Real Contextual Link Ads

In the SEO Blogs and forums there has been a lot of banter about Google saying they will become more proactive in their quest to spot paid links. Many SEOs believe they have algorithms already in place that can spot paid links and not count them as as a factor in their ranking algorithm. Matt Cutts', Google Engineer, stated in his blog that Google may even create a “paid link report form” where webmasters could report paid link advertising.

While this is most likely typical mis-information from Google, it seems to be affecting the type of ads many webmasters are now selling. At LinkAdAge, the webs text link ad barometer website, more in-content links are being offered then ever before. Presell Pages, Blog Posts, and mass article links are popping up as link buying options more than ever.

A new contextual ad website, www.LinkXL.com, is taking contextual text link ads to a whole new level. They have a patented system which allows webmasters to buy and sell text links directly in existing content. Need the keyword “money” linking back to your website from within another site's existing content? Go to LinkXL, log in, and search on “money”. You’ll get a list of pages that already have your targeted keyword 'money' in their content. Scan through the results and add the ones you want to your shopping cart, complete the purchase, and the keyword “money” will be converted into a real HTML text link to your website. Unlike other sites that do JavaScript in context links, LinkXL creates HTML text links that the search engines can follow and will count in their algorithm.

The best thing about these text links is that they are natural links in the body of pre-existing content. If you want to buy or sell links, you no longer need to risk being identified as a link buyer or seller because of links in the sidebar or footer of websites. With LinkXL the links are real links in the middle of search engine indexed content. These are the type of links that the search engines say they want.

No one knows if Google will be spending more time hunting down link buyers and sellers, but it is clear that natural HTML contextual links are the next step in the evolution of paid link advertising.