I couldn’t disagree more. I want to first clarify we are talking about Ads versus Links. Ads (can be a link, copy or graphic) are bought for placement on another web page, with the intention of using the host site to drive traffic back to your site. Hopefully these ads are clearly marked as paid for by a sponsor, or clearly identifiable as an ad to the consumer. If a link is paid for, and is not clearly marked, and obviously an ad, it is deceptive behavior at best. But I also believe it is illegal, not to mention frowned upon by Google. Let me refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s Truth In Advertising Policy. The FTC clearly states that “an ad is deceptive if it contains a statement - OR OMITS INFORMATION - that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances; and is “material” - that is important to a consumer’s decision to buy or use the product.

The point is clear, if you are attempting to pass a link off as organic, to drive traffic from a trusted site, it is deceptive. Also, it could be argued that the site hosting the bought link has used their influence or reputation to assist in the effort. I would suggest this site’s influence is material in a consumer’s decision to visit and perhaps buy from the referred site, and the truth-in-adversiting guidelines have been broken.

Some might disagree, and may consider link buying/selling a “gray area,” open for interpretation, but in my experience mucking around in gray areas leads to red numbers in your buisness’ bottom-line eventually.

Thanks for your comments.

When it comes to the SERPs it is not the job of marketing professionals to determine which documents are most worthy of top rankings. It is to make their web documents rank highly or create ones that do. It is also the job of marketing professionals to achieve those rankings as quickly as possible. That means employing search engine optimizers who understand the system and can work it to gain an advantage.

Imagine the conversation inside of COMPANY X:

“Well, if we do really good content people will link to us. We can probably get lots of links virally, but in our competitive market it will probably take about a year to break into Google’s top ten for our target keywords.”

“One year? We don’t have a year! Can’t you do something that will speed up the process?”

“Well, we could buy links”

“Is it illegal? Will the Wall Street Journal or 60 Minutes make a big stink about it? Are there agencies that sell links?”

“It’s perfectly legal. No, nobody will care if we buy links. Yes, several businesses sell links.”

“Then do it!”

Search engine employees and marketing professionals both have jobs to do. Just as in any pair of industries when it benefits each other to do so they should work together, but they should not handicap themselves for the benefit of the other either.

Was it Danny Sullivan who called this an arms race? Well, it’s an apt analogy. Marketers need to keep up on how to get the best ranking as quickly as possible for as long as possible. Search engines need to do everything they can to produce the most accurate and reflective rankings. Escalation is inevitable.

When bad things happen to good companies….remember Florida?….many people note that businesses are not entitled to rankings on any search engine. Google et al are not public utilities and make no promises, warranties or contracts. The reverse is true too. Businesses do not put their information on the search engines. The place their documents and content on the Internet and make no promise, contract or warranty to the search engines that they will do so in such a way that helps the search engines to make an accurate judgment.

Ultimately, if the search engines rank your document highly then you have earned that ranking. Whatever you did it is working for you. If you do not rank well you have not earned a high ranking. That’s the bottom line.