Hey guys and girls. I've a question about outbound links on blogs and high content sites - specifically banners ads that a client pays for privately, and affiliate links of your own too. Apparently Google doesn't like pages that have too many "dofollow" outbound links. I read in some official Google text that the "nofollow" tag is recommended to avoid penalty. If you sell banner ad space privately, is it assumed that the link is dofollow, nofollow, or is this something that needs to be clarified? Also, is it recommended to use "nofollow" on your own affiliate links for the same reason? Thanks in advance for any help on this matter.
I dont remember exactly but I had seen a matt's video where he strongly recommended to use nofollow links for paid banners and other ad spaces. A quick search on Google or YouTube will help you for the confirmation. Well about Affiliate links what is the loss in adding them a nofollow code? I always do that.
The nofollow is especially to be used for denoting advertising links that are not placed their naturally. However, I think you should always carefully consider your sense of obligation to google versus running your business ethically under terms you set for yourself.
I've both heard and read that do follow affiliate links can hurt your site rankings. But of course, Google likes AdSense.
A large number of links that are outbound and Dofollow in nature will dilute the PR of your site and will result in the falling of the site in the search results. That is why if you pay Google a little bit then it will be safe.
It is sure that the nofollow link is better for your situation like this! Outbound links can not exist a lot on your site, that is not a wise act.
If the client is placing the banner ads for traffic, go ahead and no-follow them. If he's paying for the PR, then you might want to revisit the terms of your agreement. Nofollowing affiliate links is pretty much standard these days.