Sponsored Link Attribute (Rel=”sponsored”)
This refers to sponsored or paid links which, for a long time, Google never considered as important. Sponsored links will be considered as such but untrusted links too will use the same attributes as sponsored (advertising) links.
Now, Google has stated that all sponsored links should have a nofollow attribute in order not to be penalized. Both of them do not need to be endorsed by a webmaster, but with the attribute they will have, Google will be able to understand advertised links as different from “untrustworthiness”.
UGC (Rel=”UGC”)
UGC Attribute denotes User Generated Content and it's the attribute for UGC such as forum posts, guest posts, and blog comments. Webmasters will signify that they have not editorially endorsed some hyperlinks on their site.
A link with the UGC tag will help Google know that the content was generated by the user. However, Google makes an exception if they are contributions that come from trustworthy contributors. Google can use this information to distinguish such links from an advertising link.
Reason for this change!
Nofollow links were used to flag sponsored or user-generated links such that they really could not be fixed into any definite category. With the September 10th update, Google has shown a deliberate attempt to combat spam which will make nofollow links much easier to be identified.
Even though the nofollow links worked well enough, it is believed that the introduction of these new links will help Google design a better–defined linking architecture that helps to understand unnatural linking patterns better.
Now, it is anticipated that the link graph will now be more useful to Google. And when people apply nofollow links on their website, it will serve a definite pointing purpose.
Also, the new attributes will help Google understand how anchor texts on a page are relevant to the destination content. And it will protect site owners from showing support for links that they do not really trust.
How webmasters can benefit from this update:
- As a webmaster, you can use a combination of the new attributes where you need to
- You can use a nofollow or combine it with sponsored attributes to indicate paid links
Using Google Search Console, I sometimes see only a 'picture' from my posts listed with a separate URL that I have never intentionally created.
For example https://healthywealthyhappyandwise.com/happiness-can-be-found-in-the-smallest-things/
This link listed in google takes me to my website and shows only the picture and not the whole article.
This is not good for customer experience as they will click away believing that I'm only showing a picture. The URL does not even indicate which of my articles the picture is included in.
When I create my articles, I add pictures using either the WA site content editor or the WP 'New Post' editor. The only information I add is an 'alt tag.'
What am I doing wrong when adding pictures to my articles that make them show in google searches with a separate URL?
And if I cannot prevent this from happening, how can I ensure that the query leads to the complete article instead of just to the one picture?
Any information is appreciated.
Kind regards,
Andrew
Reply
I am getting the images ranked with the url and they do not look nice if someone clicks on them.
If I understand your training correctly, I have to mark the images as nofollow? Do you know if there is a way to change the permalink of these images or I have to delete and upload them again so they do not rank like this. Thank you. Marisa
Should I now do the following - is this correct?
Add rel="nofollow" to link
ADD THIS TO AFFILIATE LINKS IE AMAZON OR CLICKBANK?
Add rel="sponsored" to link
ADD THIS TO GUEST POSTS?
Add rel="UGC" to link
ADD THIS TO... I DON´T GET THIS ONE!
Thanks for your clarification.
Susan
devotedtoanimals.com
Israel Olatunji
As for all your training, this one is very informative. But it also is very confusing (for such a newbie as I am).
For example, you said, "UGC Attribute denotes User Generated Content and it's the attribute for UGC such as forum posts, guest posts, and blog comments". How and where should I place this attribute? It would be really helpful if you provide some examples.
Thank you,
Jane
Israel Olatunji
Israel Olatunji
