via Link schemes - Webmaster Tools Help. The following are examples of link schemes which can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results: Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link Excessive link exchanges ('Link to me and I'll link to you') or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links Using automated programs