BBB Nofollows All Links to Businesses

[bniebler]

Per the forums at webmasterworld, it appears the Better Business Bureau has finally nofollowed all accredited business links on their website.

I confirmed this after looking at a number of our clients who pay for BBB Accreditation as well.

Many local SEOs for awhile have considered this link as a rankings booster, but that all seems to have changed overnight. Lot of hot debate for awhile has been going around whether Google should consider those links as paid links and whether it should even be allowed. Did Google give the Ultimatum??

Well someone got to them.

Check out this article & discussion over at SE Roundtable for more info.

Is this a good thing or bad thing? Bad for those who paid for BBB just for the link. Good for those SEOs that abused it I suppose.

What do you think?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much for sharing Brian. I saw that in my feed but didn't have time to read or share, so really appreciate it!

What do you guys think?

 

[Conor Treacy]

Yeah, I wrote up an article on this yesterday and posted to our blog today actually telling the BBB Good Bye.

Personally, the ONLY reason that we had BBB was for the link.

In the past 20 years as a web design company, and especially as an SEO company, we have never had a client say "I found you on BBB" or "we won't work with you since you're not BBB Accredited"

I think the BBB needs to do some reinventing of itself, but definitely something got them moving on the no follow links.

Maybe a new webmaster or SEO person made a mistake?

Definitely from our end, there's no reason to pay to be included, and most of our clients will likely be in the same boat.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Conor.

Also see the comments in the discussion at Inbound.

This is a good one!

From Nicholas Chimonas

@emoryrowland of course it is the listing people care about, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a gross misuse of the nofollow attribute.

Damn it, nofollow and its peddlers are so drunk.

 

[Linda Buquet]

And WHOA! Check out some of the heated comments over at Barry's blog.

<a href="https://www.seroundtable.com/better-business-bureau-bbb-nofollow-links-21060.html">Better Business Bureau (BBB) Now Nofollowing Links</a>

 

[Brian Barwig]

I think the BBB model is a bit outdated and as Conor stated, they need to reinvent themselves. There really isnt a reason to be listed there anymore as the link was one of the only valuable items going for the BBB. There are so many different places customers can look online if they want to view/review/analyze a business. The BBB was useful in the past, but no longer.

In terms of the BBB removing the link, its hard to believe it took them this long. Maybe keeping the link "follow" was the only way they were getting new businesses to sign up. Itll be interesting to see if more and more businesses begin dropping their listings since there is a fee and the link is worth less now. If there is an easy, bulk way to add links, SEO's will find, exploit and ruin it for everyone. Just another example.

 

[CodyBaird]

I'm going to play devils advocate. Just a little. I'll still take your rel="nofollow" all day everyday from DA'S like BBB. I believe nofollows like this one pass way more juice than the credit SEO'S give. You'll be hard pressed to spend that 300-400 on other link build methods and get the same result.

Bummer news however.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[heckler]

And WHOA! Check out some of the heated comments over at Barry's blog.

<a href="https://www.seroundtable.com/better-business-bureau-bbb-nofollow-links-21060.html">Better Business Bureau (BBB) Now Nofollowing Links</a>

 

[Brian Barwig]

I dont completely disagree with you Cody though I think I would choose to spend $300-400 somewhere else than the BBB. When I said "worth less" previously, I meant what I wrote - as in the link is worth less than it was before - not that the link is worthless.

Either way, I believe the link will still pass some juice but think the money is better spent elsewhere.

 

[Greg Schueler]

The BBB site got hit pretty hard with the Phantom update in May:
Website Penalty Indicator - FE International

Maybe they are trying to get their traffic back.

I also think the link is still good follow or no-follow. If they get their traffic back up, it will be even better.