Link spam
Google's spam policy category covering links intended to manipulate rankings: buying or selling links, excessive exchanges, automated link…
LinksGuest bloggingContributed articles
Guest posting
Writing articles for other publications; legitimate as an audience and authority tactic, but a link spam violation when done at scale primarily for keyword-rich links.
In full
Google's link spam policy explicitly names large-scale article campaigns and guest posts with keyword-rich anchor text in the content. The distinguishing factors are audience intent, editorial standards, and whether links are natural and disclosed. Sites that accept paid contributions at volume risk their own quality signals as well as the contributor's, and 'link inserts' bought into existing posts fall squarely inside the policy.
Example
A specialist writes a genuinely original piece for an industry magazine with a brand-anchor bio link, rather than buying 50 templated placements.
Related terms
Digital PR
Earning editorial coverage and links from media outlets through newsworthy assets — original data, expert commentary, campaigns — rather…
Link building
The practice of acquiring links from other websites, ranging from editorially earned citations to schemes that violate Google's link spam…
Site reputation abuse
Publishing third-party content on a host site to exploit that site's ranking signals; a Google spam policy violation regardless of…
rel="sponsored"
A link attribute introduced by Google in 2019 to identify links created as part of advertising, sponsorships or other compensation…