It was back in 2005 that the big search engines agreed on a new extension which would enable web logs and web forums to allow users to post links in messages and signatures -without encouraging link spammers to abuse that system.

The rel="nofollow" attribute for HTML links can be viewed and clicked by normal web users, but which will not be counted as a link by the search engines.


A normal HTML link looks like this:

<a href="">alt.internet.search-engines FAQ</a>

A link with the rel="nofollow" attribute looks like this:

<a href="" rel="nofollow">alt.internet.search-engines FAQ</a>

If you are an affiliate, it comes in handy to use rel="nofollow" on all affiliation URLs. If every affiliate links to a website, lets say for an ebook, then you're in fact helping the actual website to get a higher page rank in Google.

Because if 1000 affiliates link to this ebook website, Google will count those links and think it's an important website.

So what happens when the original website hits page one at the top of Google? Then your affiliate website will be on page 3 or 5 or even somewhere on page 300.

In the end your giving the ebook a boost in google, and you won't be making a dime. So if you use rel="nofollow", you won't be helping the ebook website to the top, but rather your own website.

Hope you understand the above, if not, ask me.

This post has been edited by sourcy: Dec 25 2008, 02:45 AM

Yes, what you`ve said makes sense.

@sourcy: indeed, quite a logical and effective measure to take. But it's not so ethical as, in fact, you're not helping the product you're promoting

not all members recognize the nofollow attribute. Google does however!


I use a nofollow attribute for links that get posted by people that leave a comment on my website...

Well please do not kill the nature of the internet, If the comments are relevant and useful you should reward them.

I think that if you link to an `authority` site it`s probably better not to use "nofollow" as you are happy for Google etc to see that you trust the site you are linking to.

In fact I`ve read that outbound links can, if used properly, actually benefit your site.

I agree, linking to an authority site every now and then will likely help you. Also, note that I personally don't think Google doesn't follow every no follow link. Certain sites like Wikipedia, Yahoo answers, and others use nofollow for links but it would be crazy for google not to factor these links into their algorithm since they are pretty important.

No Follow tag is also important for the internal linking of your site

for example you wouldn't want to pass on page rank to your privacy policy or any other links you may have in the footer

Most webmasters use no-follow attribute to prevent people commenting on their blogs to get a backlinks. Google advices blog owners to use no-follow attribute to prevent spamming.

It has been very proved it didn't work at all. Never stopped spammers...

people do this because there are many bots out there try to steal their page rank juice.back at time when page rank not become serious issue word follow or not is unthinkable on that time

Good just came up with this attribute because of the nature of how web 2.0 works. In the past webmasters were being held accountable for what sites they link to. I.e if you link to a spam site you will basically get penalized. The problem with web 2.0 is that everyone can get a link on anyone's site just by leaving a comment so what this meant was that the webmaster was no longer in control of what his site links to.

Google solved this issue by telling webmasters to use the nofollow attribute on all hyperlinks that their visitors place on their sites not to get penalized. The also ask webmasters to use the nofollow attribute on all hyperlinks that were paid for (i.e. advertising)

Danny...

We get you! But think that the only one with the power to put the attribute to a site is the owner or webmaster. So, I think that any affiliate program owner that includes the NoFollow attribute to his
affiliate's tools is just a fool for not taking advantage of the extra benefit.

This is a really helpful imformation