Google is warning Webmasters about “artificial” and “unnatural” links. What this means is Google is cracking down on poor methods to develop back links to your website. Often times companies that promise to get you hundreds and thousands of backlinks, do this through inexpensive and often black hat companies.

Why is this an issue? If You have in the past used a less than reputable SEO company, they may have used this strategy on your behalf. If you have received this warning and even if you havnt, make sure you are not actively engaging in this kind of practice. You should be getting back links by providing good content and a resource to your clients and others on the internet. Its slow growing, but in the end, you will outperform your competition.

Copy of the warning google is sending out:

“Dear site owner or webmaster of ….

We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.

We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results.

If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.

If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.

Sincerely,

Google Search Quality Team”