When should I dofollow a link?

[dealblogger]

I know I should have all my affiliate links as nofollow but when should I dofollow a link? When will it HELP me to have a dofollow link?

Right now - all my links are nofollow because I haven't figured out how to have nofollow and dofollow in the same blog post.

Any info appreciated!

[dealblogger]

Thanks!

[Robert_G]

Hello,

Here is a plugin that can take care of the job for you:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nofollow/

Just install it, and set it up. You can use it when you add affiliate links, too...  just check the nofollow box and voila, you're done.

[dealblogger]

Ok I see. So basically I should follow all my links except for affiliate links?

Is there a plugin that can help me do that? Because right now, the only thing I know how to do is follow or nofollow the entire page. I don't want to deal with code because it would take a long time for me to do. I am a deal blog and link have a lot of amazon affiliate links.

Edit: I am using Thesis.

[ThompsonPaul]

Actually, dealaholic, the question is better answered if you ask it in reverse - when should links be nofollowed?.

All links on a website should be do-follow except in specific circumstances. Essentially, the only time you nofollow a link is if it is commercial in nature, or should be untrusted.

Typical example of commercial is the example you use of affiliate links. Another would be if the link was part of a paid advertisement, for example. (Google claims it can recognize aff links, but it's a safe bet to nofollow them anyway to be sure, and to account for the other SEs which may not handle them the same way.)

Untrustworthy links are things like links within user-generated content where the site author isn't actually responsible for creating, nor is vouching for the links, even though they appear on their site. (Links from within comments or profiles are a perfect example of this.)

Search engines expect that hyperlinks are to be followed - that's the premise the web was built on. A site that extensively uses nofollow on what should be natural links will appear to be trying to manipulate the natural flow of the web - something the search engines have been going to great lengths to discourage and even penalize.

In addition to looking unnatural if a site unnecessarily uses nofollow, it can make the site very hard for the SEs to crawl. One of the most common ways a SE discovers the pages on a site, especially the new ones, is by following the links from pages it knows about, to those it doesn't know about yet. If you nofollow the internal links in your navigation and post contents, you severely interfere with the SEs' ability to crawl and index your site. (There are a few examples where you can help the engines make better use of their crawling time by not following links that are truly pointless to the SE on your site - like a link to your account signup page, which the crawler couldn't submit to anyway.)

So, TL:DR leave everything as followed except if the links are paid/commercial. or or are to site's you don't personally vouch for.

Hope that makes sense?

Paul

P.S. Found this direct from Matt Cutts on using nofollow.