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With the current crackdown by Google on Paid and unnatural linking methods do you think large SEO companies are at risk of being penalized?

Maybe you think that is a stupid question, but think about it. Customers pay SEO companies a lot of money to 'find' high value links for these paying customers? Why isn't that Paid Links?

What is 'natural' about people paying dozens of highly paid SEO specialists to search out, find, and give these customers Links?

What do you think?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MaryOlson

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Short version: yes — if an agency is actually buying or selling links that pass PageRank, both the buyer and the seller are at real risk of manual action or algorithmic demotion. Google has repeatedly stated that selling links that pass PageRank violates its guidelines and can lead to reduced rankings or removal from search results. (developers.google.com)

There is a useful distinction to keep in mind: outreach, PR-driven earned links, and properly disclosed paid placements are legitimate when handled transparently. What gets punished is link placement intended purely to manipulate rankings (paid links that pass PageRank, large-scale guest-article campaigns whose main purpose is link-building, PBNs, hidden widget links, etc.). Google’s public guidance on large-scale article/link campaigns and Penguin-era enforcement shows how both manual reviews and algorithm updates target manipulative link patterns. (developers.google.com)

Practical safeguards that separate ethical agencies from risky operators:

  • Contractually require full disclosure of link placements, anchor text, and the domains used.
  • Specify that any paid placement must be tagged rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" (or treated as a paid ad) so it does not pass PageRank.
  • Run regular backlink audits (Search Console plus third-party tools) to spot sudden spikes, identical anchor-text patterns, or clusters from unrelated sites.
  • If a manual action occurs, remove offending links where possible and use Google’s disavow workflow before submitting a reconsideration request. ()

raised the right concern; the safest assumption for any client is that they are ultimately responsible for links to their site. Asking an agency for explicit methods, sample placements, and written guarantees about link types is a reasonable, verifiable defense against “link-selling” exposure. (developers.google.com)

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Member Avatar for MaryOlson

Thanks for posting these articles, they were really helpful to me.

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