Can Google Stop Text Link Ads?

Text link ads have been around forever it seems. I am not really talking about the company as it you probably can’t even find them on Google anymore. But selling links to others on the Internet is nothing new. Now, Google started to go crazy on us a while back and penalize sites that were selling (and sometimes buying) ads. Text-Link-Ads got the worst of the situation as they completely disappeared from the face of the SERPs, and it seems anyone who so much dares to link to these guys disappears too (Which is why I am not linking to them).

Text-Link-Ads has been the most innovative text link marketplace, and they have continued innovative with odds stacked against them. They have now created inLinks (links inside posts), and adding to the fact that they allow you to buy post level links, you can get a serious bang for your buck.

I had hope Google would get tougher with this whole link policy. I always thought that the organic search allowed us who didn’t have that big of a budget to achieve great things in the organic search channel. But text links take away the somewhat level playing field and put the advantage back on the side of the rich. A financial company can buy 1000s of links due to their big budget and don’t even realize they have spent that kind of money. A small business simply can’t afford to pay thousands per month to maintain these links.

I love what Text Link Ads and LinkWorth are doing. Am I glad they have been penalized? Somewhat. But Google has been going about it the wrong way really. Google needs to focus on finding a way to hone its system to avoid getting gamed by link masters. At the end of the day, buying links is not the only way you can amass links and get brownie points on search engines. Google needs to stop looking the other way and address the issues head on.

Google may have made it hard for folks to buy links and taken away TLAs exposure, but I believe Text Link Ads deserves to show up on the SERPs. I have talked about the right to be found on this blog, and I believe any site has the right to be found, and it’s shameful that you can’t find TLA anywhere for their own brand name. I am not an advocate of Google’s bullying practices at all. Google has to find a way to get its act right. Sites such as TLA are not to blame for the holes in Google’s algorithm.

Should folks be able to buy text links? Absolutely. Should they get any benefit from bought text links? Not really. That’s partly due to the fact that the link-based ranking system is flawed, and the geniuses at Google know that as well. I have heard the argument that giving a lot of weight to links is the only way Google can rank sites appropriately. Well, I am shocked this sophisticated system provides so much low quality results. Parked sites and squeeze pages getting ranked high in the organic results is just distasteful and a testament to the incompetence that has been shown by Google in fixing their algorithm (I would put the level of incompetence as high as that shown by our Auto companies).

Google cannot stop folks from buying ads, and it seems they don’t intend to stop the practice with a real solution. Unfortunately, they have monopolized the search industry, and the consumers are worse of for Google’s hypocrisy. Can Google stop folks from buying text links one way or another? I don’t believe so. Will Google fix their algorithm to address this issue? Not likely.