Dive Brief:
- One of the most basic sponsored content transactions is bloggers receiving free products in exchange for a review of that product. Google has released guidelines for bloggers who engage in that type of sponsored content.
- The guidelines call for bloggers to disclose the relationship and to use nofollow tags since links that pass PageRank in exchange for goods or services are against Google guidelines on link schemes.
- According to Google, it provided bloggers with the best practices to help ensure the content is useful to users as well as compliant with Google Webmaster Guidelines.
Dive Insight:
A Google blog post on the guidelines pointed out that companies providing free products for reviews often request that bloggers link back to: the company website, its social media accounts, an online merchant selling the product in question, a review service featuring reviews of the product, and/or the company’s mobile app on an app store. However, in its guidelines, Google suggests bloggers tag those links as nofollow because "these links didn’t come about organically (i.e., the links wouldn’t exist if the company hadn’t offered to provide a free good or service in exchange for a link)."
"Companies, or the marketing firms they’re working with, can do their part by reminding bloggers to use nofollow on these links," the Google blog post continued.
Overall the blogger guidelines from Google are based around more transparency with sponsored content -- something both bloggers and marketers should embrace to avoid seeming deceptive with a marketing relationship. Beyond using nofollow tags, the guidelines urge bloggers to disclose their relationship with companies and to create compelling content.
"The most successful blogs offer their visitors a compelling reason to come back," the blog post reads.