Whatever Happened to Text Link Ads?

[1000Bulbs]

I've searched the web for any objective articles, good or bad, written about Text Link Ads or Text Link Brokers written in the past two years. Other than the occasional discussion board question, SEOs are silent about these services.

I know back in 2006, Rand looked upon them almost favorably. But what has happened since then? Is there any legitimate use for these services anymore (as a link builder)?

[Audiohype]

Hi Benjamin,

I'd stay clear of the IMO. Quite a few paid networks have been devalued recently and I bet it's causing trouble for companies that have used them.

I believe the issue is that paid link patterns are becoming easier to detect and therefore potentially dangerous for sites that have them in their backlink profile. I'm sure there's still people out there getting good results from them, but I don't think I could handle knowing that rankings could be wiped out every algorithm update!

Ben

[AdamThompson]

I would not suggest using paid link networks for any reason. Even if you want to purchase links, there are safer ways to do it.

[TLAinfo]

All, TLA is alive and well!  We have added 10 different link products within the last year and a half to help diversify ones efforts.  TLA provides many link building solutions beyond what we've offered for the past 11 years.  Remember we are not a link network.  All of our 150,000+ publishers are independently owned. We just don't like to be as vocal about all of this like some of the other companies out there.

[randfish]

The brand of "text links" generally has not been good over the last few years. TLA was penalized by Google for a while, but is now back ranking for their own name. I don't know if TLB was ever hit in the same way, but I know both of them have occasionally sent emails to those who purchased their products noting that Google may have removed link value or even be penalizing them.

When I gave a favorable review to TLA, I specifically called out some of the white hat services, and I also did so prior to Patrick Gavin's sale of the network. Today, I'd be mostly skeptical of the value the "classic" link purchases could provide, though they may indeed have other, less guideline-violating products that are worthwhile.

Oh - and we did do an experiment with TLA in 2010 that I covered here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-we-bought-links-and-it-worked

[1000Bulbs]

Thanks, Rand!

Like I said, it's difficult to find any recent information about TLA or TLB at all. I hadn't even heard about the link penalty or the sale.

I've skimmed over Scott's experiment and will watch your video in a bit. Honestly, I'm not surprised that the experiment worked.

One of my clients was recently surpassed by a competitor in the SERPs for one of their "bread-and-butter" keywords. The competitor very obviously bought links...and lots of them, too. Especially in a post-Penguin (even post-Panda) environment, I found that a bit disheartening. Though I don't wish bad things on anyone, I'm hoping (and betting) that Google will quickly pick up their "unnatural" links.