Most well orientated bloggers that enjoy the many pleasures of the blogosphere have undoubtedly noticed that some of the most esteemed blogs on the internet have seen their Page Rank (PR) degrease, or in some cases, completely removed. Google has justified its latest actions by blaming bloggers for contributing to the propagation of spam and for attempting to exploit the PR system. The intention of this article is not to promote or discourage link building. It is intended to guide individuals interested in such practices by outlining a few important points and present a few tips worth taking into consideration.

Selling links

According to Google selling links is a big no, no. For the safety of any blog advertising such services is profoundly discouraged. It is always important to take into profound consideration any sudden suspicious offer received from unknown individuals. In the same way, advertising link sales on popular webmaster forums is a bad idea since they might be under the Google radar. Even link exchange with similar sites is vividly discouraged if the trading partner isn't clearly identified.

Paid posting

The latest Google attack was felt hardest on blogs that conducted and promoted paid posting. According to Google the commercialization of blog post is a technique designed to swindle the Page Rank system and increase spam content on the internet. To avoid sudden PR death there are a few issues worth mentioning. Never advertise any paid, review or exchange post service on a blog. All those eye catching banners and flickering links advertising these services should be removed without more ado.

Only noFollow links

Google has determined that blogs using the doFollow attribute are predominantly used for spamming purposes since the code used is intended to instruct search engines that a hyperlink should influence the site in terms of search engine indexing. Displaying banners advertising the use of the doFollow attribute sends a clear message to Google so it is not recommended. In most cases using the noFollow attribute is seriously recommended.

Link farms are dead

Link farms or directory sites, as they are commonly called, are a danger and should always be avoided. These sites are the black sheep of the internet and in most cases have seen their PR drop considerably. If a blog or site has a few incoming links from directories that shouldn't be a problem but if they represent nearly all inbound links, it could be considered worrying.

To Banner or not to Banner

Selling banners on blogs has become quite common practice, seeing its popularity increase especially over the past few months. This practice could be considered acceptable and safe, but just to be sure the blog should have the noFollow attribute enabled. For extra protection the links should only be directed to similar or related content sites.

Dangerous Affiliates

There are a few affiliate programs that represent a risk and should be used with some caution. Each person will have to judge whether they should or should not use them, given that running them discretely in most cases won't be a problem. Such affiliate programs include text link selling programs, paid posting and site review services.

In the end of the day each person will have to decide if the gains are worth the risks. The best advice possible to be given is, maintain the services discrete and never be tempted to advertise them openly.