Sponsored blogs 'should use nofollow tags'

Sponsored blog posts should make use of 'nofollow' link tags until Google clarifies its stance on how to define paid links.

This is according to Sean Corcoran of Forrester Research, who explained in a blog post that a recent report from his company advocating the use of appropriately disclosed "sponsored conversations" in online marketing campaigns had caused much discussion within the industry.

He emphasised that he agreed with Google's position on not allowing paid posts to pass PageRank onto other sites, but queried how the search engine goes about defining what constitutes a paid link.

"Is it any type of sponsorship within the editorial stream? Is it strictly a cash transaction? What about those who receive product samples?" he asked, going on to add: "At one point, can they determine compensation was exchanged or are they just guessing?"

Mr Corcoran's original report called on marketers to harness sponsored conversations as a way of entering the online discussion space.

To do this well, businesses should ensure they get to know the bloggers they want to work with, he suggested.