So we are allowed to have our websites link to other sites via (member signatures, within posts, etc...) as long as we are not having members PAY us to link their websites on our site, correct?
I think Google just dislike it when you charge member money for buying links unless you use the rel=nofollow in the links you are selling.
It is also a good idea to make sure the links people are posting in their sigs or forum are not spammy, scam or porn links since these types of links can decrease your reputation with Google and your members.
So we are allowed to have our websites link to other sites via (member signatures, within posts, etc...) as long as we are not having members PAY us to link their websites on our site, correct?
Google appreciates paid links. Big sites have paid links, but since they are big and recognized, why haven't they been penalized? Because Google doesn't care about paid links. What Google cares about is links altering page rank juice flowing onto different dofollow links, which inadvertently helps with search engine rankings. Google wants to display organic results are much as possible, and in order to do so, all external links should be nofollow to avoid other sites being affected. Once the nofollow tag has been added, page rank won't pass through that link, virtually making that link invisible to Google.
So yes, you can have paid links, but the recommendation is to have them nofollow. People selling dofollow links need to be cautious as too many unrelated sites and external links may get their site penalized.
