A link scheme is any arrangement designed to manipulate links to a site rather than earn them. Here is what Google counts as one and what the penalty looks like.
A link scheme is any arrangement designed to manipulate the links pointing at a site rather than earn them. Google names them explicitly in its spam policies, and the definition is broader than most people expect.
The test Google applies is simple. Would this link exist if search engines did not?
What counts as a scheme
Google’s own list covers more ground than “buying links”. It includes:
- Paying for links. Money, products, services or free stays, where the link is not marked as sponsored.
- Excessive link exchanges. You link to me, I link to you, repeated across a network of sites that have no other reason to reference each other.
- Large-scale guest posting with keyword-rich anchors. The problem is not guest posting. It is churning out articles whose only purpose is the link in the author bio.
- Private blog networks. Sites you control or rent, built to pass authority to a money site.
- Automated link building. Software that drops links on forums, comments and directories at volume.
- Widget and footer links. Links embedded in a tool, theme or template that carry keyword anchors across every site that installs it.
The grey areas people get wrong
Paid placements are fine if they carry a rel=”sponsored” attribute. The violation is the undisclosed link, not the payment. The same applies to gifted products for reviews. Mark the link and there’s no problem.
Digital PR sits comfortably on the right side of the line as long as the story is genuinely worth covering. You pitch, the journalist decides. Nobody pays anybody. If you send money to a site owner for placement in an article, you have crossed from PR into link buying, regardless of what the invoice calls it.
What actually happens if you get caught
Two outcomes, and they feel very different.
Algorithmic devaluation is the common one. Google quietly stops counting the links. Rankings slide, nothing appears in Search Console, and you are left wondering why the budget stopped working. Most bought links end up here.
A manual action is rarer and much worse. A human reviewer flags the site, Search Console shows the notice, and traffic can fall by most of its volume overnight. Recovery means removing or disavowing the links, documenting the cleanup and filing a reconsideration request. That process typically takes one to three months, and rankings don’t always return to where they were.
The awkward part is that the agency who built the links is often long gone by then, and you inherit the cleanup. If you have taken over a site with a history you cannot explain, our digital PR team can audit the profile before you spend anything new.
Common questions
Is buying links always against the rules?
Buying a link that passes ranking signals is. Paying for a placement and marking it rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” is allowed and always has been. The disclosure is what makes the difference.
Can competitors get me penalised by building spam links?
It is very hard. Google discounts obvious spam rather than punishing the target, precisely because that attack would otherwise be trivial. If you see an unusual spike in junk links and you are worried, document it and keep an eye on Search Console.
Are directory links a link scheme?
Proper industry and local directories are fine, and for local businesses they are genuinely useful. Directories that exist only to sell links, with no editorial standards and no real visitors, are a scheme and are also a waste of money.
See our glossary entry for link scheme for the short version.
