Google wants you to post reviews ethically
It has been many years that bloggers and publishers post reviews regarding products and services which they may have received from various companies. Google is certainly no stranger to this happening and there has been no disapproval of the practice either. Indeed, Google has taken a step towards improving these kinds of reviews and introduce more moral practices by issuing a set of best practices for the same. Google’s Best Practices Series provides strategic advice on core search engine marketing tactics. It’s intended to help you get the most out of AdWords. Based on Google’s internal data and examined by the people that built AdWords, this series helps form the foundation of your paid search strategies.
Publishers and bloggers often write or publish reviews for products which they receive from companies or agencies for free. This isn’t a wrong practice, whereas google just wants the bloggers to follow some specific processes whenever they post such reviews for the benefit of the readers or the audience. SEO professionals, publishers, bloggers and companies should follow or practice these points.
No-follow links- Instead of linking the product review back to the company’s website, Google wants bloggers to use the no-follow tag and have also asked companies to remind publishers as well.
Disclosure- Google wants these reviews to be specified as paid reviews or sponsored content so that the readers should be aware of it.
Content should be purposeful- The best practice to remember is that the content should not be only for the purpose of promotion but should be unique and have something to say.
Content marketing should also be done with a purpose. Content marketing should also be unique and should say something.
So, bloggers and companies should think twice before posting something online.