SEO & link value · Knowledge
Paid links: what are the actual rules?
The rule in one sentence: links that were paid for – with money, products or services – must carry rel=“sponsored” (preferred) or nofollow, so they do not pass ranking value. Paid reach is fine; paid votes violate the guidelines.
The duty binds both sides: the buyer's incoming profile and the seller's outgoing pages are each judged – unmarked link selling endangers the selling site too.
What counts as paid, what enforcement looks like – and the clean setup
“Paid” is broader than invoices: sponsored posts, advertorials, affiliate placements, gifted products in exchange for coverage, barter deals – compensation in any form triggers the marking duty. Enforcement is real and two-pronged: algorithmic systems devalue recognizable link schemes quietly (the bought links simply stop working, money burned), while manual actions – a human reviewer flagging “unnatural links” in the search console – can suppress rankings site-wide until cleaned up; sellers of unmarked links face the mirror image, losing their pages' ability to pass value at all. German-speaking site owners carry a second, sharper duty on top: advertising must be recognizable as such (Schleichwerbung is a legal problem, not just an SEO one), so the sponsored label aligns with law, not only with guidelines – though the details belong to your legal advisor, not to a plugin site. The clean setup follows in three sentences. Buyers: treat paid placements as advertising – budget them for traffic and visibility, insist the link carries sponsored, and walk away from sellers advertising “dofollow guaranteed”, because their footprint is exactly what algorithms train on. Sellers and publishers: mark every compensated link, ideally systematically – a blacklist entry or an editorial class convention enforced by a site-wide tool means no single forgotten article can endanger the domain. Both sides: the durable currency remains content worth citing; bought votes age badly, earned ones compound.
Key facts
- Duty: compensated links carry rel=“sponsored” (preferred) or nofollow – compensation in any form counts.
- Enforcement: quiet algorithmic devaluation plus manual actions – on buyers and sellers alike.
- DACH extra: advertising must be recognizable by law – sponsored aligns with more than guidelines (ask your lawyer).
- Buyer hygiene: budget paid placements for reach, avoid “dofollow guaranteed” sellers.
- Seller hygiene: mark systematically – blacklist or class convention beats editorial memory.