A WebmasterWorld thread asks the question most SEOs and Webmasters have asked themselves but are too afraid to ask out loud... Is all link building efforts considered spam by Google?
Now, if you asked Matt Cutts this questions - he would give you a long answer, implying no, that not all link building efforts are spam. But if you are specifically doing something to get links and thus influence Google's rankings, then those efforts can be in violation of Google's guidelines.
Back seven years ago, the answer would have been different. It would have been that if you paid for any link, one way or another, then that link would have been spam according to Google.
But now it is more about your intent on when getting links.
Not all would agree with my interpretation because, well, it is their livelihood. But I think this is the new Google reality.
Take my anonymous poll and let me know what you think:
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image credit to ShutterStock for links.
