rel="nofollow" for Affiliate Links?

[Michael Martinez]

If I haven't put a nofollow tag in my <a href="/visit/pokerstars/">Visit PokerStars</a> link then Google would count this page as a page of my domain and you would end up with a lot of no good pages with no content right?

Maybe it's a better idea to block the /visit/ folder in robots.txt instead of putting nofollow tags on each external 301 redirect link?

In this case, assuming the goal is both to NOT pass value to the merchant site AND reduce the chance of being classified as only an affiliate site, I would probably do the following with the link and the redirected folder:

• Use "rel='nofollow'" on the link to the folder
• Implement a 302-redirect (see reference) from the folder URL
• Block the folder in robots.txt
• Use "noindex,nofollow,noarchive" in the robots meta tag on the folder index page

That's pretty extreme but it's about the only way to tell a search engine "go away, nothing here to see" without being sneaky and deceptive.

You want to use a 302- rather than a 301- redirect when you don't want value shifted from the redirecting URL to the destination URL. This is an SEO technique and some Web standards purists might question the value of doing it like this, but the major search engines have all indicated they won't follow a 302-redirect or pass value through it.

Technically, if you're redirecting, you don't need a Web page but if you're using the folder page to link to a script that does the redirect then you need to do all the folder-specific stuff.

[Strider1973]

Thank you Michael for your great explanation!

And I'm happy about the result, as this means that I don't have to edit each of my affiliate links

[CasinoKev]

Use "noindex,nofollow,noarchive" in the robots meta tag on the folder index page

Do you have any advice for doing this in Wordpress?

Many of us use WP with the redirection plugin. It allows you to put in a source url - /go/pokerstars/, and a destination url - pokerstars.com?affid. I nofollow the links, redirect them in the plugin, and put a Disallow: /go/ in robots.txt, but there is no actual /go/ folder to add "noindex, nofollow, noarchive" to.

[Michael Martinez]

Do you have any advice for doing this in Wordpress?

Many of us use WP with the redirection plugin. It allows you to put in a source url - /go/pokerstars/, and a destination url - pokerstars.com?affid. I nofollow the links, redirect them in the plugin, and put a Disallow: /go/ in robots.txt, but there is no actual /go/ folder to add "noindex, nofollow, noarchive" to.

I have not used that plug-in but if you're disallowing the folder in robots.txt that should be okay. I tend to use redundant methodologies to shorten the timeframe on achieving a desired end. You never really know what will happen with a search engine.

[jc]

This is a really great post. I have been giving my affliate links a no-follow, and had no idea i was hurting my own site. It's rare to see something so thoroughly explained, thanks guys.

[321]

I have been giving my affliate links a no-follow, and had no idea i was hurting my own site.

No-following affiliate links will not hurt your site in any way. There is no reason not to use no-follow, and several good reasons to use no-follow on affiliate links.

[drakecyrus19]

I'm just confused if a Nofollow link is taking account to google? Does it make since making some nofollow link?

[Michael Martinez]

I'm just confused if a Nofollow link is taking account to google? Does it make since making some nofollow link?

Google will count nofollowed links in only one way: it will use them to divide your outbound PageRank, thus depriving value-passing links of some of the PageRank they would otherwise have had.

Let me try to illustrate.

Suppose you have a Web page with 5 outbound links on it, each pointing to a different destination. Google will divide the page's PageRank (some infinitismally small number between 0 and 1) equally between those 5 links. So each link will pass X/5 PageRank to its destination.

Now let's say you want to add 5 more links to the page, but you don't want them to pass PageRank (or anchor text). So you add the "rel='nofollow'" attribute to those 5 links.

Now Google will divide the outbound PageRank by 10 rather than 5, so the 5 value-passing links on the page will pass X/10 PageRank to their destinations.

Where does the rest of the PageRank go? Google disperses it across its PageRank-accruing Web index.

They made this change about 2 years ago, and they did it because too many Webmasters were taking bad SEO advice and trying to "sculpt" PageRank on their sites by nofollowing some internal links.

You should never use "rel='nofollow'" on any internal links. If you don't want search engines to follow an internal link, don't put it on your page.

[drakecyrus19]

how can i improve my page ranking?

[Michael Martinez]

Ask not, "how can I improve my page ranking?". Ask instead, "how can I improve my search referrals?".

Add more content to your site, make it interesting content people want to read, and be sure your site is well-linked internally.

Sounds a bit trite, doesn't it?

Think of Website content as something you want people to value, not as something to fill a site for the search engines.

There are the peanuts you eat and the peanuts you pack with. Which would you prefer to gobble down?