Advertiser wants NOFOLLOW on my outbound links. Appropriate or not?

nofollow advertiser request outbound links appropriate

[MikeSchinkel]

I have two related questions so I am going to post them as two seperate questions in two different forums. Both involve an advertiser requesting that I change my site.

First, let me describe my site. We publish "guides" in print, PDF, and HTML format that help people select components and tools for .NET/ASP.NET development. We've published four guides to date with another nine scheduled and then a lot more planned after that. The site is relatively new but we've already got PR5 for two of the four guides including the one the advertiser is questioning (PR4 for the other two and PR5 for the home page.)

Currently the HTML for each guide is all on one page (though I plan to slice them up into lots of little pages) and the HTML page includes outbound links to the vendors and products covered in the guide.

Here is one of the two questions: My advertiser is asking me to put rel="nofollow" on the links to the non-advertiser's products and websites. I don't know how I feel about this, but something doesn't sit right with me about it. I was wondering if I was just being sensitive, or if it was not appropriate for the advertiser to request this?

If the consensus is it is not appropriate, can anyone suggest how to turn down his request in the best way, including what justification I should use?

FYI my other question was "Do outbound links increase SERP rankings, and will NOFOLLOW decrease them?"

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on the matter.

[hunderdown]

Check what Google says about nofollow, but I'm pretty sure that they say that it's not intended for such situations. And that in itself would give you a reason to not use it--just say you've learned that nofollow is supposed to be used in blogs and similar situations only (or whatever Google says) and you don't want to possibly get penalized for using it in some other way.

[MikeSchinkel]

Thanks! Any other thoughts on the subject?

[hannamyluv]

sounds like that aff manager is reading some old books or articles about what to watch for in the way of leaks in a program. Awhile ago, like near two years, it use to be that some affiliate links were cataloged by search engines rather than the merchants links. I don't think this happens much anymore as it is something the SEs have fixed. Then again, I could be wrong but it is my understanding that this is the case these days.

The manager probably feels that putting a nofollow tag would prevent this from happening.

[jomaxx]

Depends on what you mean by "my advertiser". You have to ask yourself: How much are they paying? Do you have other advertisers? Will committing to this tie your hands in terms of dealing with other sites or sponsors? (Yes.) Could it have negative search engine repercussions? (Maybe.)

Everything's for sale at some price, but in general I would tend to say no to requests that infringe on my editorial freedom or my ability to grow my business.

[MikeSchinkel]

>> How much are they paying?

Not a lot, but maybe more later (still should be less than 5% of revenue)

>> Do you have other advertisers?

Yes.

>> Will committing to this tie your hands in terms of dealing with other sites or sponsors?

Only if I want to be consistent, which I do.

>> Everything's for sale at some price,

I'm not for sale at this price (it would take a few orders of magnitude more, and then even maybe not :), I just don't want to give up something I shouldn't.

>> but in general I would tend to say no to requests that infringe on my editorial freedom or my ability to grow my business.

Thanks! That's what I'm thinking.

[jomaxx]

5%, LOL. I thought maybe you had a single primary sponsor that was asking for this.

The current thinking seems to be that outbound links are indeed used by Google to figure out what your site is about and to see if you link to "authority" sites. I don't know exactly what the impact of using nofollow links might be, but even a slight change in your Google positioning could have a negative effect that far outweights a 5% increase in your income. I really wouldn't risk it for such a marginal benefit.

[MikeSchinkel]

Thanks for the help.

[aeiouy]

Sounds like he is more interested in paying for pagerank instead of just ad placement. He is really trying to buy something you are not currently selling.

If you decide to sell him what he is looking for, I think that should be a seperate negotiation and price. He doesn't get that benefit just because he is buying ad space. You are offering adspace to expose your visitors to what he has to offer.

His discussion of using nofllow has NOTHING to do with that. If it were me I would sell him the rights for that kind of link on the site, but it would be a serious premium on top of what he has to pay for the ad.

Otherwise he is just taking advantage of you.

[MikeSchinkel]

Excellent point! Thank you very much.