So, time for nofollow links in reviews?

Nov 2, 2012

—

In yet another discussion on twitter earlier about paid for links, disclosure and nofollow, Google’s page for webmasters on link schemes was shared. I’ve read it before.

I’m fairly sure this bit (my emphasis) is new.

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

So, that’s the end of reviews then? Because I’m reasonably sure most companies are hoping for follow links when review products are sent out, and I’m sure guidance from places like tots has previously said that they thought this to be OK. (Check the comment thread here.) But if bloggers decide they are going to follow google guidelines, then that means nofollow for reviews too, and I suspect the source of goodies is likely to dry up rapidly.

It’s all going a bit pear shaped. I can’t help feeling that actually this is google being greedy. They don’t want companies paying bloggers. They want companies paying google. And it’s rarely the company that is penalised in these cases – far more likely to be the blogger that loses pagerank. If your traffic comes mainly from google, this will be a problem for you.

Of course, if your traffic comes mainly from social media, not such a huge issue. Ooh, wonder if that is why google is getting into social networks too…

*Terminology. a nofollow link is one which is marked rel=nofollow and tells Google that it shouldn’t pass pagerank or authority to the linked page.

It’s where it is

Home Ed Inspiration, Ideas, and Activities

Click the links below and scroll through my collection of ideas, workshops, excursions, and more to discover practical everyday activities you can do together in and around your home classroom.

Home Education Inspiration

Home Ed: Ideas and Activities

Home Ed: Topics and Discussion

Exploring Neurodivergence in Children

Comments

19 responses to “So, time for nofollow links in reviews?”

Another Goldfish
2 November 2012
I don’t know. I still think it’s more about Google not wanting people deliberately manipulating their search rankings. The more people that scam the search engine, the less relevant the results … and the less people that will use Google to search for things.
Yes some types of reviews will dry up, because they were never about the review in the first place – but I think there will still be value in word of mouth advertising too.
Reply
1. Jax
  2 November 2012
  I’m not as sure that that is what governs google any more. Or like I say, I think they’d go after the brands first. If they can determine when a campaign is running, and that must be what they are doing to penalise bloggers, then they should be able to penalise the brand at the same time.
  Reply
2. Claire (www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk)
  9 November 2012
  I don’t think reviews of products that link to a website ‘scam’ the search engine, or manipulate the rankings. Especially if the review is a positive one as surely by reviewing a product in a positive way, you are giving your approval to the company/website?!
  And also, as a blogger (both for my own site, and also The Huffington Post), I tend to put in either merchant/shopping links into my post wherever I find the product either cheapest/with free postage or with the best customer service that I know of etc, not necessarily the manufacturers website.
  I’d be happy to add a no follow link within sponsored posts though.
  Also, I’ve never, ever been asked to link to product within a review and at times I haven’t linked at all. I’ve never had any issue with this from brand or PR contacts!
  I do agree about the value of word of mouth advertising though. A recommendation trumps any link within a post/article.
  Reply
Alex
2 November 2012
The point of giving stuff to bloggers to review to surely to have it percolate in their social networks, so general traffic from search engines isn’t as important?
I know several large (multi-national) campaigns that have pretty much relied on social media for spreading the message, and one even won a Sabre award, so I wouldn’t assume that Google is the be all and end all of everything.
Reply
1. Jax
  2 November 2012
  From the brands point of view I agree with you, and I think it’s a much more interesting way of doing things. But smaller companies probably aren’t going to see it that way at a guess.
  Reply
geekmummy
2 November 2012
I see a difference here. If a company sends me a product, or I buy it myself and review, it is entirely natural and organic for me to include a link to the manufacturers home page, or a link to somewhere to buy that product.
If a company sends me a product for review and then specify that they want a specific link to a specific page with specific keywords that is *not* organic, and is the kind of link that Google would not like.
Given that Google are not yet very good at detecting follow links that have been paid for, I would imagine they’ll face quite a minefield trying to work out which links in reviews are organic and which should be nofollow.
However, I would always say that if you’re in any doubt at all, make the link nofollow.
Reply
1. Jax
  2 November 2012
  Interestingly, I’ve just been sent a product today, and the email that has come out has the link and anchor text specified in it. I’ll be following up – as that wasn’t stated at the point I took up the opportunity to review the product.
  Reply
Susan Mann
2 November 2012
I tend to make my links in most of my reviews nofollow anyway. But I think most companies as for reviews as people looking to buy look up reviews on the internet rather than it being for ranking purposes, but I could be wrong. x
Reply
1. Jax
  2 November 2012
  I’m really not sure – I don’t think many of them understand what they are doing it for. Certainly when I made a link nofollow in a recent review the company asked about it, so they were hoping for SEO returns.
  Reply
Sally
2 November 2012
To be honest, I think most bloggers are savvy enough to know when someone is buying a link, and when someone is offering a product for you to review on your site.
An independent, editorial review will naturally link to a retail site or a manufacturer’s home page, and will be unlikely to be flagged as a paid link, I suspect – because it’s impossible for a third party to know what’s free, what’s not, what’s a sample that was returned, what’s based on a press release etc.
But many bloggers will know they’re offered products from time to time and the agency responsible will specify a link or anchor text or explicitly ask for a specific link – those are paid links by any other name, and if you want to adhere to Google T&Cs, yes, these should be no-follow (although it’s important to remember this isn’t a law, and bloggers are perfectly entitled to do things their own way if they so choose)
Having said all of that, 95% of our clients don’t specify links from campaigns and are perfectly happy for bloggers to use no-follow on links, if they feel it’s appropriate, so it’s unlikely to become a big issue for the kinds of campaigns we work on. *crosses fingers*
Reply
1. Jax
  2 November 2012
  The not a law bit is an important point.
  Certainly hope you can continue to get companies working with you, in ever more interesting ways.
  Reply
Lisa@FacelessFood
2 November 2012
I’ve been using no-follow links for my reviews for a while now when I am sent a product for review, but use follow links when I have purchased a product myself. A few companies/PRs haven’t replied to me after I’ve told them upfront that I use no-follow links, whereas others are fine with it.
Reply
1. Jax
  2 November 2012
  Having seen this today I’ll be asking up front what a company prefers – though I’ll still be applying judgement independently.
  Reply
mamacrow
2 November 2012
oh god I give up. I’ve been blogging for four years, and only just got a couple of things this last month – some maternity jeans and a subscription to a primary resources site – for free in return for review. One of them did specify that a link had to be part of the review, but I would have included one anyway, just makes sense to my tagging & siteing librarian mind. I thought I was being thrifty and informative.
I used to think google were great – love their google doodles, and they just seemed like a very cool, thinking out side the box kinda company. Now they just seem to be a big bad greedy corporate wolf of Nestle proportions.
Reply
scottish mum
2 November 2012
Yup, that bit is new – cheeky google.
Reply
MC
5 November 2012
Hey – I would just like to clear something up:
“And it’s rarely the company that is penalised in these cases” – Companies getting the links are being penalised too and have been for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if some companies started asking for links to be removed from historical posts in the near future so that they can try to recover.
Reply
1. Sarah, Maison Cupcake
  7 November 2012
  They already have – I know someone who was threatened by SEO company that if they didn’t delete the old sponsored links the SEO company would issue a DMCA take down notice for copyright infringement on the brand images… previously supplied by the brand as part of the sponsored post deal in the first place!
  Reply
Joanne Mallon
9 November 2012
I can’t see how this is enforcable at all. When I review, sometimes it’s stuff I’ve bought myself, sometimes it’s stuff that has to be returned, sometimes it’s consumable so it’s not practical to return (what am I going to do, spit it up?), and sometimes it’s stuff I get to keep. At no point do I consider that I’ve been ‘paid’ to place a link, unless it’s a previously arranged sponsored post. In fact I turn down reviews where the PR starts specifying what they want you to link to, and I don’t take part in very widespread campaigns where 20+ bloggers are reviewing the same thing because I think those are about the links (plus they’re usually v boring to read).
So I will continue to add ‘follow’ links in my reviews because it always feels natural to me to do so – it’s part of the grammar of online writing that if you’re referring to a product then as a courtesy to the reader you might link to where they can obtain it. I suppose I could add in no-follow tags but that in itself would feel artificial because I’ve never done so before. Plus I am that killer combination of busy and lazy and don’t want to add anything else to my to-do list.
I can see why Google is trying to stop companies buying a place in their search engines and I hope the result of this is to support original, well-written content. Maybe we will see more original, well-written reviews as a result?
Reply
Sian
11 April 2013
I’m a PR. I do not ask for follow links in review posts because reviews are for brand awareness – you are confusing specifically targeted, link farmed, sponsored posts with editorial reviews. The two things are not the same.
Reply