Google's guidelines treat articles placed mainly to carry links, and paid links that pass ranking credit, as link schemes on both sides. Publish for readers, mark paid links nofollow, and earn links through real relationships instead.

The offer in the inbox

Anyone who runs a website with readers gets the email sooner or later: a ready-written article, sometimes with a fee attached, in exchange for publishing it with a link or two.

Businesses get the other half of the pitch: twenty articles on twenty websites, each with a link back, for a monthly price.

Both sides are being sold the same thing. The articles exist mainly so that Google will count the links in them.

Google has a name for that, and this spring it has made a point of reminding publishers that it applies to them too.

What Google's guidelines say

Google's webmaster guidelines describe link schemes, its term for links created to manipulate rankings. Large-scale article marketing and guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich links are listed among them.

So is buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, which covers paying for articles that contain links and giving products or services in exchange for them.

Writing for another site is not the problem. An article that informs another site's readers is ordinary publishing. The line is crossed when the link is the purpose.

This spring's reminders

In March, Google published advice for bloggers who receive free products from companies: mark links to the company nofollow, disclose the relationship, and write something genuinely useful.

In April it sent manual actions, penalties applied by its own staff, to sites it said had unnatural outbound links. Many of those sites had published reviews in exchange for free products.

The message for publishers was plain. A site that publishes a paid link is part of the scheme, not a bystander to it.

Signs an article was written for links

The last is the quickest test. If removing the link would make the article better for your readers, the link was the point of the article.

The publisher's side

For a local news site, a club or a popular blog, these offers can look like free content with a little money attached.

The cost is less visible. A site that sells links risks a manual action against itself, and Google may stop trusting any of the links it publishes.

Paid content is a legitimate source of income when it is treated as advertising: labelled so readers know, with its links marked nofollow.

A nofollow attribute is a short addition to a link that tells Google not to count it as an endorsement. Readers can still click it.

A worked example

A small radio station in an Interior town runs a website with local news, community events and a blog written by its morning hosts.

Over two years it had accepted a steady trickle of paid articles from link sellers: renovation tips, travel advice, car buying guides, each with keyword links to businesses in other provinces.

Nobody at the station read them closely. They paid a little, filled gaps between the hosts' posts and looked like content.

After hearing about the April penalties, the station manager went through the blog and found more than a dozen paid articles. None had been written for listeners.

The articles with nothing to do with the town came down. The few that were genuinely useful stayed, labelled as sponsored, with their links marked nofollow.

Contributed articles now have to be local and written for listeners by someone the station knows. Paid placements are sold as advertising, and priced like it.

The business's side

A business buying a package of guest articles is paying for exactly the pattern the guidelines describe: many articles, on sites unrelated to its trade, with keyword-rich links home.

Google has acted against guest posting networks before. Even when nobody is penalised, links that exist only because they were bought can simply be discounted.

If you already bought such a package, ask the supplier for a list of every article and link. Ask the sites to remove the links or mark them nofollow, and watch Search Console for messages.

What a link is supposed to mean

Google counts a link from one site to another as a kind of recommendation, and a recommendation is valuable because it is hard to fake.

A link in an article the publishing site did not choose, written by someone who does not know the subject, recommends nothing. Google puts real effort into recognising links like that.

Paying for them means paying for something designed to be ignored.

Earning links instead

The links worth having come from real relationships: a supplier listing you as an installer, a trade association's member directory, a local paper covering something you actually did.

Useful pages on your own site attract links as well. A clear guide to a question your customers ask is something other sites link to without being asked.

And an occasional article for a publication your customers read is fine when it informs them. One good article in the right place is the opposite of a campaign.

The counter-case

Not every contributed article is suspect. A column in a trade magazine, a recipe on a supplier's blog or a piece in a community newsletter is ordinary publishing, link or no link.

Nor does a publisher have to refuse sponsorship. Paid content is a fair source of income when it is labelled and its links are marked nofollow.

The line is purpose and scale: write and publish articles for readers, and treat any link that was paid for, in money or in products, as advertising.

What to do this week

  1. List every contributed article on your site.
  2. Note which were paid for, in money or products.
  3. Remove articles your readers would never miss.
  4. Label paid articles as sponsored.
  5. Mark paid links nofollow.
  6. Ask any link supplier for a full list of links.
  7. Check Search Console for manual action messages.

Step six is the one businesses tend to skip. Links built in your name are your responsibility whoever placed them, and knowing where they are is a reasonable thing to ask for.

Deciding what to publish on someone else's platform is covered in instant articles open to every publisher.

Frequently asked questions

Are guest articles against Google's guidelines?

Not in themselves. An article that informs another site's readers is ordinary publishing. The guidelines object to large-scale guest article campaigns built around keyword-rich links back to the author.

Can publishing paid articles hurt my site?

It can. In April Google sent manual actions for unnatural outbound links to sites publishing links given in exchange for products. Label paid content and mark its links nofollow.

What does nofollow do?

It tells Google not to count a link as an endorsement, while readers can still click it. Google expects it on links paid for in money, products or favours.

How can I tell an article was written for links?

Keyword-rich links back to the author, the same article offered to many sites, a writer who does not know the subject, payment for publishing, and a link the article does not need.

What if I already bought a guest post package?

Ask the supplier for a list of every article and link, ask the sites to remove the links or mark them nofollow, and watch Search Console for messages.

How should a business earn links instead?

Through real relationships and useful pages: suppliers and associations listing you, local coverage of something you did, and guides that answer questions your customers actually ask.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Bought a package of guest articles?

Send us the supplier's list of links. We will tell you which ones to worry about and what to do next.

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