Reliance on paid links reveals a 'bad business'

17th December 2007

The search engine ranking of a business should not depend on paid links, it has been claimed.

According to search engine optimisation expert Mike Grehan's blog on the ClickZ Network, if a website is built without natural links it is "probably a waste of time".

Leading search engine Google recently downgraded certain websites page ranking when they were found to be using paid links. Punished sites included the Washington Post and Forbes magazine.

"If nothing else, Google did online marketers a favour," commented Mr Grehan. "If paid-links are a no-go, it forces us to be smarter marketers to get those juicy editorially chosen links."

Companies which solely rely on paid links for search engine optimisation are displaying that their something "fundamentally wrong" with their website, he continued.

If a search engine does not come up with a business based on a web user's query then it is probably not the most appropriate site for them, he concluded.