Cloaked No-Follow Links

peter_d · 09-11-2007, 06:27 PM

Some advertisers are hiding or cloaking their no-follows.

i.e, if you look at the source code, you won't see a no-follow tag. However, the link is no-followed, using other means.

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/014763.html

Quote:

One publisher actually was accused of "breach of contract" over applying the nofollow attribute to an advertisers link.

So I JUST got an email from the once a quarter person that I contact about payment saying that these nofollow tags need to be removed!

"This needs to be removed as per our initial agreement"

In fact, some publishers admit to cloaking the advertiser links to be nofollowed to GoogleBot and not to humans.

I've been nofollow'ing paid links for some time, although in my case I cloak to only serve nofollow to GoogleBot. Unless someone has purchased a link explicitly for SEO benefit then they cannot expect to get it.

Something to watch out for. It's easy to check to see if a site is user agent cloaking for Googlebot - simply change the user agent in your browser. It's a lot more difficult if they are IP cloaking, but I doubt most would go to that level.

Manish Pandey · 09-11-2007, 06:30 PM

Oooo....cheaters...

Peter fast as ever! Thanks!

Cornbread · 09-11-2007, 06:51 PM

I am sure many directories will soon go to no-follow out of fear of Google. So, then, if they do, can those that bought links in the past, expect to get a refund for thier listing? What say you directory owners? Are you planning future no-follow tags? and if so, are you going to be providing refunds for those that bought links in the past hoping to get link juice?

peter_d · 09-11-2007, 07:15 PM

No-follow was intended for one thing: to prevent comment spam on blogs.

It failed.

Personally, I loathe no-follow. If a link isn't worth following, I don't put it on my website.

Cornbread · 09-11-2007, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter_d

No-follow was intended for one thing: to prevent comment spam on blogs.

It failed.

Personally, I loathe no-follow. If a link isn't worth following, I don't put it on my website.

Of course that is the company line, but with Google's latest attack on paid directories, many directory owners are running for the hills with their tail between their legs in fear. In order to survive they feel they must add no-follow tags or get zapped by Google. Or, won't they just add Robots Exclusion Standard code to their links page to keep Google-bot off?

peter_d · 09-11-2007, 10:11 PM

Link farms seldom last.

Decent directories do.

ash1 · 09-11-2007, 10:30 PM

this is crazy, how do we findout if someone is doing this? is there a quick way?

Cornbread · 09-12-2007, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter_d

Link farms seldom last.

Decent directories do.

That would have been a good sound bite six months ago, but Aviva, eWebpages, Searchmonster and a few others weren't link farms.

coolguy27 · 09-12-2007, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cornbread

I am sure many directories will soon go to no-follow out of fear of Google. So, then, if they do, can those that bought links in the past, expect to get a refund for thier listing? What say you directory owners? Are you planning future no-follow tags? and if so, are you going to be providing refunds for those that bought links in the past hoping to get link juice?

Actually I've encountered many directories using that tag...

one way linking to them but the condition of the directory is that my site will be a nofollow link...

dee_el07 · 09-12-2007, 08:59 AM

sad to hear this.. especially to those people who are fond in doing a paid directory inclusions..

peter_d · 09-12-2007, 08:02 PM

Quote:

That would have been a good sound bite six months ago, but Aviva, eWebpages, Searchmonster and a few others weren't link farms.

How do you account for the fact that many of these haven't been affected?

http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php

kaykays · 09-12-2007, 08:13 PM

With the present emerging trend, it will not be enough that you just view
the source code to check whether the link is Javascript based on nofollowed.

One needs to go further and check the same in Google's cache of the page.

bond007 · 09-12-2007, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ash1

this is crazy, how do we findout if someone is doing this? is there a quick way?

I think we have two ways to check this:
1. as Peter already said you can change the browser agent
2. try to locate the page on which you're listed in the Google cache and inspect the source code

Cornbread · 09-12-2007, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter_d

How do you account for the fact that many of these haven't been affected?

http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php

Now that is the million dollar question isn't it? Some got spanked, and some didn't. No one knows why, and if they do, they aren't talking. However, from my amaturistic point of view, the ones that did get spanked, seemed like very solid directories, definitely not link farms as you alluded to.

peter_d · 09-12-2007, 09:28 PM

Right.

However, I have seen some very obvious link farms which call themselves "directories" get taken out. Not surprising.
I wonder if some good ones got caught up in the net?

Whatever it is, it's only affected a few.