Nofollow tags on Affiliate links?

Is it safe to use the "nofollow" tag on affiliate links? My affiliate links all go through a redirect through the affiliate before going onto the merchant's site. But one a couple of pages I have quite a few links going out and want to minimise the PR leak, as it were. Also, not wanting to pass benefits of good anchor text to the redirect site or ultimately to the merchant.

Please advise if it's safe to use it.

Thanks,

Jez.

 

I would do it were it me.

 

Absolutely! I'm ranking for some phrases higher than their site and the last thing I would want is them jump ove me (though not sure how much direct links would help them since these are all affiliate links....).... Anyway, I'm making sure I have them nofollowed everywhere ;-). There is nothing you can loose, just the time to put them up.

 

Oh yes there is something to lose - $$. I would be very careful modifying any affiliate links. Some wont work write if modified and some have TOS that prevent it. Carefully test to be sure the links are still tracking and there is no fine print saying if you mod links we dont have to pay you.

 

Using nofollow will not effect where or how the link goes to the website you are linking to. Since the nofollow tag exists outside the url itself, it has no effect on the link. The same thing goes for the target= tag.

Now, if there is something in the agreement with the site you are linking to, reguarding nofollow, they could manually check for it and take action. I don't think I would want to do business with a site that prohibits you from using nofollow. Anyone that is using an affiliate program for the intention of link popularity has a few wires crossed.

Personally I would not link to an affiliate without using the nofollow tag.

 

Great advice. Thanks everyone. I checked with the brokers as i got a mixed reaction here and they say it's fine - they also said that affiliate links rarely get spidered by SE's anyway but there is no problem (in this instance) to use the nofollow tag.

Thanks once again, guys.

Jez.

 

It probably depends. I'm not sure now, but one year ago when I started with that particular company, google was full of their affiliate links, sometimes ranking higher than them. Wouldn't be surprised if Google index improved from that time, though.

 

I'm not sure why an affiliate link would not be spidered. Technically I think an affiliate link would be the same as any other link. Google spideres links with operators just the same as links without them.

Are they referring to links through certain affiliate networks. CJ, SAS, etc.?

 

Well it is like any other link, but it is duplicate content, you have x hundred pages all showing same content.