Compare SEO AgenciesHow to judge an SEO proposalGet a free SEO audit

Links, content and SEO risk

Which link and content practices Google treats as spam or as unhelpful, and what to ask an SEO provider about each.

By Antoine Martin, Founder, Web Marketing International.
Published 4 November 2026. Last reviewed 4 November 2026.

Short answer

Google treats buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and it advises against content made primarily to gain rankings. Sites that break its policies may rank lower or disappear from results.

An SEO plan can be sound or risky without looking different on the page. The difference is in how links are obtained and how content is produced, so those are the two things to ask about.

Google lists buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. Paid links are acceptable where they are advertising or sponsorship and carry a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute[2]. A provider who offers a package of links for a fixed price should be able to say exactly how each one is placed and marked.

Content

Google says its ranking systems prioritise helpful, reliable information created to benefit people. It advises against content made primarily to gain search rankings, and it describes search-engine-first content as not aligned with what its systems reward[3]. A content plan should start from the questions your customers ask, not from a list of phrases.

What can happen

Google states that sites violating its spam policies may rank lower in results or not appear at all, and that violations can lead to a manual action[2]. The cost falls on your site, not on the provider, which is why the questions below are worth asking before the contract is signed.

What to ask

  • How will you earn links for my site, and can I see where each one comes from before it goes live?
  • Will any link be paid for, and if so how will it be marked?
  • Who writes the content, who checks it for accuracy, and how do you decide what to publish?
  • What do you do if a change does not help, or harms my results?

Google’s own advice on hiring an SEO also suggests asking whether the provider follows Google Search Essentials[1], which is a short question with a revealing answer.

Read on in what an SEO proposal should contain and in how to choose an SEO agency in Dubai. If you want to see how I answer these questions, ask me about the SEO work I do and treat my answers as you would anyone else’s.

Sources

  1. Google Search Central, Do You Need an SEO? Tips for Hiring an SEO. Accessed 4 November 2026.
  2. Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search. Accessed 4 November 2026.
  3. Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. Accessed 4 November 2026.