In January, Google began to send out webmaster tools notifications for selling links. Now it appears that Google is sending out notifications for buying links.

There are threads at WebmasterWorld and two at Google Webmaster Help where site owners have received notifications that made the distinction between buying and selling links.

The email notification reads:

As you can see, the specific line “unnatural links pointing to your site” versus the old notification that read, “unnatural links on your site pointing to other sites.”

Google often said competitors can’t hurt your rankings, they said it time after time but SEO don’t believe it. However, Google once admitted that anything is possible.

That being said, with these new notifications, Webmasters can clearly know if they have links pointing to them that has a direct impact on their rankings.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.