Review Me gets Noticed (by the engines)
According to SEOBuzzBox, Google engineer Matt Cutts noted as saying or implying:
Matt also quickly implies (listen closely) that the disclaimer that ReviewMe and others will use (designating a post as “paid”) might not be good enough.
I have posted before about ReviewMe. My personal thoughts are that it is a new form of endorsement. I think that any advertiser that is expecting a link out of a Review Me post should reconsider. If you think that buying links will get you what you want, then buy them.
Review Me should have no problem with putting a “no follow” tag.
True SEO starts with the user and ends there, any attempt to do something to artificially inflate organic ranking should be reconsidered. (my two cents)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is Google’s two cents as well. It’s important to follow the rules as much as possible. I’m just waiting for the day when Google develops a way to identify paid links, then starts penalizing sites who are involved in this practice…Lots of big sites will come crashing down!
I think Google has the ability to detect sponsored links, many go to clickbank or CJ, and to a php redirect to avoid link theft. If you’re putting in a php redirect it’s pretty easy to see it’s a paid link. Nobody will put in a link to theirdomain.com/blah.php if they weren’t cloaking an affiliate link.