I've been thinking about how Google will be identifying paid links, which Matt Cutts (the Google Mouth) has reminded us all will be devalued. There are a couple easy ways:
- Links from websites like Bid Directories where it's obvious that each link is bought and paid for
- Links without any real content surrounding it (although this one will be trickier to filter since lots of websites have "quicklink" areas in the sidebars/footers that are navigation guides)
- Links in close proximity to words like "sponsored links", "advertisers", etc.
- Links that show up in high numbers on sites with little relevancy. This one is easy for Google to devalue since they want highly relevant links anyway
Just something I was thinking about...

2comments:
Well, I would bet that site wide links will be hit. They are almost always paid links, and they are so easy to filter. Personally, I have been avoiding them for this reason.
I am seeing thit Google is looking at this with a close eye.