Should I be using No-Follow in 2012?

[Trikkur]

I got into SEO a few years ago when "page-rank sculpting" by using no-follow was getting popular. I was using it on a lot of my websites including no-following my own internal links to stuff like about-us and contact pages on everything but the home page, etc.

After the big Google reveal that it wasn't really working like people wanted it to - I have quit using it almost entirely. I probably haven't placed a no-follow link in about 18 months, but that probably isn't correct either. I know there has been discussions in the past about this, but I would like to bring everything we've learned up to date for 2012.

I believe using no-follow to "sculpt page rank" is generally a bad idea. I don't really think linking to my privacy policy and ToS on every page is very helpful, but I doubt it is hurting my rankings in any way. Any opinions?

I also haven't used no-follow on my affiliate links this last year. Honestly though, that seems like the one proper place to actually use them. I don't really see the need to pass authority to the poker rooms and I can enable it easily with Pretty Link Pro.

[peep666]

Only thing where i´m using "no-follow" for now is aff links..

[casdir]

Its definitely fine to use nofollow on affiliate links, but you shouldn't use nofollow for your inner pages. You don't want to risk upsetting the Panda lol PageRank sculpting used to work five years ago, but its completely dead now

[Michael Martinez]

I believe using no-follow to "sculpt page rank" is generally a bad idea. I don't really think linking to my privacy policy and ToS on every page is very helpful, but I doubt it is hurting my rankings in any way. Any opinions?

I also haven't used no-follow on my affiliate links this last year. Honestly though, that seems like the one proper place to actually use them. I don't really see the need to pass authority to the poker rooms and I can enable it easily with Pretty Link Pro.

You should use "NoFollow" to disconnect your site from whatever it is linking to ONLY if you don't want to be associated with the destination. I think NoFollowing affiliate links is fine.

Linking to terms of service and privacy policies on every page is probably optional for most sites, but if you're collecting personal information and/or handling money directly you CAN be held liable in some jurisdictions for NOT being transparent if you choose to NOT provide the links on every page in clearly visible, easily-found locations (this has already been ruled upon in several US court decisions -- I don't know about other countries).

There is no SEO reason to think about PageRank unless you use a LOT of NoFollows, as each one dissipates a little bit of your PageRank prematuraly. All your PageRank flows out from your site -- you cannot hoard it -- but using NoFollow may cause some of that PageRank to flow out sooner rather than later.

In most cases it's insignificant and so not worth worrying about.

[Squizzel]

I think its a non issue. Doesnt matter if u do or dont really. But its prob smart to use them on aff links.

[west]

Not an expert but def affiliate links should have no follow

[ultimatepokerbonus]

I use a no-follow to an internal page that redirects to the poker sites. Should I be doing this or would it better to a redirect in htaccess?