Google to publishers: Accepting ‘bribes’ for links could lead to penalties

Google has reminded publishers that the practice of accepting 'bribes' in return for links is against their guidelines and can lead to ranking penalties.

The reminder comes in response to a widely-shared article published by The Outline, which claims that many major online publications such as TechCrunch, Huffington Post and the New York Times accept payments from companies in return for positive PR coverage and links.

The Outline spoke to several writers, who wished to remain anonymous, who admitted to accepting money for links - a practice they say has been going on for years and that is widely known in the industry.

Of course, this will not come as a surprise to anyone in the search industry, as paying for links and 'bribing' journalists is so commonplace it has become the new norm - which makes it difficult to differentiate the paid-for links from the natural ones.

The article suggests that the price for buying links from such major, and well trusted, online publications can be in excess of $1,000 per link - which makes it easy money for journalists to place links for companies looking to improve their search engine ranking positions.

All of this talk has sparked Google to chime in, with their new 'public liasion for search' Danny Sullivan responding on Twitter to reiterate Google's guidelines in respect to links:

Lots of people reading & sharing this @Outline article about non-disclosed pay-to-play articles, especially by contributors. https://t.co/OBrdxs8UuZ Here's the thing the article doesn't get into. Often, these are about buying links in an attempt to influence search rankings....

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) December 5, 2017

If you're a publisher, this pitch from the @Outline article highlights the key warning sign of a potentially dangerous contribution. All it wants is a link in exchange for cash. Basically, a paid link. That Google has rules about this, if you want to rank well with us…. pic.twitter.com/Z5pxNd5SCf

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) December 5, 2017

In short, don’t buy or sell links. If we spot this activity, we may take action in search results against both the buyer and the seller — that means you, the publisher that ran this stuff -- unless you follow specific things as outlines in this help page: https://t.co/MQ5UhlhpWk

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) December 5, 2017