I celebrate most of the changes Google has made in recent years. It’s wonderful that website owners and businesses can’t hide from their audience/readers (see the rel=author tag and its implications), but when it comes to widgets and Matt Cutts’ recommendation on the subject – I think Google has gone too far.
In the following video, Matt Cutts answers a question from website owners about adding a nofollow tag to embedded codes such as widgets and infographics, urging them to add a tag declaring that such a link should not be considered.
In my opinion, both as an SEO expert and as an average user, creating widgets is a legitimate way to obtain links from relevant sites simply because a widget is a tool that adds value to the site displaying it and accordingly to its visitors. Moreover, no one “forces” a website owner to display any particular widget on their site—it’s purely their personal choice, just like linking to another site that they decide to place in one of their site’s content items.
Thus, Matt Cutts’ recommendation seems odd to me and feels merely superficial, especially since he claims that a link from a widget does not carry as much weight as a clean link, free of any “promotional interests.” If that’s the case and Google knows how to distinguish between a quality link from content versus one embedded in a widget—what’s the problem with Google continuing to regard the widget link as less significant and leaving us in peace?
This is the first time I feel that the folks at Google have drawn the sword. They’ve already taken our links from press releases and guest posts, and now also from widgets and infographics? I apologize for the polemics/conspiracy theory, but it no longer feels like they really want to improve search results as much as they’re eager to dictate the way to the top of search results on specific highways they’ve built and prefer that these be the highways that require a toll (see Google AdWords, YouTube advertising, etc.).
For those who watched the video – it’s worth reading the comments below it, especially those related to the Firefox image on Matt Cutts’ shirt 🙂