Paid links are allowed in Finland, but only if they follow two separate sets of rules. Google requires every paid link to be tagged so that it doesn’t pass ranking credit. Finnish consumer protection law requires every paid article to be clearly labelled as advertising, so readers know it’s commercial. Most problems with paid links in Finland come from meeting one of these requirements and forgetting the other.
This post explains both sets of rules, how they fit together, and what happens when paid links break them.
Are paid links allowed in Finland?
Yes. Paying for a link or a sponsored article isn’t illegal in Finland, and it doesn’t break Google’s rules on its own. Google acknowledges that buying and selling links is a normal part of the web’s economy for advertising and sponsorship, and says such links don’t violate its policies as long as they carry a rel=”nofollow” or rel=”sponsored” attribute.
The problems start when a paid link is hidden. A paid link without the right attribute breaks Google’s rules. A sponsored article without a visible advertising label breaks Finnish consumer protection law.
What does Google say about paid links?
Google treats paid links that pass ranking credit as link spam, and it expects every paid link to be tagged.
What counts as link spam
Google defines link spam as creating links to or from a site mainly to manipulate search rankings. Its examples include buying or selling links for ranking purposes, which covers exchanging money for links or for posts that contain links, exchanging goods or services for links, and sending someone a product in exchange for a post with a link.
Sponsored content is named directly. Google lists advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles with links that pass ranking credit, as well as links with optimised anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases. An advertorial is a paid article designed to look like editorial content.
What is the difference between rel=”sponsored” and rel=”nofollow”?
The difference is what each attribute tells Google about the link. Google’s documentation says rel=”sponsored” marks paid links, rel=”ugc” marks user-generated content, and rel=”nofollow” tells Google not to associate your site with the linked page or crawl it. Multiple values can be used together.
Which link attribute to use
Google’s three link qualifiers
rel="sponsored"Paid or compensated links
Sponsored articles, advertorials, paid placements, links given in exchange for products.
rel="ugc"User-generated content
Links in comments, forum posts and reviews written by users.
rel="nofollow"Links you don’t vouch for
Any link you don’t want associated with your site. Still accepted for paid links.
Values can be combined, for example rel=”sponsored nofollow”. Google treats all three as hints.
The sponsored and ugc values were introduced on 10 September 2019. Before that, nofollow was the only option. For paid links, rel=”sponsored” is the most accurate choice today, but rel=”nofollow” is still accepted.
The attributes are hints, not commands
Since the 2019 change, Google treats all three attributes as hints rather than strict instructions. This applied to ranking from September 2019 and to crawling and indexing from 1 March 2020. In practice, you should still assume a tagged link won’t pass ranking value, and plan paid placements for visibility and referral traffic, not for rankings.
What does Finnish law say about sponsored content?
Finnish law requires every piece of paid content aimed at consumers to be clearly recognisable as advertising.
Advertising must be recognisable
The rule comes from the Consumer Protection Act. It requires marketing to clearly show its commercial purpose and the party on whose behalf it is carried out. The rule applies regardless of the medium, so sponsored articles on websites are covered in the same way as advertorials in newspapers.
The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV), where the Consumer Ombudsman supervises marketing, describes native advertising as digital content that looks like the channel’s normal content but is actually a paid advertisement produced by the advertiser. A sponsored guest article with a link fits that description.
The Consumer Ombudsman has also warned that advertorials can make readers think they are reading journalistic content, and that not everyone notices a small “Advertisement” label or understands what it means.
Which label to use
KKV’s guidance on labelling commercial content was updated in January 2025. The recommended label is “Mainos” (Advertisement), with “Kaupallinen yhteistyö” (Commercial collaboration) as an alternative; hashtags such as #advertisement are no longer recommended.
KKV also sets out how the label should appear. It should be in the same language as the content, visible as soon as the reader sees the publication, and it must stay visible for the whole commercial content without the reader having to click “read more”. The guidance was written for social media, but the same principle of immediate recognisability applies to all marketing.
For a sponsored article on a Finnish website, that means a clear “Mainos” label at the top of the article, together with the advertiser’s name.
Who is responsible
Responsibility is shared. The January 2025 guidance places responsibility not only on the publisher or influencer but also on the company paying for the content. The company should give clear instructions and check that they are followed. When you buy a sponsored article in Finland, you can’t leave labelling entirely to the publisher.
How do Google’s rules and Finnish law fit together?
Google’s rules and Finnish law cover different audiences, so a paid article has to satisfy both.
| Google’s spam policies | Finnish consumer protection law | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it protects | Search results | Readers (consumers) |
| What it requires | A rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” attribute on paid links | A visible advertising label, such as “Mainos” |
| Where it appears | In the page code, invisible to readers | On the page, visible to readers |
| Who enforces it | Google (algorithms and manual reviewers) | The Consumer Ombudsman (KKV) |
| Consequence of breaking it | Lost rankings or a manual action | Intervention by the Consumer Ombudsman |
Every paid article in Finland needs two things
One for readers, one for Google
A visible label
Required by Finnish consumer protection law
A link attribute
Required by Google’s spam policies
A tagged link without a label still breaks Finnish law, and a labelled article with an untagged link still breaks Google’s rules. Before you publish or pay for a sponsored article, check both. Our checklist for evaluating Finnish websites includes checks on how a site labels its paid content.
What happens if paid links break Google’s rules?
Google can respond to untagged paid links in two ways: by discounting them automatically, or with a manual action.
Algorithmic action
Google’s systems can detect and ignore unnatural links without any warning. Google has also stated that when it detects sites publishing or acquiring links through excessive sponsored and guest posting without proper link tags, it may take algorithmic and manual actions. The money spent on those links is then wasted, and rankings built on them can drop.
Manual action
A manual action is a penalty applied by a human reviewer at Google, shown in the Manual Actions report in Google Search Console. It can affect specific pages or the whole site. For unnatural links to a site, Google asks the site owner to contact the linking sites and have the links removed or tagged, and to use the Disavow links tool for links that can’t be removed. When the links have been removed or disavowed, the owner can request a review.
Recovering from a manual action for unnatural links
- Check the Manual Actions reportIn Google Search Console, confirm the action and which pages it affects.
- Audit your backlinksList paid, exchanged or otherwise unnatural links, using Search Console and an SEO tool.
- Ask site owners to fix themRequest removal, or a rel=”sponsored” or nofollow attribute.
- Disavow what you can’t removeUpload a disavow file in Search Console as a last resort.
- Request a reviewSubmit a reconsideration request documenting what you removed and why.
- Change how you build linksLabel and tag every paid placement from now on.
Use the disavow tool with care
The disavow tool is meant for a specific situation. Google says it’s for sites with a manual action for unnatural links, or sites expecting one because of paid links or other link schemes. It calls the tool an advanced feature that can harm a site’s performance if used incorrectly. Most sites never need it.
Which types of paid links are safe to use?
Paid links are safe when they’re both labelled and tagged, and when the content is genuinely useful.
| Type of link | Google-compliant? | Finnish law-compliant? | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored article, labelled “Mainos”, link tagged rel=”sponsored” | Yes | Yes | Passes little or no ranking value |
| Sponsored article, labelled, link untagged | No | Yes | Algorithmic devaluation or manual action |
| Sponsored article, not labelled, link tagged | Yes | No | Consumer Ombudsman intervention |
| Sponsored article, not labelled, link untagged | No | No | Both of the above |
| Earned editorial link (no payment) | Yes | Not applicable | None, but slower and harder to get |
| Paid directory listing, link tagged | Yes | Depends on presentation | Little ranking value |
Earned links carry no payment and need no label. Digital PR and genuinely editorial guest articles are the main ways to earn them; see guest posting in Finland and digital PR in Finland.
What are the most common paid link mistakes in Finland?
The most common mistake is treating the label and the link attribute as the same thing.
- Labelling the article but leaving the link untagged. The label satisfies Finnish law, not Google.
- Tagging the link but hiding the label. A small or late label doesn’t meet KKV’s requirement that advertising be recognisable immediately.
- Using an English label on Finnish content. The label should be in the language of the content.
- Leaving labelling to the publisher. The company paying for the content shares responsibility.
- Using exact-match anchor text in paid articles. Google names optimised anchors in guest posts and articles as link spam. Finnish inflection makes natural anchors vary anyway; see anchor text in Finnish.
- Buying from sites that sell to everyone. A site full of unlabelled paid posts is a risk to every site it links to.
Special rules for gambling
Gambling marketing in Finland has its own rules on top of the general ones. Under the new Gambling Act, licensed operators may only market through listed channels from July 2027, and paid gambling content on third-party websites is likely to fall outside them. See iGaming SEO in Finland before planning any paid links for a gambling site.
How SEO Butler handles paid placements
SEO Butler Limited, which runs backlinksfinland.com, labels sponsored placements as advertising in line with KKV guidance and tags paid links with rel=”sponsored”. For what drives the cost of paid placements, see Finnish backlink prices, and for choosing a provider, see how to choose a Finnish link building agency. For link building in Finland in general, start with our main guide to link building in Finland.
Disclaimer: This post is general information about Google’s policies and Finnish advertising rules. It isn’t legal advice and doesn’t guarantee any ranking results. Google’s policies can change, so check the current Google spam policies and guidance on qualifying outbound links. For Finnish labelling rules, see the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority’s guidance on the identifiability of advertising. Gambling marketing is subject to separate rules under the Finnish Gambling Act. backlinksfinland.com is owned by SEO-Butler Limited, which sells link building services.
Reference sources
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
- Google Search Central: Qualify your outbound links to Google
- Nofollow: history of the attribute and the 2019 changes
- Search Console Help: Manual actions report
- Search Console Help: Disavow links to your site
- Marie Haynes: Google’s guest posting recommendations
- KKV: Identifiability of advertising
- KKV: Advertising must always be recognizable (advertorials)
- KKV: Vaikuttajamarkkinointi sosiaalisessa mediassa (influencer marketing guidelines)
- Kaulo & Partners: KKV’s January 2025 guidance on labelling
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to buy backlinks in Finland?
Yes, buying backlinks isn’t illegal in Finland. Paid content aimed at consumers must be clearly labelled as advertising under the Consumer Protection Act, and Google requires paid links to carry rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” so that they don’t pass ranking credit.
What is the difference between rel=”sponsored” and rel=”nofollow”?
rel=”sponsored” tells Google a link is paid or part of a compensation arrangement. rel=”nofollow” tells Google not to associate your site with the linked page. Both are accepted for paid links, but rel=”sponsored” is the more precise choice.
How should a sponsored article be labelled in Finland?
KKV recommends the label “Mainos” (Advertisement), with “Kaupallinen yhteistyö” (Commercial collaboration) as an alternative. The label should be in the language of the content, name the advertiser and be visible immediately.
What happens if Google finds untagged paid links?
Google may ignore the links automatically or apply a manual action, which appears in Google Search Console. To recover from a manual action, remove or tag the links, disavow those you can’t remove, and submit a reconsideration request.
Do paid links with rel=”sponsored” help SEO?
They help less than editorial links, because Google treats the attribute as a signal not to pass ranking credit. Tagged paid links can still bring referral traffic, brand visibility and relevant readers.
