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It’s pretty common knowledge that websites offer paid links as a form of advertising. Such opportunities can even be found simplistically through sites like eBay, which offers a Text Links category where webmasters auction off text links from websites of varying PageRanks.

Sometimes these purchased links are beneficial solely for the added traffic they offer. However, those that don’t include a rel=”nofollow” attribute within the anchor tag of the HTML provide the added benefit of weighting results for search engines such as Google. This added benefit seems to make a link that secludes the use of nofollow much more valuable.

Google has a problem with the use of purchased links neglecting the use of this anchor attribute, however, as it games their PageRank system. Google’s search engine attempts to display links based upon popularity, not how many links someone paid for, and this undermines that principle. Because of issues like this, Google offers a spam report form where webmasters can report links that appear to have been paid for.

But what’s to stop someone from purchasing cheap text links for a rival website and reporting that site to Google? It would seem that there is potential to cause headaches for websites other than your own. Perhaps Google simply accepts this potential concern within the system and will offer a means by which to appeal, similar to how AdSense click fraud is handled.

Since it’s impossible for Google to police the entire Web for paid links, it’s questionable whether it is worth the risk of purchasing a text link compared to the potential impact of what would happen if Google discovers your purchased link. (Presently, it is unknown what Google intends to do if it discovers that a link has been purchased.) Given that there are so many other options available, including Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, Microsoft AdCenter, and so many more, it seems that there are many other opportunities for receiving paid traffic without any added risk.

I’m curious to find out what your thoughts are on the topic. Have text you purchased text links in the past? Did they include the nofollow tag? Do you still intend to purchase text links in the future given this information?