So I don’t usually post blogger business on this page because most of my readers are not bloggers, they are regular readers who I love. But having been a contributor on Latina Bloggers Connect where I did post Blogger Tech and Tips, I feel when an article that is just so ridiculously wrong is posted and seen as an “expert” view, there just has to be someone to shut them up. That someone is me.
I hate sending clicks to this thing but hey, maybe businesses will realize she needs to change her practices too, so here we go.
According to MommyPerks, products and small businesses and brands should get dofollow links from bloggers who they send product to or pay. THIS IS WRONG. There is not even a grey area about it. If you are paid in any way, even in product, the link MUST get a nofollow tag. Google is so serious about this, they gave themselves the ol’ Google Slap for doing that exact practice. Still don’t believe me? Just ask J.C. Penney.
While Google understands that the internet is a business, it frowns upon buying links in exchange of rank and SEO juice. If a company is seeking some SEO links, there is a proper way to do it. They can create their own blog or tumblr (which is still a dofollow site) and build their links by guest posting or even better, working on their own SEO from the inside. When you ask (or are pitched) about a review product or pay for a sponsored post, the purpose should be to get exposure to your product and get honest and genuine experiences from bloggers with a loyal following. NOT to violate Google’s ToS.
Rank is a way for brands to know you are reputable and consistent. Google has a formula that we may never crack (but here are some helpful tips and some explanation), and yes, it is ever changing, but as blogger we need to be aware of the rules and follow them to the best of our abilities. Not just for our own sites, but for those we work with.
(PS- I will be speaking on Page Rank and NoFollow and DoFollow at The Niche Mommy Conference…hope to see you there!)
I totally agree with you. Companies who send their product out to bloggers for review should be wanting an honest review about their product and with this they can hope for more customers. If they wanted to improve their SEO or page rank then why would they even bother sending out a free product? They could just ask for a post about their company or product. The way I see it, is the company sends out a free product in hopes of gaining more customers and making more money. If they sold a great amount of products because of bloggers, why would they even care what their page rank is? A companies page rank could be 10 and they could be selling 1 product a week. What good is that?
It’s all about getting a good, honest review and hopes of gaining customers. Not dofollow links to gain SEO or page rank. I agree with you 100%.
Have a good day!
Do companies not realize that readers can see through the dofollow links and prefer reading honest reviews instead?
I’ve been no-follow for about a year now. I think the trick is knowing when to use a DO-Follow tag! Wish there was a plugin that made all links no follow unless you specified…
Cindy, you can use a plugin like Nofollowr to help with it. It lets you click a box next to each link in your page to toggle whether they are do-follow or no-follow.
Companies need to realize that us bloggers are vehemently protective of the hours of work we put in weekly and unwilling to compromise for even $100. I’ve busted my butt creating my blogs and will not put myself at jeopardy. If it’s such a great thing, let the company do it themselves and get themselves in trouble. Not I.
Wow, “Do Follow” isn’t even a legal option in this case – how are there people that still don’t understand that?
You’re 100% correct and MommyPerks.com needs to do their research. It isn’t the bloggers’ responsibility to educate them. “No Follow” is the standard, common knowledge to most people who blog or who use bloggers for sponsored posts, etc. – they should know better and not act like bloggers were hiding this from them. That’s rather ridiculous.
I am a client and friend of MOMMYPERKS and I would have real respect for you if you allow my comment to go live on your blog. I have been in business for almost 2 years and like everyone around me went the way of blog reviews and giveaways to create buzz and bring sales my way. Like everyone else I have talked to it was a wasted effort in time and money. The review/giveaway blog community is flooded and are of minimal value to small businesses or the consumer. Most of their readers are freebie seekers or fellow bloggers looking for their next pitch. I have never purchased anything based on a review put up by a review/giveaway blog and I don’t know anyone in my circle who has.
As more small business owners become aware of the futility of Review/giveaways, I suspect that they will no longer do so. You folks claim influence and authority but when the rubber meets the road it does not pan out that way because of the nature of your readership as I mentioned earlier. We all know the tricks you employ to bulk up your metrics.
Any blogger that is focused on reviews/giveaways should rethink their business model as I predict the demise of that business model.
I have to disagree, I ran a small craft boutique, and I had a larger blog host a review/giveaway for me. Wow, talk about a Major increase in traffic. No not all of that traffic turned into sales for me, but the traffic helped my exposure, and I did gain future customers from it later down the road, so in a way it did increase my sales, it just took time. It isn’t always just about an SEO link, that’s not the sole purpose of a review/giveaway. It’s to get your name out to the masses, to the people and let potential customers know that you exist. Plus, that article is now a permanent article and shows up in Google’s search pages when people ask for certain keywords weather they are Linked with a dofollow or not. And when they see that review, they will see MY products and MY business name.
it got me thinking more about blog reviews, and I found that when I really wanted to know about a product, the reviews I found that gave the most information were the blog reviews. I’m picky and I want to know DETAILS before I spend my hard earned money on a product or service. I want to know how well the product was made, I want to see additional photos of the product in a REAL person’s hands, not a Photoshop image. I want to know how long I can expect it to last.
Of all the reviews I found it was the BLOG REVIEWS that gave me the most information about a product, provided me with these photos, and gave a more detailed review. You are merely probably just working with the wrong bloggers. Don’t lump them all into one big barrel and call them all bad. I now NEVER buy a product unless I can find a Good quality BLOG review about it. And may of my circle of friends/family do the same.
Do you ever Research the blog before you say Yes to them? do you visit their site and look at their writing skill? Do you look at more than one article? Do you visit their pages and see how engaged their readers are?
Thank you Amber for making a very valid point. Always research three blog, read their reviews and their policies. Bloggers should also research the businesses that contact them…it makes all the difference
See now I know you are very misinformed and have probably either with new or low end bloggers. Blog reviews are actually the number one way people decide on a purchase. The problem is small businesses see it as a sales tool rather than just making people aware of your product or brand. They aren’t meant to drive instant sales but rather have a place to come and see a real experience. That part is what most small businesses don’t understand. So sorry you have been misled.
Oh and I have statistical proof on the review and blogger influence…but I’m on the road at a media event. Will reply with it later.
Thank you for this post, I still find this whole thing rather confusing…I read one thing somewhere and something else somewhere else, plus ever-changing rules & just plain disinformation. I will have to look into all this and make sure I’m not in violation myself…thank you for explaining this in a clear way so that I actually kinda know what I need to do to look into it all on my own blog…probably have a lot of work ahead of me, but the good news is that I haven’t officially launched my new blog yet, so hopefully I can get that right from the get-go so I won’t have to do all the back-tracking I’m sure I’ll have to do with my main blog that’s been up for years.
I hope Small Businesses and larger companies begin to recognize that bloggers are also small business. With our integrity, and our passion for what we do we will follow the proper guidelines to protect ourselves, the information we share with our readers, and the companies we work for.
i read the thread, and I’m in disbelief about the conversation over there. I really thought the whole point of reviews was bringing awareness to the product, to the company, and to what they provide, and not just about also upping their SEO. :/ A no-follow link will still get the readers to their site if they genuinely want to know more about the product. Heck, I’ve learned about a ton of new products that I now love because of bloggers, and now I want to be one to share these awesome new products with others.
Thank you for this Yolanda. I have to say I disagree with ‘Bola’. I had never heard of a number of companies until seeing them on fellow bloggers. For example, after reading about Lolita Designs on LeslieLovesVeggies.com I have become a customer of theirs. Any attention is good attention. If 1 person sees the post & buys, it was very well worth the free product sent to the blogger & it just paid for itself. Also, in regards to the ‘Google Issue’, misinformation is dangerous. If it weren’t for blogger such as yourself correcting bad info, we’d have alot of confused companies & people in general. Thank you for the clarification.
You’re not allowed to get paid for links, and leaving a review link do-follow is not accepting payment for links. I include do-follow links in my reviews as a thank you to companies that I truly enjoy working with. It sounds like some of you are terribly confused on this issue (author included) and to speak with authority on an issue when you’re not sure is a mistake.
I am actually a speaker about this so I can speak with authority. Also, a item you receive for a review IS your payment. It’s called a barter for service. I suggest you talk to your accountant about that. So you are supposed to nofollow. No question or even a grey area.
I agree with Yolanda (SassyMama)! I have to pay TAXES on any product I receive for review, it is considered PAYMENT, it may not be cash, but it is an income. Therefore, it’s compensation, therefore yes, a No follow link is required by Google. You can view their talk forum, where this question was asked and GOOGLE itself said YES, a review product is “paid” and is unnatural link https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/webmasters/nofollow/webmasters/BNs_AOVr3M0/cqOB7u1KH6YJ
if it is just not legal to do a dofollow for pay.. then why would bloggers need to re-think anything? maybe businesses need to re-think how they are making, marketing etc for their brand. you can’t expect the blogger to do all the work. it is just a part of the bigger picture BOLA. You can’t ask a blogger or any press to do anything illegal that is plain and simple.
It’s not a matter of legality. It’s a Google Term of Service. If you don’t follow, you can’t be sued in court (an area in which I worked in for 12 yrs also), but google can take away your organic search AND strip you of your rank.
Yolanda, thank you for this particular comment. I hear so many people talk about how it is “illegal” and that is simply not true. Everything else is true that you say and I know that you have done your research on it all. The one thing that I rarely see in a post about nofollow vs. dofollow is the CLARITY over legality. So, thank you, again.
I just wanted to leave a brief message regarding Mommy Perks & Bola. I have known them both for years. They are outstanding women who take their businesses seriously. They are respectful, honorable and continue to grow their businesses through strong relationships. One of the best parts about the Mommy Perks community is that we help each other, promote each other and genuinely care about each other. We share information to help build each others businesses.
This is not a war between bloggers and small businesses, but what could have been a positive learning experience for both sides, in my opinion has turned negative. I am asking for you to be respectful in your comments and the small businesses will do the same.
Thank you.
I don’t work with small businesses since I see that they are the ones that want bloggers to violate all sorts of policies for them. I don’t see anyone disrespecting anybody.
Thanks Leah for your kind words and I am sure Mommy Perks appreciates them too. This will be my last post here but with Yolanda’s nastiness and know-it-all atitude on MommyPerks, I am sure the big swag she craves will not come as often as big brands would not want to take a gamble hiring a loose canon.
Yup, that must be why I was named #5 Top Product Review Blog in the US. Cause I want “swag”. Any brand I work with will tell you, I don’t work for product and I not only give results, but I am great at what I do and I do it with style.
Nasty, Me? Nope. Factual and unapologetic- yes. Why else would I be called “Sassy Mama”?
Yolanda you are obviously adamant that NoFollow is the way to go for all review links. And of course you are correct that is the proper treatment of them according to Google. May I ask why this information is not on your Review policies page? I challenge you to put it there. That way you are weeding out the businesses who just want links to boost their SEO anyway, right?
Why should it be there? A quality business would not ask me to do a dofollow when they know it’s wrong. It’s not my job to teach a business about policy. It’s their job to know what is acceptable procedure before pitching anyone. If a pitch comes to me and says dofollow directly, I turn them down immediately. No one should have to state it since it’s in Google’s terms.
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Thank you for breaking it down and making it simple to understand the rules. I wasn’t aware that it was official. I’m starting to make the change on my blog (http://www.dontmesswithmama.com) right now to add no-follows to my old giveaways.
If anyone uses Rafflecopter for giveaways, they’ve just added no-follows to links in their widget too: http://blog.rafflecopter.com/2012/07/giveaway-widget-entry-options/.
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