Matt Cutts Talks About Paid Links -- Again

Dec 31, 2007 - 7:23 am 11 by
Filed Under Misc Google

Michael Gray spotted an interesting quote from a recent interview with Matt Cutts and Ted Murphy of Izea (formerly PayPerPost).

I explained to Matt that in SocialSpark all links required by an advertiser would carry the no-follow tag. I thought this would be a great thing. Matt commended the decision, but then added ALL links inside of any sponsored post should carry the no-follow tag period, regardless of whether they are required, not required or even link to the advertiser paying for the post. That means if Nikon pays me to review a camera and I link off to a site about photography that link needs to be no-follow, along with the link to the blog of my buddy the photographer. His reasoning was that the sponsored post wouldn’t exist without the sponsor paying for it, therefore all the content is commercial and should be no-follow.

Naturally, there's a lot of shaky ground with this statement, because Michael believes that Google should start employing nofollow on all the links you see on Google pages -- such as press releases, partnerships, and the like.

Ted Murphy, by the way, clarifies his stance in the Izea community blog, and Matt responds:

"I support No-Follow for any links required by an advertiser, but why should a blogger be forced to no-follow any other link?"

A blogger isn't forced to do anything; they can do whatever they want on their site. I'm trying to communicate Google's views, so that if a blogger wants to do well in Google, they know our stance. I think all major search engines have taken similar positions on paid posts that pass PageRank as well. I think Google has been pretty clear about our opinion on paid posts that pass PageRank.

So in the end, if you want to do well on Google, you should probably use nofollow on all paid posts regardless of the sponsor from what we're all reading.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 10, 2025

Jul 10, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google June 2025 Core Update Leading To Some Partial HCU Recoveries

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Console Performance Report Average Position Bug?

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Search Ads People Also Consider Carousel Format

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Drops Utility Bill As Evidence For Appeal

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Mode Comes To Circle to Search and Lens

Jul 10, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Does Google Order Link Reports by Importance Factors?