I have some sponsored links in my footer that came along with my theme. Unfortunately I cannot nofollow them as they are encrypted, and I'm not supposed to edit them either; I would like to block that part out from search bots by using iframes, but not sure how to do it. Could somebody explain to me step-by-step how to do it - I'm not quite savvy with this thing. Thank you!
if you cant (technically) remove them from the php files in the theme its highly unlikely your going to be able to recode the theme to show the footer through an iframe. change the theme or contact the designer and work something out. most will let you remove them for a smallish fee
You don't need iframe for nofollow links. Just follow simple steps. 1. Go to HTML section of your page. 2. find the corresponding link that you want to block form Search engines. 3. Add the codes in blue in the link codes rel="nofollow" example is given below. <a href="http://siteurl" rel="nofollow">Anchor text</a> Thanks all your done.
So can't it be made to work - as someone suggested to me earlier - by building a page with that footer, setting it to private, and using an iframe on it...something like that? I just want to avoid being penalized by Google for those arbitrary links. Does Google value footer links any lesser? Or perhaps there is a workaround you could think of? Thanks for the response.
well in theory it could work, but if the footer.php file in the theme is encrypted to the point you cant change the links in there, then re-coding it with an iframe probably isnt going to be that easy either? and Google will not penalize you for those links, so i think you're worrying about nothing anyway. people talk about google devaluing outbound footers, but if they do, then that's the loss of the site they link to, not yours anyway isnt it? or are you concerned about losing a little PR from them? either way if you dont mind visitors seeing them, then I would just leave "as-is" and not worry yourself, there's enough other things that do matter to concern yourself with.
Relieved to know that...I feared after reading somewhere that Google might ban you from their index and blah blah, if the linked sites are irrelevant/suspicious and exist on every page. I have 4 links in the footer, which, although not suspicious, are irrelevant and have low PR. Visitors seeing them isn't a problem, they're obscure. As for PR...lol..yea, it would be nice if we could help it leaking away. Is there a way to nofollow them from elsewhere? Like how we can apply noindex from outside, using robots.txt? Thanks for responding again, appreciate it!
SEOibiza has given you the correct advice. I wouldn't worry about them unless they are pointing to some blackhat site... If you're REALLY that worried then get a new theme. They are a dime a dozen. Thesis from DIYThemes.com is my favorite and WELL worth every penny, even for the developer license.