It didn't take budding webmasters long after the launch of Google in 1997 to work out that links played a significant role in its natural ranking algorithm. Once the word began to spread, webmasters started gaining rankings and traffic for their desired search term left, right and centre - but the system soon reached saturation and search engines began to introduce more ranking factors into the mix. This enabled them to provide results of a higher quality, but links have always remained one of their top ranking factors.
This move worried many webmasters and business as they no longer achieved rankings as easily or successfully as they had previously. This is when the practise of link buying emerged: in order for webmasters to achieve higher rankings, they purchased links for a fee from other webmasters, thus allowing them to gain further exposure in natural search.
The problem with link buying is that it violates Google Webmaster Guidelines. This is because links play such an important role in Google's natural search ranking algorithm and they do not want websites to artificially increase their exposure by allowing webmasters to purchase links with money, as ranking influence would side with the site with the most cash to spend, rather than the site with the most merit.
Money is used in paid search (PPC), not natural search; Google wants websites to be ranked based on how popular they are naturally. They want people to find great websites, then reference them (link to them) via webpages or documents they have created.
The unethical nature of several webmasters who began or continued to buy links meant that Google then introduced a system that allowed webmasters to help their Web Quality Team counteract such activities and report any websites they believe are practising link buying.
Following Google's announcements, many webmasters changed their ways and became ethical - but are they out of the woods yet?
Well, as you may be aware, Google is a data mining monster: it keeps copies (caches) of the web and uses data mining to efficiently rank pages. This means that Google has the ability to back track to the day any website was created. If Google was to receive a paid link report via their Webmaster Console, they could easily go back 12 months and check whether or not it was engaging in unethical link buying. They could then use this evidence to place a penalisation or ban on a website for violating their Webmaster Guidelines. If your business solely relies on online sales, then this has the potential to be extremely damaging.
Many webmasters or business may have hired search engine optimisation experts to help increase their rankings and exposure in natural search, unaware that any past unethical practices could come back to haunt them That's why it's important to remember that it always pays to be ethical!
