Do you get penalized for cloaking the nofollow attribute in reciprocal link?
-
Is it bad to present a link to SE robots as a no-follow link, while normal users see it as a do-follow link?
-
I did read all, and my comments summed up my thoughts.
You are being deceptive and trying to justify it by saying you are cleaning up the web.
When Ryan rightly said that presenting one think to search engines and another to everyone else, you dishonestly put words in his mouth with some mumblings about a third party website owner, you don’t see able to cope with what he did say and instead pretended he stated something else.How do you reconcile these 2 statements?
Everything but the tag remains unaltered,
I provide EXACTLY THE SAME information on a page to both users and SE RobotsAre you presenting the same, or are you altering the tag?
And what is this decoy
“I am neither hiding my affiliate links nor cloaking ads to improve CTR.”That’s not what he said. He was talking of your no-follow trick you asked about; again you seem to be un-able to cope with the facts.
Putting words into someone’s mouth is dishonest and childish. Is this something you have done all your life?
Next time you want to make stupid comments read the guidelines first.
-
I never said that i am doing this. I wanted to start a mini-discussion.
Next time you want to comment, make sure you have read everything thoroughly and stick on topic. There is no need to comments that are not associated with the topic. Thank you.
-
I dont think you are being honest with yourself, us or the people you have reciprocal links with.
-
You are being deceptive.
And by the way, you still leak link juice wether it is no-follow or not. The only difference is where the link juice goes. To the other site, or up in smoke.
-
My only goal in responding was to answer your question. I am sharing with you the information that Google, the primary search engine for the US and Europe, has shared. I am not debating my personal views on the topic, but simply sharing how Google views the issue. If the explanation I offered helps in any way, then I am glad. If you disagree with it, that is certainly your right.
There is no debate here. You are clearly cloaking, it is a violation and since it is blatant and intentional, I would suggest it is a severe violation. Your beliefs, my beliefs, your intentions, etc are all completely irrelevant and will never be considered on any level by anyone. The only time they will even be heard is after your site is penalized and you are completing the Reconsideration Request explaining why you violated Google's policies. Even then, they are unlikely to be directly responded to.
Good Luck.
-
"Presenting the links as nofollow to search engines in no way contributes to cleaner, better SERPs" - are you aware of the fact that no-follow links do not pass the link juice?
So, website owner who is buying/exchanging links with another website is NOT growing their links naturally and hence, according to Google guidelines, every link should have a no-follow attribute.
"Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings": i am not trying to improve my search engine rankings.
"Robbing a bank" - ?????
Who am i trying to rob? I provide EXACTLY THE SAME information on a page to both users and SE Robots. I am neither hiding my affiliate links nor cloaking ads to improve CTR.
-
You are welcome to other opinions, but if they differ they are wrong. There are relatively few hard facts in SEO but you have clearly touched upon a basic one.
Quality guidelines - basic principles
-
Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."
-
Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Some examples of cloaking include:
- Serving different content to search engines than to users.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66355
If you go through with your actions, it is pure cloaking which is a highly intentional and deceptive act. Your words about your honorable intent are absolutely not valid by any reasonable means. Presenting the links as nofollow to search engines in no way contributes to cleaner, better SERPs. Even if they did, it would be like robbing a bank, giving the money away and then when you are arrested stating you were just trying to help society. You may disagree with the analogy but it is actually pretty good. As a webmaster you contribute by following the rules and guidelines, not breaking them.
-
-
Everything but the tag remains unaltered, i am not feeding SE robots with different texts, links or whatever.
Thank you for your answer and i am looking forward to more opinions
And oh, about the reason: I am just wondering if we get penalized for providing search engines valuable information and contributing towards the cleaner, better SERPs.
-
Any time you intentionally target search engines and show them different content then normal users, it is cloaking and you can be penalized for the action.
I cannot think of any reason to perform such an action unless you are trying to deceive your linking partners.
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
-
Internal Website Linking from Syndicated Blog Posts
Does it help, hurt, or do nothing for my website's SEO if I do internal linking from syndicated blog posts (on my blog) to my website pages? For example, a syndicated blog post on winterizing your house has instances of "homeowners insurance" linking to my webpage on homeowners insurance. Proper canonicalization is done as well.
On-Page Optimization | | BFMichael0 -
Pyramid link structure - how to noindex, nofollow
I'm talking about this article: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/learn/seo/internal-link Take this sample: HOME --> Shirts --> Plain shirt --> shirt#1 Product page: noindex, follow all links except 1 from breadcrumbs to nearest category (plain shirts). SubCategory page (plain shirts): noindex, follow all links except 1 link from breadcrumbs to nearest category (shirts) and all products belonging to current subcategory. Category page (shirts): noindex, follow all links except 1 link from breadcrumbs to front page (site.com) and links to own subcategories. Front page: noindex, follow all links except 12 links to main categories (shirts, pants etc.) Is it correct? If I noindex some parts of website, will it be harmful?
On-Page Optimization | | SilverStar10 -
How can I nofollow my affiliate links?
I have a lot of affiliate links and I need to find an efficient way to nofollow them. I have over 500 blog posts and most have an affiliate link. I use Wordpress and Genesis. Any advice?
On-Page Optimization | | 2bloggers0 -
How do I Avoid Excessive Internal Links on an eCommerce site?
I think I'm getting dinged for this on Term Target because the page is full of products, which have links to their product page, but I'm not sure.
On-Page Optimization | | PageLogic0 -
Will adding affiliate links negatively affect my SEO?
I'm thinking of signing up to a couple of affiliate programs related to my industry. Will adding affiliate links at the bottom of articles for example negatively affect my seo? I intend to have lots of useful content on my site and not just affililate links.
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Image ALT Attribute
Hi, Got a message from the On-Page Optimizer to update the ALT Attribute in an image. Does that mean just rename the image and re-upload it on to the site? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | OTSEO0 -
Alt attributes same as jpg name and keywords?
Hi everyone, Quick question: Is it better to have your jpg name and alt text slightly different to your keywords for that particular page, or is it better to have them slightly differently? At the minute I'm doing them all with a variation on the keyphrase I want to optimize for (long tail and all that...). Any input much appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | CMoore850 -
Nofollow tags
So on the homepage, should all the links like privacy, contact us, etc...be rel="nofollow" ? I want to get a better handle on passing as much link juice on homepage to important internal pages as I can, and want to get it right. Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | azguy1