Yikes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s get started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- What is a nofollow link<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Summary of nofollow rules for food bloggers<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Affiliate disclosure guidelines<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Penalty for non-compliance with nofollow<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The three outbound link attributes<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What is a dofollow link<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How to tell if a link is nofollow<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How to add nofollow links in WordPress\u2019 classic editor<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How to add nofollow links in WordPress\u2019 block editor<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How to fix a backlog of posts with links that aren\u2019t nofollow compliant<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
What is a nofollow link<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Nofollow links are outbound links with a rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d attribute in the HTML tag. This nofollow attribute tells search engines, like Google and Bing, to ignore or not follow a link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Example](\"https:\/\/foodiedigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Foodie-Digital_nofollow-example-in-HTML-1024x213.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nofollow attribute was introduced by Google in 2004 to originally deal with comment spam, but it quickly became the recommended method for indicating advertising-related and sponsored links. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When nofollow was first introduced, Google didn\u2019t count links tagged with nofollow as a signal to use in its algorithm. But this changed in the fall of 2019. Nofollow link attributes are now treated as \u201chints\u201d for which links Google should consider or exclude in search rankings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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SEO tips for food bloggers prioritized<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this post we help you identify where you\u2019re at with SEO, and then outline the actions you need to take to accomplish your SEO goals<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Summary of nofollow rules for food bloggers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve been wondering if nofollow compliance is important for food blog SEO<\/a>, the answer is YES!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Google, if you create sponsored content for companies, use affiliate links (this includes Amazon affiliate links) and review free products, you need to “qualify your outbound links<\/a>“. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means you\u2019re required to apply a nofollow attribute to external links that link out to specific online locations, like a sponsor company\u2019s website, products and social media accounts, as well as affiliate links where you make a small amount of money from a visitor\u2019s purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you haven’t been tagging links nofollow for months (or maybe years?) don’t panic. Keep reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Affiliate disclosure guidelines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you earn affiliate commission from links you include in your nutrition-focused posts, recipe content it\u2019s important to be up-front with readers about the fact that you make money from their purchase. This includes affiliate links to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Ingredients<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Kitchen equipment<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cookbooks on Amazon (even your own cookbook!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Kitchen decor<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- rewardStyle links<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Beauty and other lifestyle products <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to disclosure, the more transparent you can be, the better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amazon, for instance, takes its disclosure guidelines seriously and states that publishers can be banned from Amazon for violating disclosure guidelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The closer your disclosure statement is to your affiliate link, the better. Putting disclosures in places that aren’t obvious isn\u2019t helpful for a reader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pinch of Yum<\/a>, for example, includes an affiliate notice directly after an affiliate link. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/foodiedigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Foodie-Digital_Example-of-affiliate-link-disclosure-from-Pinch-of-Yum-1024x592.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhile Gimme Some Oven<\/a> chooses to include a statement in each and every post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/foodiedigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Foodie-Digital_Example-of-disclosure-statement-from-Gimme-Some-Oven-1024x342.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Penalty for non-compliance with nofollow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The penalty for non-compliance with nofollow is a manual action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although it seems impossible that Google would notice or bother with an independent publisher\u2019s non-compliance with nofollow, trust us, it does. A manual action can completely remove you from search results, or result in your content being ranked much lower in the search results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your site is affected by a manual action, Google will notify you in the Manual Actions report in your Google Search Console<\/a> account. Recovering from a manual action is no small feat and can take months, which is why we advocate for nofollow link compliance every chance we get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/foodiedigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Foodie-Digital_Google-Search-Console-Manual-Action-report-1024x634.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three outbound link attributes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Because of the changing nature of the web, and the massive influx of advertorial and sponsored content in the last few years, Google recently updated its outbound link attributes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are now three attributes you can use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- rel=”nofollow”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- rel=\u201csponsored\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- rel=\u201cugc\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
rel=\u201cnofollow”<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Use this classic nofollow value when you want to link to an external page or post but you don\u2019t want to imply any type of endorsement or pass on any of your ‘link juice’ to that page or post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rel=\u201csponsored\u201d<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Use the sponsored value to identify links that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other paid agreements like earning affiliate income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
rel=\u201cugc”<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
UGC stands for user generated content. It’s recommended for links within user generated content, such as comments and forum posts. Thankfully, WordPress comments and reviews, a common source of user-generating content for a food blog, are automatically tagged nofollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is a dofollow link<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Link building is when you earn links from other sites to your own. It’s one of the biggest factors associated with higher rankings in Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be clear, we’re not talking about a social backlink, or a newsletter backlink. We’re talking about a backlink in a post’s body copy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the absence of a financial partnership or receiving free product from a company in exchange for exposure, you can 100% earn a dofollow backlink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- A dofollow backlink passes the SEO strength of the site that\u2019s linking out on to the page or post that it\u2019s linking to.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- A nofollow backlink does not pass on SEO strength. Nofollow backlinks are great to increase exposure, but they have no SEO effect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The only difference between a dofollow and nofollow backlink is a rel=nofollow HTML tag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To a site visitor, it\u2019s impossible to tell the difference between a dofollow and nofollow link. To Google and Bing, there’s a big difference between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to tell if a link is nofollow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A simple way to check if a link is nofollow is by using the free nofollow chrome web browser extension<\/a>. A link that shows a red dotted rectangle around it is nofollow. A link without a red dotted rectangle around it doesn\u2019t contain a nofollow attribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s two examples of affiliate links tagged nofollow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/foodiedigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Foodie-Digital_Chrome-nofollow-extension-example-1024x179.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to add nofollow links in the classic editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Adding nofollow to specific links in WordPress\u2019 classic editor is straightforward if you already use a recipe card plugin<\/a>, or if you manage your affiliate links with a tool like pretty links<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- If you use Tasty Recipes, we\u2019ve written a detailed account<\/a> on how to apply nofollow correctly in the recipe card plugin. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- If you use Create by Mediavine, we have detailed instructions<\/a> for how to tag links nofollow in a post\u2019s body copy, as well as in recipe ingredients and instructions in the recipe card itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- If you use WP Recipe Maker, we have a detailed overview<\/a> for how to apply nofollow correctly in the free, premium, pro and elite versions of the plugin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
How to add nofollow links in the block editor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you use WordPress\u2019 block editor, you cannot lean on your recipe card plugin to tag specific links nofollow. This may change in the future, but for now a separate approach is needed to manage nofollow links in a post’s body content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yoast SEO version 14.4<\/a> (released June 23, 2020) allows you to easily add rel=\u201cnofollow\u201d and rel=\u201csponsored\u201d to specific external links for WordPress versions 5.4 and above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/foodiedigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Foodie-Digital_how-to-tag-links-nofollow-using-plugin-Yoast-SEO-1024x496.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to fix a backlog of posts that aren\u2019t compliant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you have a lot of posts with links that aren’t nofollow compliant, we recommend immediately prioritizing this work to avoid a manual action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truthfully though, becoming nofollow compliant is going to take time and effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One immediate step that you can take is to comb through your top 50 posts and manually tag all required external links nofollow using your recipe card plugin’s nofollow option, or Yoast SEO<\/a> if you use the block editor. Start there, and then work your way back through your library of posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- If you use WP Recipe Maker, we have a detailed overview<\/a> for how to apply nofollow correctly in the free, premium, pro and elite versions of the plugin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- If you use Create by Mediavine, we have detailed instructions<\/a> for how to tag links nofollow in a post\u2019s body copy, as well as in recipe ingredients and instructions in the recipe card itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- If you use Tasty Recipes, we\u2019ve written a detailed account<\/a> on how to apply nofollow correctly in the recipe card plugin. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- A nofollow backlink does not pass on SEO strength. Nofollow backlinks are great to increase exposure, but they have no SEO effect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- A dofollow backlink passes the SEO strength of the site that\u2019s linking out on to the page or post that it\u2019s linking to.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Summary of nofollow rules for food bloggers<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n