Is it whitehat to offer products for a review & link?
-
It seems to me that if you can offer content for a link back, you should be able to offer a product for a review and a link. Any thoughts?
-
It is just never cut and dry
Right so, asking somebody for a review is the first half, offering free; points, merchandise, credit, discounts, or a super nice product for the best "review" contest style, would be a creative way to develop unique content and thus I would say 100% white hat.
The second half, asking for a link and offering the same sort of incentives is kin to buying a link, and IMO black hat. In this sense you are trying artificially inflate your ranking by "trading" something for a link. In this case somebody linking to you is by no means saying I like this site, they are saying I like the free stuff they give.
Your question coupled the two together, but I thought it best to look at each case individually.
Hope it helps.
-
You should giveaway products to relevant sites anyway.
-
You're getting the product reviewed and if people search for said product, they will see the pros/cons.
-
You're getting exposure. (Pick the right sites to give the products too)
The link if considered "white hat" would be a bonus, in my opinion.
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should I disavow these links?
Hi all, I have a site that is a year old, we have been building backlinks organically - probably around 50 or so - then almost overnight we had100s of spammy links. Screenshot here: https://ibb.co/cijiub My questions: Should I disavow these? What happens if I don't disavow these? Can I work out where they came from? If I disavow a few of them, is this a token offering to the Google Gods that will lower my risk of being penalised? Thank you. cijiub
Link Building | | Bee1591 -
Will short linking to my site affect SERPs attribution of inbound link?
Some brand partners are using their short links to link back to our site (like bit.ly but they have their own). They have a high domain authority and trust so we want that link back to be read by Google. When I downloaded all inbound links from Moz, this brand's site was not listed, making me worried that the inbound link isn't being seen or considered! Haven't been able to find any info on this...
Link Building | | PAC31350 -
Nofollow affiliate links
I am setting up an affiliate program using software built in to my shop already (x-cart). The links generated by the software do not have the rel="nofollow" in them. I'm assuming they should have? When looking at Amazon, there must be millions of links out there pointing back to Amazon and all those links are followed back to them for link juice. Am I missing something? Surely best practice here is to re="nofollow" so you're not seen to be manipulating Google PageRank?
Link Building | | sparrowdog0 -
Link quality
Hi, Having read dozens of your blogs and found them highly informative, i have to ask a question. I am kicking oout our SEO company and have taken over the SEO myself with some excellent results. Our SEO providers tell me that links from any site (irrelevent of their DA) are good, providing they are comming from a relevant source. We are in the security industry and according to MOZ, we have a DA of 52. If i can get a link to our site from another company in our industry but they have a DA of 10, is this really beneficial for me? Info i have read in Moz blogs suggest it is n ot a good idea. Please help. many thanks Daddy Smurf
Link Building | | DaddySmurf0 -
Old links
I am looking to remove some old directory links that now look spammy. Some years ago the site was redesigned. The links are all to the old pages url, which is 301 redirected to the new. If we remove the 301 and let the page 404, will that suffice in Googles eyes?
Link Building | | cottamg0 -
Linking to a pdf
Hi All I have a pdf that people can download from my site, what I want to know is that when people link to the pdf does the pdf share link power to pages linked to from within the pdf (like a html page would) or is the link power being waisted going to the pdf and should I somehow get the links to a normal page? The pdf is a free downloadable resource to people in the party planning industry and so gets linked to quite a bit by sites telling their readers to get the information we provide. Thanks for your thoughts Sean
Link Building | | SKE0 -
Back-link Quantity
Hi there, I am writing a post for a well respected blog in our industry. I'm debating on either to target 1 key-phrase in this post with an external back-link, or to go target 2-3 back-links in the post. Just a few questions on this: Would including 1 external back link be more beneficial than having 2 or 3 external back-links in the post? Kind Regards
Link Building | | Paul780 -
How many links per week is too fast in link building?
For a new website/blog how many links per week looks suspicious or hurt the rankings?
Link Building | | aaran1