Paid Links - remove, report or leave? And how to remove?

[steveovens]

Bit of an unusual one for me - appreciate your thoughts...

I did an SEO audit for a potential client last week and discovered that 3 of their top 10 strongest inbound links (reported from OSE) are blatantly paid links from those "Link Bid Directories".

The links were created mid-last year, so reasonably recent.

Strange thing is that they have been using a highly reputable SEO agency for several years who do NOT engage in link buying - so I'm pretty sure it is not their SEO agency buying these links. Also - the link anchor texts are the company name - not a target keyword - so I suspect they either:

a) have someone internally in the company who thinks they are "helping" by buying links - or,

b) in my most paranoid fantasies, a competitor is setting them up for a Google smack (very long bow, I know!)

Anyway my questions are:

1. If I decide to take on this client, should I DO anything about these links?

These link are almost certainly currently "working" to pass link juice and I don't believe the site has been penalised (yet!) for them. I suspect when these links are switched off, the site will drop in rankings so my thoughts are to just ignore them and proceed with a normal link building campaign in the hope that if (when) the links are killed we will be OK.

2. Is there a "safe" way to report them to Google? By which I mean, let Google know to ignore these links and NOT penalise US for them being there.

3. Is there a way to get the links removed given that we don't control the accounts that created them?

Oh - and feel free to comment on my paranoid fantasies Have you ever seen paid links appear that you KNOW didn't come from you?

Thanks!

Steve

[DavidKauzlaric]

First, stop worrying. It's not that easy to get someone slapped for paid links. Chances are, Google isn't even aware. I doubt the client is the size or notieriety of JC Penney

Second, start link building heavily and getting a large diversification of links.

Third, you need to do some high quality link building and get organic links from better sources. Bury these top 3 links in a sea of even higher quality links that are organic and I guarantee it wont affect a thing.

Get some press releases out there with PRWeb and get some links from large media outlets, should easily replace those links!

Good luck.

[monicawright]

Yes, David is right, stop worrying so much.   It's only three links. I would be very frank with this client and let them know of the situation, however, but explain how you plan on addressing it by organically creating better links that will pretty much bury any red flags. Any communication you can provide is he best course of action for a healthy client relationship, in my opinion. And if something does happen, there are no surprises. Unfortunately, if the client feels you need to address these links, the only thing you can do is reach out to the sites where the links appear and ask directly to remove them. Good luck!

[CPU]

As David says I wouldn't worry too much and Monica makes a good point about communicating this to the client.

Tell the client that your comprehensive audit spotted this potential issue and that you have a recommended course of action to rectify it.

[steveovens]

Thanks David, Monica and Lewis for your responses - I appreciate your thoughts - and I love how you all so consistently started your responses with "stop worrying" - you're right of course!

I have communicated my discovery to the client and my intended course of action was pretty much as David suggests - run fast and bury those links in a sea of press releases and other high quality organic link-building.

Still scratching my head as to where the links came from - but I need to stop worry about that don't I?

Thanks again!