CAUTION - Paid Links May Be Hazardous To Your Rank!

Just in case you were wondering how Google feels about paid links, their web spam department head Matt Cutts recently elaborated on his blog specific instructions on how to blow the whistle on paid links using Google's spam report form. He said that Google may provide a special form for paid link reports at some point in the future. Keep in mind that he doesn't say buying links will immediately kill your site but BE CAREFUL. The implication is that Google will use the reports to improve their ability to detect such paid links in their algorithms. The message is clear and if you're buying links to increase your rankings, Google considers it spam. This is not really stunning news but Google rarely ever gives such a direct warning.

By the way, Google has a number of excellent tutorials, as well as case studies and sample reports available at: http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/.