Google has leveled manual penalties against some bloggers for outbound links in blogs given in return for paid reviews, ending speculation of how the search engine could enforce its new policy.
John Mueller, webmaster trends analyst at Google, confirmed that the search engine reprimanded a blog because of links to products reviewed. Google said it had detected “a pattern of links” from the blog to other sites that were either unnatural or irrelevant, attempting to artificially boost other sites’ search rankings.
In response to the perplexed blogger’s question on Google’s webmaster help forum, Mueller stated: “There’s absolutely no need to nofollow every link on your site! However, those that are there because of an exchange (such as a product or service for a review) should have a rel=nofollow on links to the product, to their sales pages, and to any social media profiles that are linked because of the review.”
Mueller also recommended clearly labeling those kinds of posts for readers’ benefit.
Muller’s statement is the clearest guideline to date on Google’s policy concerning including links in blogs for payment or barter. Google seems to view the practice as deceiving both the public and search engines – today’s digital version of radio’s pay for play payola scandal in the 50s.
Google’s new guidelines urge bloggers who receive payment, free products or services in return for mentioning or reviewing a product to use the nofollow tag. Any links to the company’s website, social media accounts, online merchant’s page that sells the product, review services pages with review of the product, or the company’s mobile app in an app store should be nofollow.
Many Bloggers Cited
The blog was just one of many recently hit with such “unnatural outbound links” manual actions. Most were named for linking to websites in exchange for reviews, and most seemed unaware of Google’s new policy. Because many bloggers may not be aware of Google’s standards, it’s incumbent on PR and marketing to remind bloggers to use nofollow links when appropriate – and to identify properly any reviews or posts that involve promotional considerations.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has implemented its own crackdown on payments to influencers and native advertising.
So far at least, Google has not removed blogs from search results, but that severe action is likely forthcoming.
How Much Does Google Know?
SEO experts, bloggers and brand marketers are wondering how much Google knows about relationships between bloggers and the brands they mention. Did a blogger receive payment or a free product in return for a positive media mention? Many SEO experts believe the search engine cannot police the entire blogosphere and cannot always determine when links were purchased. Instead, it is hoping to create fear in an attempt to prompt the web to police itself.
“Maybe Google knows something here, and hopes the resultant panic will be enough to deal with the issue,” speculates Graham Charlton at Search Engine Watch. “However, for hobby sites who are reviewing products for fun and adding links because that seems to be the natural thing to do for readers, it seems they’ll have to tread carefully.”
Some SEO experts say Google’s actions cause more confusion. Some bloggers will begin tagging every link as nofollow to avoid a possible penalty, and marketers may be uncertain of Google’s actions.
“Google is now clearly redrawing the lines of how a company’s promotional efforts are allowed to influence the link graph,” Barry Adams, founder of SEO consultancy Polemic Digital, told Search Engine Watch. “It seems Google interprets any promotional activity that results in links as an attempt to manipulate its search results, which begs the question what a company is actually allowed to do in Google’s eyes to boost its online profile.”
Bottom Line: Recent Google actions against bloggers put PR and marketing professionals on alert. Although penalties will likely become more severe, many bloggers remain unware of Google’s new requirements. That places an extra burden on PR and marketing to instruct bloggers they work with to disclose any financial relationships with the brands and tag links as nofollow.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
