Also read: How to be found better in Bing: 3 tips
Advertorials and review articles that have been paid for – in whatever way – you must officially use a nofollow link. If Google does detect a paid follow link on your page, this can result in a penalty . The page will then drop in the Google index and you want to avoid that.
Backlinks without nofollow in advertorial
Advertorial of Anderzorg on NSMBL with backlinks. Nofollow was used.
How to add a nofollow link?
You can manually place a nofollow link in the HTML code. You look up the link and add the attribute rel=”nofollow” to it.
The <a> tag then looks like this:
Does it still make sense to provide content, for example as a guest blogger, or to collaborate with online influencers ?
In any case, check in advance whether a link is placed in your article and whether this is indeed a nofollow link or not. It is polite that the other party informs you of this, because qualitative backlinks are worth a lot. You can also check it yourself: hover your mouse over a link and click 'inspect' with your right mouse button. The coding will then appear at the bottom of your screen. Or install a nofollow spotter . This is a plugin that gives links a color if they contain a nofollow characteristic.
In my opinion, you don't have to immediately shoot down platforms that make extensive use of nofollow links. This depends on your content strategy and goals. It can indeed be interesting for your branding to collaborate with certain platforms and influencers. Although Google hardly assigns any value to the link and therefore has hotel email addresses almost no effect on your authority, such articles are simply read by your target group and will probably generate traffic and brand awareness.
Nofollow, when yes and when no?
Try to find a good balance between 'normal' links and nofollow links. If you enter into a long-term collaboration with a guest blogger, and it concerns non-commercial content, then you may link as a token of appreciation. With a nofollow link you avoid giving away a lot of value from your own page, but with a normal link you express your appreciation and 'vote' for the website you are linking to. See the link as a recommendation and use it as such. After all, you also want backlinks to your pages to be shared.
Make a distinction between 'own initiative' such as guest blogs or offered articles and paid content such as advertorials. With the latter you can get a penalty if you do not place a nofollow link, because these are purchased links.
With reviews, you can go two ways: are you writing the review out of personal interest and have you purchased the product yourself? Then, according to the guidelines, you can simply link. Did you receive a product in exchange for a review or are you receiving some other compensation for it? Then you must officially place a nofollow link.