anymore as an SEO I am not just supposed to bring traffic I must make it convert, be it on my own site or a clients.  So I won't be buying links like the ones I described above in the first place.  Trust me when a client buys links to content today the page is on topic and has decent "quality" as well, if not again how long can they afford to push a ranking that does not equal dollars?

Let's be honest a lot of people in the web community want everything to be nice and democratic.  Yet that has nothing to do with why Google, Yahoo and the other engines don't like link buying and other SEO tactics.  They really hate it because as long as I can manipulate SERPs and others can as well we don't have to spend our money on PPC ads.  This "war on paid links" has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with money, don't be fooled and stop worrying.  The Internet has done fine for a long time now and it keeps getting better, like us or not SEOs are a big part of why.

~ Jack

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More on the horrors of paid links

• Google Requests the Assistance of Link NARC's
• Google Suggests nofollow for Comment Spam even though it is useless

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