Matt Cutts on Widget Links
Matt Cutts recently posted a new video about NO-Following Widget and Infographics links, this isn’t his first attempt to get the word out on this subject. This video about Google’s current thinking on getting links from article marketing and widgets was Published on 17 Oct 2012
Matt says in the 2012 video
Whenever you get a link from just a word press footer or just a random footer or, you know, when someone installs a widget or they install
some theme on their content management system, it’s often the case that they’re not editorially choosing to link with that anchor text.
and then roll forward to 12 Aug 2013 and Matt releases this video
again adding the “not editorially” added which is odd really because if I was adding a widget to my website isn’t that my choice and if I’m the editor then isn’t that my editorial choice? For example let’s say I was writing a blog post about Bronco, my adding the link is editorially my choice but what if I wanted to add a map to my post :
I’m pretty sure you will agree that the “View Larger Map” link is a clean link, and I know that Googlers will say “it’s not a commercial back link” {cough}, Google wants you to think the links like this search engine optimisation are what they class as commercial but they’re not. Google is built around authority links, the anchor text is just the cherry on the trifle in fact too many cherries and the trifle is ruined, no cherries, well that’s no trifle đ
but what if I wanted the latest Ripon weather, I should get the Met office widget .. right
This weather forecast is generated by the Met Office Weather Widget
sneaky 2 links, one anchor “weather forecast” would that be a commercial link in Googles eyes? If it is then why is the met office ranking number 2 for weather forecast?
Tripavisors widget was mentioned a few times to me when I was discussing the No Follow widget video on facebook and twitter so here is a screen shot from Tripadvisor’s widget creation page :

and the widget looks like :
But I did give away 5 clean Links like these :

(just view the source code or visit TripAdvisor widget page) personally I find those deep links ok, in exchange for that widget and editorially approve them.
Anyway I don’t think it’s the widgets that are the issue it’s those pesky image links just check out what Google Play does again these are followed links but I guess that’s ok?

I mean it’s not like those 90 million image links will help Google index the 7 million play store pages is it?
19 Comments
Hobo_Web - from twitter
RT @DaveNaylor: Matt Cutts on Widget Links http://t.co/WaIj0FXd6a with some cracking examples ;~)
fanta78 - from twitter
Matt Cutts on Widget Links http://t.co/QWXI4HwDCB #seo
Mike V
Do you think that this also extends to badge networks such as Urban Spoon’s?
David Naylor
Yes I think it does
David DuVal - http://www.phplinkdirectory.com
Totally retweeted and reposted a couple of (dofollow) links to this story. Widgets are popular because PEOPLE US THEM! Just like Google Maps is popular. Our app, phpLD, seems to have been semi penalized in the last year because Google is targeting apps that are not made by Google. Not cool.
Paul Bradish - http://www.epursuit.com
What are your thoughts on nofollowing trust seals like McAfee?
The link in their code is “non editorial” very similar to a widget or infographic copy/paste so I suppose we should nofollow those as well
Addam Hassan - http://www.freshhome.co.uk
It comes back down to vagueness again and this is where you David have provided some light and reasoning. I keep seeing articles about people being scared to link to perfectly valid resources with rich anchor text. Why are people scared? I think it’s because Google gets it wrong or projects the wrong view sometimes. Their frustration against SPAM is spilling over and providing a perception to webmasters of ‘link at your own risk’.
What I would like Google and indeed Matt Cutts to come back with is more clarity and I think your point about “if I was adding a widget to my website isn’t that my choice and if I’m the editor then isn’t that my editorial choice?” is spot on.Yes it is your choice and you do approve of this widget entirely therefore give you give it credit. Therefore we go back to the original argument and frustration, Google can’t determine if this was cultivated i.e. paid for placement or a genuine placement.
I don’t normally comment but when I see more and more articles about being scared to link when useful widgets such as the ones you have outlined or good badges are being seen as pure link schemes which in fact the editor / webmaster does want to participate in and support the site it is linking to are being criticised it unsettles me and others I would assume working in this industry.
Keep up the good work David. p.s. I seem to remember you buying or looking at a camper?
lyndoman - from twitter
@DaveNaylor It’s an interesting post and I can’t believe widget shenanigans still works.
Carl - http://www.carlhendy.com/
Panic over – I have given Moz the heads up – https://twitter.com/carlhendy/status/367692389978488832
jackadams_seo - from twitter
Just read a great post by @DaveNaylor with some cracking examples on Google’s link building hypocrisy http://t.co/1RoGLIqNQL #seo
David Naylor
@addam totally agree on clarity but they can’t it’s the grey area we live in ,,, campervans yes, I did blog about them here but after the blog was totally wiped out in panda I deleted everything đ any way I have 2 a 63 samba and a 67 camper đ
David Faltz
I could not agree more with your perspective. I have used the example many times that you are not putting a gun to webmasters head to post your widget, blog, or link. They have complete editorial control, and how does Google know what was really earned “naturally” anyway? They are creating panic to in the marketplace, so we over-police ourselves and do their work for them. If Google knows I have unnatural links, then why not just ignore them?
This is just getting ridiculous, especially for the SMB’s. Google needs to get over itself and realize that in an effort to makes things more natural, they are making them more unnatural by forcing us to nofollow pretty much every link everywhere. How is that natural?
I also still many sites all over the SERPs with suspect inks and out of whack anchors doing just fine. Some were not even there until recently. It is far from a perfect science.
robwatts - from twitter
I do wonder if in certain parts of Google this http://t.co/xZgw5YOaZN contributes to things like this http://t.co/6SxaXqR2RF
David Eaves - http://seoco.co.uk
What a load of crap, with infographics the links are not hidden, what kind of blogger doesn’t know what they are posting to their blog?
Sanjeev Sapkota - http://simplebyte.net
Links on the footer are not eidtorial? Then what happens to the web designers who want to be credited for their work. For Instance !?
David DuVal - http://www.phplinkdirectory.com
Yes, exactly. Links in the footer of Google widgets count. Everybody else not so much.
Roman Doroshenko - http://www.seoway.com.ua
Nice article. Stil thinking about links in my widget. I think Google just trying to fool everyone.
Eric Evans - http://www.tvdeals4u.com
David,
Thank you very much for sharing this post and you got nice videos here. I believe that widgets are really popular.
-Eric
T J
Halifax are a big abuser of using widgets as a way of advertising their specific landing pages. (Mortgages, Loans, Savings etc)
Take a look at this:
http://i.imgur.com/2Vgjxns.png
They rank third for “mortgage calculator”. Quite clearly Google has no way of detecting whether or not these bigger websites are using widgets to advance their keyword rankings.
Will it catch up on them though?