Google has different search engines for different countries across the world. One of their search engines, Google Japan, was caught buying links! For awhile now, Google has been trying to tell people that buying links is bad (not saying it isn’t) but then they do it themselves through paid reviews.

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land asks:

How are ordinary web sites to be expected to know the “rules” about what they can or cannot do?

He brings up a great point. Being in the SEO industry, it is easy to overlook the fact that regular website owners may not have a clue that Google even has rules to follow. They could consider buying a link just part of online advertising, something that just can be done on the internet. Its almost like they picked up the phone and put their ad in the yellow pages. I just have to laugh when I see something like this.

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Marketing Pilgrim
Search Engine Land