WordPress Plugin Backlink?

[JABacchetta]

When developing a WordPress plugin, is it OK to include a dofollow backlink with the name of the source site as the anchor text? Or would Google consider this spammy?

[Travis_Bailey]

That likely falls into the Link Scheme category. I wouldn't recommend it.

[ThompsonPaul]

Very. Bad. Idea. This  is exactly the kind of manipulative linking process that Google punishes with the Penguin part of their algorithm. At best, use a nofollowed link, but I'd be very reluctant to do this at all if these will be sitewide links and will be a really large proportion of your total backlink profile.

If you stop and think about this for a moment, you'll see why this is so risky. Certainly many who might use your plugin have quality sites. But many more of the sites that will be linking to you are likely to be questionable or downright spammy. Plus, almost none of them are likely to be related to what your site is about.

All these things combine to create the very definition of unnatural linking in Google's eyes.

Hope that helps?

Paul

[JABacchetta]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to get a bit more specific...

If you look at this page, in the top right sidebar, you'll find our WordPress widget in action. It shows a "Quote of the Day" with a quote from our website, and then it links to our site using our site's name as the anchor text. My thoughts on this are that we're providing value to other publishers, and they're feeding our content to their site (which qualifies as an endorsement of the content that we offer, which in turn validates a dofollow link). We're also using our site's name as the anchor text, rather than a keyword-stuffed link. This technique is clearly white-hat, in my opinion.

But, apparently Google did not like the idea. Since releasing the plugin 10 days ago, our rankings have dropped significantly across the board.

We're using 97thFloor as our SEO agency at the moment. Initially they said they thought the plugin might be a good idea, but they called me today to tell me to nofollow all the links, since our total backlinks had tripled in the last week, which they believe caused the rankings to drop.

We updated the plugin tonight to include nofollow on the backlink.

Interestingly, one of our competitors in the niche released a similar plugin, seen here. And their dofollow link is actually black-hat, with the anchor text being "more Quotes". They have not taken a hit at all. Is this because they've already got an established backlink profile?

And, now that we've nofollowed our plugin link, is it likely that our rankings will improve back to their original positions?

Appreciate any thoughts on this. Thanks!

[JABacchetta]

Travis, by the way, looked up your company in Grapevine, TX... looks like we live right down the street from each other. I'm in the Keller area.

Small world.

[lveembergen]

Hi JaBacchetta,

Matt Cutts is quite clear about follow and nofollow links in widgets - see attached YouTube movie. Why your competitor was able to do a similar kind of thing and didn't got penalised is always the question.Are you 100% sure he hasn't received a warning. Maybe your competitor states upfront very clear a link is included.

Also it is unknown when you receive a visit from a crawler. So could be your competitor was just visit before the plugin went live, and you were visit after it was just live. I would also advice to take out the follow link a use a nofollow version.

How you will recover is depending on to many factors as the algoritme changes every day / week. Good luck with it.

watch?v=PvR_8aGEc98

[Travis_Bailey]

That is funny how that worked out. I used to live in Far North Dallas when I worked with a previous agency. Feel free to drop a private message.

[Travis_Bailey]

Taking a hit for manipulative tactics is usually something of a percentage game, one you don't want to play. The competitor may have an older domain and a stronger backlink profile. Sooner or later, even the larger brands get hit.

It was was a few years ago, almost to the day, that JC Penney was outed by the New York Times. This prompted a manual action. Your competitor may well fall to the next Penguin filter.

I've seen manipulation in a number of industries, sometimes it just takes time. Other times it takes someone with a little more clout. Though we can likely count on Penguin becoming a part of the algorithm, and we will most likely see another Penguin filter.