Understanding rel=nofollow

[tigger]

I'm trying get my head around using rel nofollow as I don't want to give my affiliate any help with there own rankings

As I understand it by using rel nofollow this basically tells Gbot to not pass any link flow or PR onto the site I'm linking to, is that correct?

cheers

[tedster]

You got it. There are some other threads around here where people are making guesses that Google still uses the data from nofollow links in some way, but I'm not buying that idea right now.

I think there's still way too much webmaster focus on links, left over from earlier days. Not that links don't matter - but there's a lot more going on in the algorithm now, and there are often "strange" rankings that have little to do with the small handful of factors that are the nearly constant focus of discussion.

With regard to affiliate links, nofollow is fine - and there's an even better (and recommended-by-Google) solution if you can manage it. Send the "link" through a scripted function/redirect - and have that script disallowed in robots.txt

[tigger]

thanks Ted

I've started doing this as I seeing the main affiliate rankings improve a lot over the last 6/12 mths - maybe due to Panda who knows!

I want to make sure they get no linking benefit as the links are within my own content pages of 800-1500 words pages so in theory what G would class as worthy page... I hope

I'll have to research this scripted function/redirect as I mite as well follow there guidelines - thanks

[Reno]

I don't want to give my affiliate any help with there own rankings

I think a lot of sites who utilize affiliate income opportunities (myself included) are coding nofollow on links pointing to the originating merchants, so in many cases both parties are "nofollowing" each other. It seems to me that is what Google would want, since the links are self-interest income based and not due to a more genuine interest in telling our visitors about additional useful information.

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[Sgt_Kickaxe]

nofollow isn't enough for affiliate links. The problem is Google likely ignores it if they already trust the site you're linking to and may very well count it as a vote.

You've got to redirect all outgoing links through a filtering page on your own site and stop known bots and search engines at the door. You still use nofollow on those links but redirecting the click to a blank page if they are a bot is key. this is especially important for affiliate programs like eBays EPN program which pays out based on per click performance (though they don't measure it that way) and bot clicks hurt.

It's not a perfect solution, Google can still know where your visitor went with beacons on your site (adsense, analytics, a search box, +1, etc) as well as a beacon on whatever site they end up on, or even by recording everyone's search history. Most regular people who have a Google account don't even know search history is recorded by default, check your account settings.

In your google settings click "view data stored with this account"... you might be surprised.

[Reno]

The problem is Google likely ignores it if they already trust the site you're linking to and may very well count it as a vote.

If I become an affiliate for a merchant, then it's a company that I feel is OK so personally I don't care if Google still counts my nofollow as a vote. Back when nofollow became the suggested approach to handling affiliate type links, I found it easy enough to implement, so I did it because at that point what I did care about was Google seeing my site as abiding by its rules. Now that Panda is killing sites off whether or not people abide by their rules, I care a whole lot less, but given that all my nofollow links are already in place, I will leave them alone.

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