Are there any "legitimate" paid links in Google's eyes?

[bcmull]

The news about paid link campaigns is so frequent, that I have to ask the question....does Google allow any paid links?

Aside from SEO, paid links can have visibility value. Much like an exit sign on the highway, the paid link says "Get off here"

[EGOL]

does Google allow any paid links?

Google is the biggest seller of paid links on this planet....  Adwords... lol

The Yahoo! Directory is a white hat place to pay for a link.

[TaitLarson]

I always thought Google's policy towards the Yahoo Directory was strange.  However, perhaps it teaches us that if the directory charges for something other then placement (i.e. pay us and we'll expedite adding your listing to our directory) then the paid link is "legitimate".

[EGOL]

Right.... If I started a directory under the "pay me for a review" basis and gave people followed links I bet that Google would bust me.

[vforvinnie]

In addition to directories that charge for editors reviews or an approval process deeper than "pay and get listed", I think there are a few others.  Any group like the BBB that give members a page or a link on their site are legit too.  You aren't paying them for the link, but to be a member of their organization.  Some of these sites are very similar to directories but a lot aren't.

A lot of charities will also give a link to donors, although this starts to get a little fishy with abuse.

[StalkerB]

As EGOL said, there are some paid for directories that are accepted (even authoritative) by Google.

Yahoo business directory, BOTW, Business[dot]com and JoeAnt to name a few.

That said I almost never use any of them now, the value isn't there to be in a page 12 levels down with no links in.

[bcmull]

Let's think more broadly. I have a client who wants to target brides to be. Obviously, a great source of visibility would be wedding related directories. It would be of great value (perhaps even greater than search in some cases) to have listings in these directories.

However, I certainly wouldn't want to be blacklisted.

In this instance, I would be using paid links to boost my online visibility in general, not to game SERPs. How can Google reconcile that?

[StalkerB]

Do you mean that you'll be paying for sponsored listings, that these directories require payment for submission or that these directories require payment for review of the site?

If a sponsored listing, I'm pretty sure they should be nofollowed as it's technically an ad.

If they require payment for submission (ie, no cleverly worded terms of acceptance) then you shouldn't really be buying them.

If payment for review of your site, technically that's fine (though in reality very few sites will ever reject a paying site).

Ultimately, unless you're on some very shady directories, Google's not going to be able to tell what you've paid for and what you haven't.

Are you sure any of these directories actually get any sort of traffic anyway? I know as SEOs we all use them, but as a web user I've not looked at a directory since 1990.

[bcmull]

Good response Barry. According to GA, some directories perform better than others. We assign a two-tiered cost index (cost per visit vs. cost per action). We obviosuly cull the directories that don't perform well.

Most of these are small regional sites that get significant local TV exposure and are quite cheap ($25). The group that makes the cut (see paragraph above) perform quite well.

Good point on the no-follow, but many of these probably don't have the sophistication to understand no-follow.