We’ll give you three examples below of what we would turn into Google on your behalf. We feel that they are representative of what some SEO optimization companies have done for their clients to increase their rankings on Google. Should they be included in Google’s index? Should Google pass the page rank from the links to your competitor’s site? You get to play SPAM Cop and decide.
There are three examples below, but your order will be for a minimum of 25 links. Imagine how powerful it would be if we turned in 20 or more links like the ones below to Google.

OK, it is your chance to play SPAM Cop. We decided to pick on the very competitive online replacement auto parts market segment for our example today. We want you to imagine if you were a SPAM Cop at Google and the following links were given to you. What would you do? Would you consider them paid links? Would you be sorta mad, or really mad? Let’s begin with our test.

Example #1 – do you think that the blogger was paid to include a link in their post?

Page Rank of page: PR3- so this is a valuable link

Link: http://perfectoyotaparts.blogspot.com/

Search for: Acura Legend head gasket

The 2008 Toyota Urban Runner Debuts At The Chicago Auto Show post talks of the 2008 Toyota 4Runner. Mid post talking about the 2008 Urban Runner, the post goes on to talk about peoples purchase decisions being based on their worries about low quality head gaskets??? The link isn’t for a Toyota 4Runner, but the anchor text is for the Acura Legend head gasket with a link to an online parts store. The post Toyota’s Test Still Weather- Affected also has a link for an Acura part (Acura brake calipers) to the same online parts store.

The example online parts store links don’t appear to be the only purchased links to auto parts suppliers on the page. A quick look at the anchor text links sprinkled through the posts shows many other online part seller links. Is the uneven writing, and clearly off subject links all to online auto parts stores evidence that these are purchased links?

OK honorary SPAM Cop, is Example #1 a paid post? Would you eliminate the page rank, and all outbound links from this blog?

*** There is an additional important point that shouldn’t be lost in Example #1. Blogs and websites tend not to sell to just one customer, and advertisers tend to advertise on sites that are similar in theme or market space as theirs. That means that you may be going after one competitor, but you might take out links from many competitors if they all advertised on one site. Look at how many auto part links are in the posts on the Example #1 site link above. I would think if you got one delisted, you would get them all. Would you agree?

Example #2 – do you think the forum user name and link should be used in the Google index?

Page Rank of page: PR2- so this is a moderately valuable link

Link: http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/12/29/can-we-run-our-cars-on-human-fat/

Search for: audi parts

How many people do you know by the name of audi parts?  Is this a legitimate nickname?  I could be talked into it if the link pointed to a MySpace page or a Twitter account, but it links to a auto parts seller.  Not only that, it is a deep link into their audi parts section of their website.  To me that is pure evidence that the intent was taking the page rank 2 link and passing it to the audi parts section of the part seller’s website.

OK honorary SPAM Cop, is audi parts a legitimate forum or blog name if it deep links into a website that sells audi parts, or should it be removed from the Google index?

Example #3 – do you think links in blog comments or signatures should be used in the Google index?

Page Rank of page: PR4- so this is a very very valuable link to have

Link: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-18-obama-administration-takes

Search for: bmw m1

Is this a SEO plant or a real comment?  With it passing a page rank 4, this is a very valuable link to have.  It is a judgment call, but to us it seems forced?  What we would try to do is establish that this is a pattern by the company across many sites.  That is one important reason why we encourage you to purchase as many links as your budget will afford.  Patterns help to show evidence of SPAM or paid links.

OK honorary SPAM Cop, should the link in Example #3 pass page rank?

Conclusion

How much higher would your pages rank if you exposed all of the cheating practices of your competitors? In a zero sum game if someone gains, someone has to lose. As your competitors cheat with paid links, you lose and your page listings go down in the Google index and your revenue plummets. Likewise if their pages are removed, then you’ll gain with higher listings and higher revenue based on your conversion rate. Your pages will rise as your competitor’s pages are penalized or removed for using paid links as an artificial mechanism to increase their page rank.