Paid Links Are Detectable True/False?

Spotted an interesting debate on the topic of whether paid for links could be made undetectable. Matt Cutts posted his own view on this matter by suggesting that it is possible for spam detectors such as himself to identify paid-for links. To counter this, Rand Fishkin disagrees that all paid links are in fact detectable. I won’t repeat the arguements for and against – just read the posts and see what you think.

I’m siding with Rand rather than Matt on this one. How can google and the others tell when a site owner has accepted a payment on the quiet (as in, doesn’t promote the opportunity for paid-for links on the site) for a link to someones site? Off topic links might raise an eyebrow perhaps. A change in url destination (from Mr A’s site to Mrs B’s site) could be detected I guess – but there’d have to be suspicions in the first instance wouldn’t there?

I’ve never even considered paying for a one way link by the way.

Search Marketing seomoz Matt Cutts