"nofollow" attribute for links

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   Alison Grahamposted 14 years ago

   I am hoping that a more experienced hubber will be able to answer this question.
   Since the Google 'farmer' or 'panda' update many of us have been affected, seeing a drop to hubs that were previously doing well.
   I have been doing some research 'off-hubpages' and trying to work out why some of my sites have been affected and some not.
   One of the recommendations I have come across outside of hubpages is to use the 'nofollow' attribute for any affiliate links.
   I notice that no amazon links have this attribute by default. But I have been adding this to any links I place on my own sites - there does not seem to be a facility to do this on hubpages.
   I understand that google ads all have this attribute in them by default - and I would think that G have a good reason for this.
   As hubs with amazon links are among those worst affected by the drop in traffic, would it be worth the hubpages team doing an experiment with some amazon hubs that have been particularly badly affected but which were previously doing well?
   I have definitely noticed a recovery in my own sites after making the change but this may be co-incidental.
   
   In a logical follow-on to this, could there be the option to make an external link from a hub 'nofollow' - there is already the option to make it open in a new window?
   
   As a footnote, duplicate content such as news capsules does seem to have affected hub traffic badly - is there a case for removing this capsule globally from hubpages and no longer offering it? In addition, the option of limiting RSS feeds to just a hub title might also be considered?

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      thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Just so you know Page Rank sculpting was nullified by Google years ago.  Having a nofollow attribute on a link means that the link will not pass page rank. HOWEVER, each link you place on a page will still take a chunk of the pie out of the value of the page a link is placed on.
      
      For instance
      
      A site with 50 links will pass on link juice with the buffer of 50 outbound links.
      
      A site with 25 links and 25 nofollow links will still pass on the link juice with a buffer of 50 outbound links.

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         Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Oli, I don't get what you are saying, probably I have a brain fart. Can you elaborate?

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      2. 97

         Alison Grahamposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         thisisoli, what I was driving at was that outbound links on a page that are dofollow could look like the sort of 'paid link placement' structure where people are paying to have their links placed on a ranking page.
         There are no end of adverts for this service online as you know. Having links coming off your page with the nofollow attribute says to me that Google would 'know' that you have nothing to gain from the provision of a link as a) no-one would pay you for a nofollow link and b)you are not trying to benefit from 'link juice' if the link is going to one of your own sites.
         I am pleased to hear that amazon affiliate link code on this site is nofollow but if you are an amazon affiliate and get a product link for use on your own site, the nofollow attribute is not in the link code by default - I have been adding it to my links. (btw, my grammar is not very good in the foregoing, when I say you, I don't mean you thisisoli, I mean anyone!)

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         livewithrichardposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         That is not entirely accurate according to Matt Cutts:
         
         http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/
         
         
         "So what happens when you have a page with “ten PageRank points” and ten outgoing links, and five of those links are nofollowed? Let’s leave aside the decay factor to focus on the core part of the question. Originally, the five links without nofollow would have flowed two points of PageRank each (in essence, the nofollowed links didn’t count toward the denominator when dividing PageRank by the outdegree of the page). More than a year ago, Google changed how the PageRank flows so that the five links without nofollow would flow one point of PageRank each."

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            thisisoliposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Same thing different example?

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   2uesdayposted 14 years ago

   This looks interesting and too good to lose it off the page before others have read it.
   
   It is good to read positive results from changes you have made.

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   IzzyMposted 14 years ago

   bump

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4. 69

   ThomasEposted 14 years ago

   Amazon capsules are nofollowed already. I just checked the code.

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