This would not be considered selling links would it?
-
I have a site that is an informational site about a particular market segment. It is not a directory at all, but as part of the site I have pages for the various vendors, and have "states" pages that list which vendors sell in those states.
The site makes very good money on adsense. But I see opportunity in getting the vendors to pay to be listed in our site. At a minimum, grandfather in those already there, and then charge for new companies to be included. Most of the new companies are second-tier players anyway, and if they decode not to pay and get in, it's not to a detriment ot my site. But I do have companies lining up wanting to get in.
Of course my first thought, is what will Google think? I would of course make any link out to one of the vendors NOFOLLOW, so even even though they pay for inclusion on our site, I am not selling links for page juice.
Google loves us in search right now, so they have a favorable opinion of us. The site has lots of content, and new blog posts and comments all most pages hourly.
So, is this going to be okay with Google? I don't see how it breaks any rules, but thought I'd better check.
One further worry: If I change the new guys for inclusion on the site, and don't charge the old ones, that means I'd have the new guys NOFOLLOW, but the old ones would still be DOFOLLOW if I don't change them. I don't want Google to be confused thinking I might have sold those existing DOFOLLOW links as well. So, should I change them all to NOFOLLOW? And if I do, does that then cause anything that Google would not like (I know they don't like pagerank hoarding).
-
I believe that all links are seen as 'leakage' but by having a nofollow it shows that you aren't trying to spam or sell links for the sole purpose of link building.
-
Hard to give a definite answer here but if you look at some of the most popular sites on the web, the majority of them don't pass link juice.
-
Does Google think any less of sites that have nofollow on most all eternal links?
-
I think you would be well advised to proceed with caution here, especially if your site is already making "very good money" from adsense. You say your site is not a directory at all, but then say you have State pages that lists vendors and are considering adding a paid option for these vendors... well, without knowing anything more about your site, it sounds a lot like a directory to me. I would set all as nofollow just to cover yourself because the last thing you want is to take a hit from Google and lose all that very good money from adsense!
-
Nofollow seems like a good option for you.
While link building I have come across a website that will only dofollow paid links and nofollow unpaid links, when i questioned them (just for my own information) they said it was to give more benefit to the paid links over non-paid but they wanted to keep the non-paid because they offer value to the website visitor.
-
That is fine.
You can create nofollow for the vendors just to be safe to show Google it is not to be manipulative but just business.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is Publishing Content from a Book to your Site Considered Duplicate Content?
It is a book we don't own, either. Would you need to somehow find the original and rel=canonical it? Or is this just all around bad to do? Thanks.
Content Development | | ThridHour0 -
How can I make a clickable header on Tumblr (with several links to click)
I would like to make a clickable header with several links to click, for example the possibility to click Facebook & Twitter icons to get redirected to my twitter and Facebook page. I know how to make the clickable image and get the html for it. But where in the HTML on tumblr should I insert it? Can I override the custom header with my HTML header somehow? Appreciate all the help I can get, Thanks.
Content Development | | Fisken0 -
Translated text: should I use canonical link?
Hello everybody, I'm writing an article in Danish, which I have translated into English on a Danish blog. But I'm not sure if I have to use the canonical link from the English version to the Danish, or whether I should just publish both without using canonical link. What is your recommendation for this? Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks & regards, Jonathan
Content Development | | JoLinda910 -
How to encourage guest bloggers to link back
Hi, we have just started to allow guest bloggers on our site www.in2town.co.uk where we offer them two links within the articles, but what we would really like to do is to encourage them to link back to their articles. I am trying to find information on how we can encourage guest bloggers to link back and would love to hear your thoughts.
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Can you link build without adding any content to the website?
I am an agency-side SEO who has a few different SEO clients. A couple of them absolutely refuse to add any content to their site - no blog, no articles, no link bait, nothing. They have resisted efforts for any content to be placed on their site - whether it is written by us, them, or a third party. They just don't see the value in it, despite my attempts to persuade them. As a result, these websites are just brochure websites. What are your options for link building in this situation? If content is the foundation of white hat link building, what do you do if the client refuses to add content to their site? All help gratefully received! Thanks
Content Development | | kevinmorley0 -
Keep or remove a link directory with 700 entries?
Hi, I've a site which has a link directory included. About 700 entries. Each entry has an own page with a title, description and of course a link to the extern site. The link is not marked as "nofollow". The site is only linking to similar / relevent other sites. Now the seo question: Keep the link directory as is? Add a nofollow to the links? Remove the link directory? (and about 700 pages) Best wishes, Georg.
Content Development | | GeorgFranz0 -
Need a referee on article links
I need a referee on an issue. I have hired a company that does a decent job of creating a social presence for our company and its web presence. But the main feature I hired them for was to create and cast articlesinto the social sphere with back links to our main site. This was based on a premise that backlinks still matter. Instead the articles and posts they create are 1) posted on a separate url blog page maintained by them (but branded similar to our brand term) and 2) casts out to other social sites with back links to their 'blog-type' site, not our main site. In essence its a blog off the main url with articles/posts touting our product but linking back to the off site blog. I have requested that all the articles created monthly by them and cast out into the social sphere containe anchor text appropriate hyperlinks to our main site, not the blog type site, and they are resisting. I am willing to make a switch if the premise of creating links to my main site still holds in the SEO world. Their assertion is that it doesn't. They are getting the blog site to rank for certain key words that we also are trying to rank for and the blog site does have links to our site on their site such as an "our website" button. And they do create a lot of social activity buzz with twitter, youtube etc for our brand name. In all i like what they do except in two months they have created 305 back links to the blog and our main site has only 8. When they report they show me all the words the blog site ranks for, as if the main site doesn't exist. But wouldn't best practice still be for them to create the backlinks to our main site, not the blog and worry more about how the main site is ranking, not the cast site? Or has the SEO world changed so much that it doesn't matter. I want to be fair but I am drwaing a line in the sand on this.
Content Development | | arainey0070 -
How important is linking out to relevant, authoritative sites?
As I write blog articles for my site I often come across a situation where I'm quoting something from another site, or using a piece of data from that other site to make a point. I know it's nice and courteous to link to the source when I do this but from a pure SEO point of view, does it matter? Is there any benefit to linking from my site to other sites that are related and authoritative on the subject I'm discussing? I know I'll bleed off a little link juice to that external site that would otherwise go towards my internal links on the same page, but are there other benefits to linking out to known good sites? Is that any kind of signal to Google that I'm playing in a good neighborhood?
Content Development | | scanlin0