Thread: Link Selling - Unethical or Just Unwise?
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Old 12-17-2007, 02:24 PM
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MuNKyonline MuNKyonline is offline
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Default Re: Link Selling - Unethical or Just Unwise?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Feydakin View Post
Nope, you got it dead right.. Google said early on that PR could be looked at as a sign of the quality of a website since people won't link to bad websites.. Great.. They even added a 1 to 10 scale to it and made the number public so that everyone could see it.. Great..

Compare that with Motor Trend.. They review and rate cars and trucks.. Get a 5 star Motor Trend rating and things are great.. Get a 1, no so much.. When you see ads on TV for Toyota it's not uncommon to see, 2007 Motor Trend 5 star car of the year..

Motor Trend loves this. Google, not so much.. Toyota uses that 5 star rating to sell cars.. Some webmasters use the PR number to sell links.. Toyota isn't selling the 5 star rating, they are using it as a metric for the value of their car.. Motor Trend assigns that rating on it's own.. Webmasters are not selling PR, they are selling links and using the PR number as a metric for the value of that link..

Can you imagine what would happen if Motor Trend told Toyota, "Hey, we don't like you using our name, and our rating system, to sell your cars.. You are unfairly influencing car purchases by advertising the fact that we like you.. Slap this nofollow sticker on the rear deck of all of your cars from now on or we will stop rating your product.."
I cant see the link here, and I think you are missing the point. In your example if Motor Trend have rated the car as being good quality then surely its a good idea to promote their rating and influence buyers. Wouldnt that encourage companies to make better cars?

Google have indeed said that it is a value based on the quality of the web site. If someone buys a link from someone with a site that has high PR that wouldnt normally link to them, then they are improving the PR (quality rating) of their own web site. This then makes google think they are therefore more relevant and ranks them higher.

If they were linked to for being a good quality web site as they believed the content was relevant and useful then the increase in PR would be justified.
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