Is using outbrains legal in Googles eyes?

[AlexisWithers]

Is using outbrains legal in Googles eyes?

I have been using outbrains and drive 1K traffic each day for 50$ is this something good?

Is using outbrains legal in Googles eyes?

[ClaytonJ]

As long as the 1k of traffic is strongly engaging with your site, then yes it is good. Alan details the no follow attributes.

[AlanBleiweiss]

It's not necessarily a matter of whether Outbrain is "legal" according to Google as a single consideration.

If the code is implemented in a way that doesn't redirect, and if that linking is not nofollowed, then that is in violation of Google policies.  That shouldn't happen though.

Where the problem becomes more complex is in how Google's algorithms might process a site that uses Outbrain or Taboola or other similar services, and where the end result is that site's ranking signals decline.

Several scenarios exist that can cause this.

1. 3rd party "hey, here's a bunch of links to other places" widgets can often add heavy page processing delays - especially when there's code bloat, or when at the code level, several server calls go out to that 3rd party server network (and often to multiple different servers in that network), and where bottlenecks can come up over the web eco-system.

2. 3rd party widgets of this type can make it that much more difficult for search algorithms to separate out the on-site content (both visible and within code that isn't seen) from 3rd party, irrelevant, and often absolutely garbage-quality content contained in those widgets.  This doesn't always happen, yet it can - and sometimes does cause topical focus confusion, leading to misunderstood topical dilution.

3. Users often click on 3rd party widget links of this type, yet many other users hate it - find it insulting, and downright obnoxious when the quality of those links, and the images they stick in the user's face are grotesque or near-porn in quality. That can sometimes then impact overall User Experience and weaken site quality and trust signals.

It's Outbrain and Taboola who are among the leading causes of ad-blocking now being a major problem for publishers and revenue.  The lowest quality ads, especially those disguised as "related content" get geeks and nerds and intellectual site visitors boiling mad. In some ways they aren't as obnoxious as auto-play video ads, or fly-over ads that block reading, yet in quality terms, they are much worse.  If the advertising industry doesn't clean up its act with quality, and if publishers don't do the same thing, the battle is only going to grow.