Are all badge programmes penalised?

[DanielJR]

Hi there. I'm hoping someone may be able to help. We're launching a badge programme to acknowledge our most active members.  I know that google penalises badges and widgets but i was wondering if this is down to implementation i.e. we were intending to approach it much the same way as Houzz currently does here http://www.houzz.co.uk/buttonsAndBadges . I caveat this by saying I'm not technical but it looks like Houzz doesn't use REL=NoFollow.  How is this the case?

[OlegKorneitchouk]

The Houzz slideshow widget = iframe. Button = javascript. There is no <a>link back to houzz.com</a>

<a>If you nofollow your links from the widget, you won't be penalized and it still helps with brand exposure. You can ask those people who add your badge to their site to link back to you separately and in a more natural way.</a>

[DanielJR]

Thanks Oleg. The implementation we were looking at was similar to this:

table style="width: 54px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">