90 Digital CEO Nick Garner talks about Editorial Justification in this edition of CalvinAyre.com’s SEO Tip of the Week.
Hi there, this is my SEO tip of the week – extended version!
I find it far easier to get my head around a big idea and work my way downwards from that, as opposed to working with lots of small ideas and not really knowing how or why they are connected.
Having been around the blog several times on link building, there are a couple of BIG ideas that are really important and help steer my link building and digital PR teams
Editorial justification
Google makes a big thing about earning links and adding ‘good things’ to the internet i.e. there is great content on your site that naturally attracts links…
If you do something interesting and fun, then there is some hope you will naturally attract links, but for us in iGaming life is a bit more ‘real’. Why? Because no one really wants to talk about online roulette, or casino. Sports betting is a bit easier of course.
Nevertheless, the idea that something is editorially justified if important. If that content placement looks editorially justified i.e. someone appears to have taken an editorial decision on behalf of their readers to allow that content and link on their site, then supposedly Google will accept that link is valid i.e. meets webmaster guidelines.
Taking this a little further, if you do a content placement and the editorial is solid, but the link is thrown in, then where is the editorial justification for the link? However, if the content is solid and the theme of the content makes a link to your online casino affiliate site valid – then great! You have editorial justification.
So to recap, if that link on someone’s site is there because it appears to be justifiable from an editorial point of view, hopefully you can sleep a bit easier if the Google ‘spam police’ come knocking at your website.
BBC put it very well:
Links to External Sites
Part of the BBC’s role is to act as a Trusted Guide on the web. Whenever producers are creating content on a BBC site, they should actively consider which external websites it may be editorially justifiable to link to.
Editorial Justification for Linking to External Sites
Producers may wish to offer links to external sites for a number of reasons, including:
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for further relevant information
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for further background information or other key source material
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for useful practical information
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for further informed comment
A link must never be included on the public service site or within the editorial content of a commercial site in return for cash, services or any other consideration in kind.
All links on the BBC public service site or on the editorial pages of a commercial site must be editorially justifiable. Links are not acceptable as a form of credit.
