How to globally set rel nofollow for affiliate links

[CatfishPKR]

Ok, so it seems that Google does not like affiliate links, and making the rel: nofollow helps avoiding problems in the SERPS.
On my sites I have cloaked my affiliate links with html redirects. I have created a /go folder and put individual html files in there, then my affiliate links on the site are mysite.com/go/destination.html.
The files contain: meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="2; url=http://affiliatelink.com/"

If I want to rel: nofollow them all, how do I do it? Is it enough to add the rel: nofollow attribute to the .html files, and what would the correct coding for such a link be?

[digitalkube]

One of the best solutions, in my opinion, is by using robots.txt for this method.

Add an additional slug to your affiliate links like example.com/go/affiliate

Then simply add this to your robots file:

Code: Select all

Disallow: /go/

In this way, Google bots won't crawl your links so that means no indexing until and unless you index them manually

[CatfishPKR]

My sites are all set up like this already. Are you sure that the disallow has the same effect on SEO?
You said that Google won't INDEX them, but my concern is that Google's algo will react to my outgoing (affiliate) links in a way that negatively affects my SERPs. That is what some SEOs say can be avoided by the nofollow attribute.

[digitalkube]

My sites are all set up like this already. Are you sure that the disallow has the same effect on SEO?
You said that Google won't INDEX them, but my concern is that Google's algo will react to my outgoing (affiliate) links in a way that negatively affects my SERPs. That is what some SEOs say can be avoided by the nofollow attribute.

See, in general terms, a NOFOLLOW tag added to a link makes it invisible for the search engine bots. NOINDEX, on the other hand, doesn't make anything invisible. Instead, it tells the bots to not include the page or link to their index.

A link that is disallowed in the robots file won't also be indexed. Why? Unlike NOINDEX or NOFOLLOW, Disallow simply blocks the access to the URL. As a result, if Google bots can't access it, they can't index it. Simple

[CatfishPKR]

Maybe I don't understand the concept of indexing correctly. If an outgoing link on my site is not indexed, Google cannot use it in order to determine my rankings?

[justibatata2810]

Hi, You can visit viewtopic.php?t=470383 to insert rel="nofollow" in your website

[Bayode1]

A lot of nofollow links isn't advisable as google might consider you as someone who don't want to give back something for any other person. Link juice is important, but saving every bit of link juice is unnecessary, unimportant for google.

[marinkaas]

Ok, so it seems that Google does not like affiliate links, and making the rel: nofollow helps avoiding problems in the SERPS.
On my sites I have cloaked my affiliate links with html redirects. I have created a /go folder and put individual html files in there, then my affiliate links on the site are mysite.com/go/destination.html.
The files contain: meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="2; url=http://affiliatelink.com/"
http://stylufka.pl/wlosy-do-ramion-ombr ... ie-trendy/

If I want to rel: nofollow them all, how do I do it? Is it enough to add the rel: nofollow attribute to the .html files, and what would the correct coding for such a link be?

It depends on how many affiliate ads you have on your site. If there are a lot of them and the site is overloaded and it takes more time to load it than before the ads, this is how it affects the serpents. If you have one or two ads that do not cause major delays in loading the page then you should not worry about nofollow