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NoFollow, DoFollow, It’s All The Same To Google

Posted by Paul B | October 28, 2007 .

The whole point of the nofollow attribute is to do one thing, to say to Google “Please don’t include this link in any linking algorithm, ta very much”. It’s actually quite handy when it comes to affiliate marketing as it can help not only your website but also the site you are affiliating for, nobody wants to get panalised if they can help it. With this latest PR update I’ve just come across an anomaly that proves for a fact that Google are ignoring the nofollow attribute and not only crawling that link (as many people expected) but also factoring it into the linking algorithms.

A little while back I entered a partnership for a website and became their one and only affiliate, in order to facilitate my traffic the site owner create a mirror of his page under a different folder. In order to avoid any form of duplicate content penalty and just to be polite and not out rank his own site I nofollowed every affiliate link. I’ve checked the back links and other than one splog that has ripped one of my pages I’m still the only person linking into my affiliate URL. I’ve gone through each link in turn and double checked, each link is nofollowed. So how then that my affiliate URL is now a PR3? If Google are paying attention to the nofollow attribute then this should be impossible, yet it’s there clear as day. Unless I’ve missed something it looks to me like Google are ignoring nofollow, why?

I suppose it begs the questions, is part of Google’s trust rank algorithm not to trust webmasters and to crawl whatever they like?

Edit: One final note, ProBlogger has had his PR restored and confirmation from Google sources that the penalty was all about link selling, in that case I’m a bit annoyed, this Blog has never had a paid for link on it, in any guise.

(This will be the last mention of PR for at least 3 months :))

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5 Comments so far
  1. Koen NETHERLANDS Mac OS X Safari 522.12.1  October 28, 2007 4:59 pm

    I “suspect” Google of following these links too. However, I’m wondering if it counts for a link for PageRank too…

    I hope someone can tell us the facts :)

  2. SEO Optimization ITALY Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.8  October 28, 2007 5:02 pm

    I would say bash them, send them an email and tell them you never sold links just as problogger never did (actually state that they used to but you never did) :P Anyway now that you made me wonder about the nofollow, i use it on all of my affiliate links, i think it is time to check if those nofollowers work or not.

  3. Paul B UNITED KINGDOM Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.8  October 28, 2007 5:25 pm

    I’m gooing to send you my affiliate URL to have a look at :) The backlinks/ PR issue makes no sense at all!

  4. SEO Optimization ITALY Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.8  October 29, 2007 12:30 am

    Hey Paul,
    I checked all my affiliate links and seems like non has gained PR. I also received your email and replied back (yeah I know, from a different email, the one I actually use)

  5. jackbravo UNITED STATES Windows 2000 Internet Explorer 6.0  October 29, 2007 8:05 pm

    Dude….your name is funny…..Search Engine Optimization Optimization ;)