A WebmasterWorld thread has some fears that I see are beginning to worry some publishers and webmasters - the fear of linking to external sources.
With Matt Cutts and the Google spam team pretty much saying you need to nofollow everything out there, well, with the exception of real editorial links (who is to decide what is editorial), webmasters are simply scared.
I see questions popping up left and right. Can I link to this site? If so, should I nofollow it anyway? Should I make sure to not use keyword rich anchor text when linking.
These are the type of questions coming up.
It is making natural linking unnatural because of the fear of linking is now killing natural links.
Publishers and webmasters are less likely to link out because of that fear.
Do you fear linking out? Are you more likely to nofollow links you would have not nofollowed a year or two ago? I know I am nofollowing links more often these days.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto for scared penguin
