Flickr Embraces Nofollow Tags as part of Search Engine Optimization – Should You (Or Any Of Us) Be Concerned?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Photo sharing site Flickr has recently started using nofollow tags in its individual photo descriptions, reports CNET and WebProNews. Should we care?

There are two ways to look at this. The first way is that nofollow links in the descriptions of individual photos might discourage certain search engine optimizers or webmasters from posting photos to Flickr. That may not be bad as those most discouraged are probably spammers and webmasters looking for cheap link juice. On the other hand, legitimate search engine optimizers and webmasters will suffer along with the spammers and may end up finding other ways to get free links.

The second way to look at this is that that Flickr is now in the practice of selling paid links. Here’s the gist of the change:

(WPN) The links in Set and Collection descriptions are still free of them, but the links embedded in individual photo descriptions have been nofollowed.

Since Flickr members are only allowed three Sets, that means free members will be limited in the number of links they can add and get link juice from. Only paid members who have more than three Sets will have an unlimited link juice at their disposal, which makes Flickr effectively a link seller. How will Google treat Flickr now that this policy has been implemented?

Personally, I don’t see much to worry about. Legitimate search engine optimizerss and webmasters will always find ways to get good links and spammers will always find ways to game the system. Many social sites are adding nofollow tags to prevent the spammers from gaming the system. I say keep posting your photos to Flickr and get a little creative in how seek inbound links. We do not want this to negatively affect search engine optimization as much as it could!