What the new ‘no follow’ link trends mean for PR pros

Google cares about more than just links.

For years, backlinks from massive authority sites have been among the best ways to improve the search-engine optimization (SEO) of your business’s website.

This led to schemes where link sellers, and even some PR pros, offered to get business owners backlinks on those authority sites for a fee. The good news is that publishers are finally cracking down, and this should be music to the ears of legit PR professionals.

There are at least three major sites where this will no longer work. Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes recently began turning all the external links in their articles to “no follow” links, meaning there won’t be any more of that “link juice” from backlinks on those sites.

Although those three sites are among the most sought-after sites for businesses and PR pros to pitch, they aren’t alone. More and more sites are making the switch from do-follow to no follow external links.

Here’s how this trend will affect PR pros, and some advice on how they should broach the subject with their clients.

1 . How PR pros can still get good links.

The most obvious way this changes PR is that landing a no follow backlink won’t provide nearly the same SEO boost.