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The debate over nofollow links on guest blog posts heated up again over the weekend. Google has long said all links in guest posts should be nofollow. Rand Fishkin and Will Critchlow questioned the soundness of this policy — if you trust the contributors, why not trust the links they include in their posts? Google says most of these links are ignored algorithmically whether they're nofollowed or not. That doesn't mean there isn't value in contributing great content to other sites.
Our Live with Search Engine Land on Google's Page Experience update is available on demand. Hear Search Engine Land's Barry Schwartz, Aja Frost, Head of Content SEO at HubSpot, Michael King, Managing Director of iPullRank, and Marty Weintraub, Founder of Aimclear discuss what the update means, how to prepare and what they think it will entail for user experience. Watch the full episode here.
Advertisers have reportedly been going to cringeworthy lengths to block their ads from appearing alongside Black Lives Matter content, Ad Age reported last week. That raises obvious ethical concerns, but it is also more complicated than it appears at face value. There's the impact of Blackout Tuesday on social (and likely display) ad spend, as Tinuiti charted, as well as concerns that messaging strikes an appropriate tone. What this really underscores is a need for greater understanding and transparency around ad blocking mechanisms so we don't see brands blocking terms like "black people" ever again.
Keep reading for your daily Search Shorts and challenges for Facebook ad buyers.
Ginny Marvin,
Editor-in-Chief
