Bloggers "no_follow"

[LushDuck]

Hi Guy's,

We have been sending bloggers products to review and in return we ask for a link back to our website to the relevant product. As I now understand it, Google is no longer giving this any weight & bloggers are being advised to use the "no follow" tag.

So have I understood the new rules correctly? If so is it worth us continuing to send bloggers products to review?

Thanks

Daniel

[irvingw]

if you are doing

a) one offs and engaging bloggers who have only one blog and not a network

b)  aren't getting posts on pay per post blog sites

c) the blog is on topic and not reviews of general (all different not your niche) or pharma, casino or adult sites

d) is one incontent link and not sitewide like in a blogroll

e) dofollow link

f) not linking to your homepage

then i think it's one good form of link building and google will give you credit for it. it's the splogs they flag and penalize avoid all spammy blogs

[Copstead]

I'm not sure that is the rule.  I would continue with the product reviews, just make sure that the people who are doing the reviews, that their sites are relevant.

[Jinx14678]

It is, if you paid for it -

Even Google Penalized themselves for it http://www.seroundtable.com/google-chrome-penalty-14543.html

• Technically if you are soliciting a review AND a link and Paying for it ---- by definition this is a paid link and should be No-Followed (not saying you will get caught, but as the rules state, i believe this would be considered a paid or solicited link)

[LushDuck]

ok so let me get this right!

1. Stay with-in my niche (which we do)

2. Not getting reviews that are on a blog network

3. Making sure the link remains in the post and not all over the blog.

4. Do use dofollow link  <---- this is still ok?

5. Link to the product that is being reviewed and not the site homepage.

As long as I follow these rules I Should be ok?

Also is it ok to use the same blog for a different product review?

Thanks

Daniel

[LushDuck]

We only send products for reviews to bloggers that are relevant

[LushDuck]

This is where I get a little confused!  If we ask a blogger "hey would you like to review product X" and they reply with a yes, this is classed as soliciting?

How else do you go about getting the review, or more importantly the link!  whilst we are happy to follow the rules, sometimes this is not always easy as we also need to build some inbound links, product reviews are a good way of doing this.

[Copstead]

I believe you are probably doing this alright.  Just as long as you aren't out soliciting 100's of blogs asking for a link and a review.

[LushDuck]

Thanks Brent, we are not asking 100's of bloggers no, we select a handful that we feel would have the most value, then send them emails asking if they would like to review product "x"

We are just about to promote a product and currently have 16 of them to offer out for product reviews, however I didn't want to do that if I was going to be punished by the hand of Google!