Interesting Google`s Clarification on Press Release Links Should be Nofollow
Edit: I tried to edit the video to start when the question about PR started but it ended up deleting the video completely. Here is the link:http://youtu.be/z6p7vO04Vsc?t=1m
On a resent Webmaster Central HOA the first topic that came up was Press Releases. They have been added to the link scheme guidelines https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en. Press Releases are done to promote a website, that`s obvious but what is different here is that Google not only looks at Press Releases as unnatural links but also recommends going through and removing those links or nofollow them. You should probably also add these links to a disavow file. If you have done PR in the past it could come back to hurt you. One could make the connection that any article that is written by you, or on your behalf, that is promoting your site with a link should be nofollow.
2 points that I get out of this
1- use the disavow tool and pay more attention to your backlinking profile. Don`t use a follow link if the only reason that link exists is because of your presence on the site or that you created the content that is on the other site, via a press release. Editorial review seems to not be a factor in these cases. Only use nofollow when you link to your site.
2- use Authorship instead of a follow link to your site.
In regards to my first point the new additions to the guidelines is a very good indication that you should include disavow in your SEO, even if you think you don`t need to, you should. Links can hurt you! Ask someone that got hit with a Penguin update and this becomes clear. The disavow tool is rapidly becoming a standard SEO practice. You can`t control who links to you or how. If a link can hurt you it would be better to be ahead of the game, just in case a manual reviewer form the Webspam team stumbles upon your site. At the very lease Google should be able to see that you have devoted time and effort into backlink management. When you set up Webmaster Tools you should include a disavow file, there are very few websites that don`t have at least a few questionable links and I have not heard that just having a disavow file will hurt you.
As to my second point, use Authorship instead of a follow link to your site. It`s pretty clear that when you contribute to another site you should use nofollow links back to your property but Authorship is encouraged. From my understanding about how Authorship works, you should connect the content you write to your profile using Authorship markup and adding it to the Contributor To section. Google wants to know about the content that`s why Authorship was created, however they don`t want you to connect it to your site directly using a follow link. This could cause your site to rank better in the SERP (not naturally but by your actions).
You have read between the lines, Google does not want you to do anything on another site that would create a follow link back to your site, but it`s encouraging people to use Authorship to link the content to you. This will make Google Plus more valuable and will result in more users, especially when it comes to ranking better in the SERP.
It`s hard to find a Googler that will recommend not using Authorship when you put out content on the web, and it`s hard to find a Googler that will recommend a follow link to your site when you put content on the web. Basically it`s OK to link to Google Plus but not OK to link to your own property. This of course is just my opinion but the logic is there.
So do you agree, it`s OK to link content to a Google property but not OK to use a follow link to your own website. In other words, punished if you link to something you own, rewarded if you link to something Google owns. I`m I missing something here?
#seo #linkbuilding
http://youtu.be/z6p7vO04Vsc?t=1m
