No-follow meta tag - should it be used in ads?

[shallow]

Forgive my ignorance but I'm unclear about the no-follow tag.

If someone wants to put an ad at my site, should I require a no-follow tag in the code? Why or not?

[tedster]

You're confusing two different things - the nofollow meta tag and the rel="nofollow" attribute in a link (anchor element). It's the second code that is most often used in an advertising link. Using the meta tag is OK, but if you use that, then no links at all will be followed on the page, and you most likely want just the ad to be affected.

[ken_b]

I put the ads on a page with the nofollow noindex meta tag on it. Then I pull the page up in an iframe on whatever page(s) the ad should be seen on.

Probably a primitive method. Easier to work with if the ad runs on lots of pages and avoids having anything like run of site ads in the code of each page.

Simple, I like simple. Might take a bit of careful planning though when you decide where to put the iframe(s) on each page.

[shallow]

You're confusing two different things - the nofollow meta tag and the rel="nofollow" attribute in a link (anchor element). It's the second code that is most often used in an advertising link.

Yes, I obviously am confusing them. Sorry. It's the "nofollow" attribute in the link, not the metatag.

But I'm still unclear whether or not the attribute should be required in an advertising link. Does it make a difference one way or another, or it is okay to leave the decision up to the developer.

Not sure it's related but fwif, I derive income from my site primarily from Adsense.

Thanks again for the replies.

[tedster]

What Google asks is that paid advertising links do not pass PR, and the nofollow attribute is one way to do that. There are other approaches, too, such as sending any paid links through a redirect script and disallowing access to the script in robots.txt

[leadegroot]

But I'm still unclear whether or not the attribute should be required in an advertising link. Does it make a difference one way or another, or it is okay to leave the decision up to the developer.

Late response, sorry.

Whether or not to use nofollow on paid links (they pay for the ad, the ad links through to their site therefore its a paid link.) is a business decision and should not be left up to the developer (although it is reasonable to seek information from them on the implications).

As tedster said, Google asks that we tag paid links with a rel=nofollow attribute, or otherwise make sure that PR is not passed when the link has been sponsored.

Your business decision is to determine the risk versus the benefit:
The benefit of allowing ads to pass PR is that advertisers may be willing to pay more for the ad.
The risk is that then Google will remove you from the index, reducing traffic and consequently removing the advertising income.