Link Buying
Paying a publisher or broker for a followed link, which search guidelines prohibit unless the link is marked as sponsored or nofollow.
Analogy Mental model
Vote buying. Formally illegal, quietly rampant in competitive races, and fatal once it is proven.
In practice What you actually do
If paid placement is genuinely the only route available, insist on a site with real organic traffic, tight topical relevance, and no public inventory page advertising links for sale. Keep anchors natural, disclose where policy requires it, and be prepared to defend the decision later.
Where people get burned Pitfalls
Sponsored placements that pass ranking value put both sides at risk. The money is not the violation; the missing disclosure is.
This entry was written in English from the Chinese original, not machine-translated. Read the Chinese version →