Google Introduces 2 New Link Attributes – Does This Change The Link-building Game All Together?

If you have been following the recent developments in the field of SEO, you might be aware that Google has introduced new link attributes namely UGC which refers to User Generated Content & sponsored. What does this mean for SEO & are these tags going to change how we looked at Link Building? Well, I’ll try and answer these questions in this Blog Post.

Links have always been an integral part of how Google ranks websites and in establishing authority & trustworthiness of a website. But, links have also been pretty much of an head ache as well for Google. The algorithms are ever evolving & getting better at determining quality & authenticity of links. The problem is; Google’s algorithms are still just a bunch of programs & calculations which can be manipulated. There are some SEOs who are good at manipulating Algorithms to gain rankings.

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Google has been in war with these Link Builders for a long time now. It all started when Google changed the whole Link building game by introducing the nofollow attribute about 14 years ago. Till day, all the links were either dofollow or nofollow. Dofollow would help your rankings where as nofollow did not have anything to do with your rankings, Google would just discount those links(With some exceptions of course). Now, Google is doing something similar by introducing two more attributes called UGC & Sponsored.

Before I tell you what this means for SEO, let’s first try and understand what these Link attributes are and how they going to help Google’s Algorithms.

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Rel=NOFOLLOW:

Before 2005, SEO’s were leveraging variety of tactics and indulged themselves in link spams to gain better rankings. Some of these tactics were Social Bookmarking, Directory Submissions, Guest Posts, Buying Backlinks and the worst of it all, Blog Commenting aka Comment Spam.

To put a stop to these kind of link spamming & tactics, Google asked webmasters to start using Nofollow attribute in the links they were giving out. They had to apply nofollow to links that were user generated or if they were bought or if the webmaster did not want to pass any link juice to that particular website.

When bots crawl through a website and sees a Nofollow attribute, it would just ignore that link without passing any leverage to the website to which the link was given and would move on.

Rel=UGC

When the bot sees rel=”UGC” attribute in a link, that attribute will help Google know that the link is from User Generated Content and not given by webmaster herself.

If you are running forums or a website where you put out Guest Posts, you are supposed to use UGC attribute in your links.

To be frank, Google is smart enough to know these things even without having these attributes.

How it knows you ask?

There are loads of factors. Google can determine whether a post is published by the staff or a guest author through the way the article has been written, the style of article and also through verbiage such as “Guest Author”.

Sometimes it does not even matter if a link is dofollow or nofollow. If Google determines that it is bad link, it’ll ignore it no matter what the attribute is.

Rel=Sponsored

When you give a link to a website because the owner of that website has paid you money, you are supposed to use sponsored attribute in the link. This way Google will know that it’s a sponsored link.

It’s not mandatory for you to use UGC or Sponsored. You can still just use nofollow. But, it’s recommended by Google. Also, you can use more than one attribute in a link.

Eg : rel=”nofollow ugc” or rel=”ugc sponsored”

Why Add These Attrbutes It Now? What is The Purpose Behind It?

This is what Google has to say about it.

All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow — are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. We’ll use these hints — along with other signals — as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems.

As most people have come to think; Google is not just adding two new link attributes, but, it is also going to change how it treats links. Previously a link was either considered or just ignored based on whether it’s a dofollow or nofollow. But, now instead of that, Google will be taking links with all the attributes into consideration first; then decide whether to give it weight or not.

Now, Google will be moving towards a hint based algorithm, so that it can better understand the links and the kind of websites a particular website is linking to. Google now believes that every link has some value in it, may it be nofollow, dofollow, UGC or sponsored. Hence it wants to first figure out the value of a link before deciding whether to consider it or ignore it.

What Does This Mean For SEO:

Personally, I think this a great way to go about. Google has been studying links for a really long time now; adding new attributes will help Google understand it even better. You can start using UGC & Sponsored attributes right away and from March 2020, Google will start treating Nofollow as hint.

For us SEO’s its an opportunity since even Nofollow links will be considered and won’t just be ignored, It creates a whole new level for the Link Building strategies, only if you are thinking of gaining quality & relevant backlinks. Specially the UGC attribute would have some value to if not a lot. So, Build as many backlinks as possible and make sure that those are relevant & quality backlinks. Don’t start spamming all over forums & Guest Blogging sites.

So, What do you think of this New Development? Let Me Know.