June 3, 2013: This past week Google’s anti-spam chief Matt Cutts laid down tht law on paid media, advertorials, and native advertising. Because Cutts’ words have been a reliable predictor for Google’s content policing policies, anyone with a commercial website should listen carefully to what Matt says.
The reaction on Youtube was predictable. Many voiced howls of outage, along with the usual complaints about Google’s content policies generally. Lost in all the shouting was the fact that Cutts wasn’t criticizing sponsored content; only paid media masquerading as earned media.
Google has always treated content that is paid for as advertising, and any attempts to conceal this fact as deceptive. “If money changes hands, then links should not pass PageRank” said Matt. His position is that if paid media is used, the fact that it is paid for or sponsored must be disclosed. Can anyone argue with that? From an SEO point of view, taking a hard line against undisclosed “sponsored content” may represent a range of new problems for some webmasters for whom full disclosure hasn’t been a front-burner issue. It certainly means that many webmasters are now obligated to check that links and content must be appropriately identified to the public. Content marketing strategies may have to be reexamined. And the question must now be asked: if popular content on your site must be disclosed as “sponsored,” how does will this disclosure impact the brand? Will there be a drop in organic performance? Will brands look “smaller” when it’s clear that they’re there because of money, not necessarily merit?
What’s clear is that honesty with the audience and ethical SEO is the best way to build an online brand. Paid content can be great content, and brands should be proud of creating and curating great sponsored content. If discussion is created by sponsored content on social media channels, this will give an SEO lift, especially if the paid contributor already has his/her own strong social presence.What’s also happening is that Google is pruning organic results containing reviews that purport to be from users but actually constitute “black hat content” created by automation and less than honest SEO firms. This is good for everyone – such firms that freely and proudly display sponsored content will get the natural SEO lift that comes through the social networks, generating the SEO value that a piece of earned media normally would. Indirect means of analytics may now be needed to show ROI, but this can be measured by such simple things as direct conversions and landing page traffic. Sponsored links and content will generate brand equity if brands are honest, play fair and show customers respect.
Love Matt or hate him, in the long term, Google’s efforts to disclose advertorial and paid content will be good for everyone, and wise marketers should take his advice very seriously.
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