no follow?

[theonemanyuri]

Apologies if this has been discussed, which I suspect it has, but search turned up nothing.

I'm guessing aff links should be no follow, is this a sensible assumption? And if that assumption is correct, should banners also be no follow'ed?

 

[devilsrefugee]

I say yes, but with googles latest batch of updates I'm not so sure any more.

 

[Blossom]

Yes, always nofollow affiliate links.

 

[tifosi]

ditto, as well as ANY links not put on a site by myself e.g. comments. Sometimes just easiest to set it globally in the meta tag.

 

[theonemanyuri]

Thanks guys

 

[Nova]

Should G adsense ads be nodollow as well? I run them on a Wordpress plugin and don't know if they are no follow

 

[Blossom]

Should G adsense ads be nodollow as well? I run them on a Wordpress plugin and don't know if they are no follow

I don't think you could change them even if you wanted to. I assume they're nofollow.

 

[Nova]

Thanks Blossom I will need to check. You are right I probably cant change them but if they aren't no-follow, would I be better to ditch them and add the css with no follow myself?

I just went down the road of a plugin as it seemed quicker and easier.

 

[Blossom]

Thanks Blossom I will need to check. You are right I probably cant change them but if they aren't no-follow, would I be better to ditch them and add the css with no follow myself?

I just went down the road of a plugin as it seemed quicker and easier.

No you should be fine - Google retains the vast majority of control over their ads and what you can do with them (i.e. very little). A (legitimate) plugin shouldn't affect that at all. As long as you're within the guidelines and don't have too many ads on a page etc. it's fine.

 

[Nova]

Great thanks Blossom

 

[Nova]

This topic got me thinking. As well as Google ads I also have ebay ads on my site. As far as I can see ebay ads don't have no follow on them.

After searching the web for a while, most said it can't be done as its in script format. However I came across this:

"you could!

put a div before javascript appears


<div rel="nofollow">

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://lapi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?EKServer&ai=u2%3B9%3Dj&bdrcolor=FFCC 00&cid=0&eksize=1&encode=UTF-8&endcolor=FF0000&endtime=y&fbgcolor=FFFFFF&fntc ol or=000000&fs=0&hdrcolor=FFFFCC&hdrimage=1&hdrsrch= n&img=y&lnkcolor=0000FF&logo=1&num=25&numbid=n&p ay pal=y&popup=y&prvd=9&query=&r0=3&shipcost=y&sid=&s iteid=3&sort=MetaHighestPriceSort&sortby=price&sor tdir=desc&srchdesc=n&tbgcolor=FFFFFF&title=&tlecol or=FFCE63&tlefs=0&tlfcolor=000000&toolid=10004&tra ck=&width=540"></script>

</div>


make sure to close the div, make sure that you dont have xhtml errors related to closing html properties "

on this site: http://www.websitebabble.com/html-php-css-javascript-coding-programming-topics/21910-make-ebay-affiliate-code-nofollow.html

Seems like a good option.

 

[theonemanyuri]

I thought rel could only be used with href? Could well be wrong though...

 

[Obosh]

I thought rel could only be used with href? Could well be wrong though...

this is interesting....i use ref with href only....

anyway -
Google never said Affiliate Links need to be “nofollow” but nofollow affiliate links are SEO friendly….nofollow affiliate links mean you are not passing link juice to your affiliate partner….and this is always good for a site….

and try to follow google's guideline...good/proper affiliate programa can help your site/SEO and bad can screw your site....
Google Affiliate programs Guideline

 

[mif]

I looked into this a few days ago....

There was much guff about Pandas and Farmers to wade through, but best intell I could find was that:

'Paid Text Links' - bad, use nofollow.

Affiliate Links - not so clear.

Big G clearly has a dim view of 'I'll give you 50 quid to post some boiler-plate crap with a link to my site'. Probably rightly so. So if you use nofollow, you can pocket the 50 without G penalty. Probably. Conspiracy theorists may point out that G may well follow the link anyway - just to see why you nofollowed it!

For Affiliate Links, G seems quite understanding that we may make money from our sites. So these links per se are not bad. It was not at all clear to me from my searching around whether these should be nofollowed or not.

Whether Affiliate Links drain juice, or whether the linked-to content is supporting your site theme, or whatever other metric may be in play,... is a whole big discussion, and is probably called SEO


---

BTW I did spot a post somewhere about something that had never occured to me. A suggestion that footer links to your Privacy Policy, T&Cs and whatever other non-theme-specific pages you may have on your site, should be nofollowed. Makes sense. Some general legalese waffle is probably diluting your site-wide keyword / theme specificity.

--
Mike

 

[Blossom]

Affiliate Links - not so clear.

For Affiliate Links, G seems quite understanding that we may make money from our sites. So these links per se are not bad. It was not at all clear to me from my searching around whether these should be nofollowed or not.

It's very clear that affiliate links should be nofollow. Google hates almost all affiliate sites.

BTW I did spot a post somewhere about something that had never occured to me. A suggestion that footer links to your Privacy Policy, T&Cs and whatever other non-theme-specific pages you may have on your site, should be nofollowed. Makes sense. Some general legalese waffle is probably diluting your site-wide keyword / theme specificity.

You can't sculpt internal links that way anymore - the good juice gets lost, not redistributed amongst your other links in higher amounts.

Broadly speaking, a nofollow link says 'This isn't really that relevant to my site' or 'This is a site I don't really trust that much' or 'This is an advertising link'.

 

[cc976a]

If you have sitewide footer links to pages on your site (e.g. Home page (using main keyword rather than the word Home) and Contact etc... should you make these nofollow too??

Just wondering what implications for a site using sitewide 'follow' footer links pointing to your home page using anchor text of your main keyword - could this equal a penalty in the new G world?

Never thought of this before, but this thread got me thinking

 

[Blossom]

If you have sitewide footer links to pages on your site (e.g. Home page (using main keyword rather than the word Home) and Contact etc... should you make these nofollow too??

Just wondering what implications for a site using sitewide 'follow' footer links pointing to your home page using anchor text of your main keyword - could this equal a penalty in the new G world?

Never thought of this before, but this thread got me thinking

Only the first instance of anchor text for a given URL is counted on a page. Assuming you have a link to your homepage further up (e.g. your logo at the top or a homepage link in the nav), any links to your homepage after that will be ignored for anchor text anyway. Having said that, it's never a good idea to stuff footers with keyword-rich anchor text, especially to your homepage, because you can trigger an instant penalty pretty easily.

Ideally your footer should be a combination of the following things:
- Important links your visitors need to be reminded about
- Links to key pages for SEO that aren't referenced anywhere else in your nav/aren't otherwise sitewide but would benefit from a boost
- Carefully thought out external links

 

[cc976a]

Only the first instance of anchor text for a given URL is counted on a page. Assuming you have a link to your homepage further up (e.g. your logo at the top or a homepage link in the nav), any links to your homepage after that will be ignored for anchor text anyway. Having said that, it's never a good idea to stuff footers with keyword-rich anchor text, especially to your homepage, because you can trigger an instant penalty pretty easily.

Ideally your footer should be a combination of the following things:
- Important links your visitors need to be reminded about
- Links to key pages for SEO that aren't referenced anywhere else in your nav/aren't otherwise sitewide but would benefit from a boost
- Carefully thought out external links

Thanks Blossom!

 

[newbie]

For me, I use nofollow on links I cannot vouch for, eg blog comments, forum posts, affiliate links, by default all other links that I can vouch for and that add authority to my site I will leave as follow links.

I no longer try to seo sculpt pages using nofollow. Keep it natural, good unique content and the rest is automatic!

 

[mif]

It's very clear that affiliate links should be nofollow. Google hates almost all affiliate sites.

Well, given that G understands that it is quite reasonable that we make some money from our sites, why would it be bad? If I run, say, a motorcycle-specific site, why would linking to an affiliate manager's link through to something like Bennett's Motorcycle Insurance be a bad thing?

And if I have a direct banner or even text link relationship with 'Alps Motorcycle Tours' (perhaps www.amt.com?foo=mif) - is that a paid-link in G's eyes. Clearly it is paid, but its not recognisably 'affiliate'.


(I'm not disagreeing with you, Blossom, just trying to understand) (And all my own affiliate links are currently nofollow)

--
Mike