XSitePro Website Design Software Message Board

Hi,

On my website I have quite a few redirect pages leading to sites I'm affiliated with (in order to hide ugly affiliate links).

I've heard that Google disapprove of redirect pages, but I don't know if that's correct. Does it help to add a 'nofollow' tag to the link?

Can anybody tell for sure?

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Kanute Fleming
OnlineBusinessAssistance

What Google doesn't like are what we call "thin" affiliate Web sites: affiliate Web sites that offer nothing of themselves, i.e., no new, unique, special or interesting content. They are just a site full of affiliate ads with junky content, usually from PLR articles. If you build a truly informative Web site (an "authority" site), Google will be overjoyed! They're not against advertising; that's how they make their own money! But they are cracking down harder and harder on thin affiliate sites. What they want is CONTENT: lovely, lush, rich, interesting, unique, informative CONTENT.

Redirects are not forbidden or "bad," and often they serve a good purpose, besides just hiding affiliate links. They also make it easier for you to maintain your affiliate links properly. Replacing a product that is no longer available is much easier, so old affiliate links don't get missed and therefore broken. The same applies to retiring affiliate programs or changing merchants when things go south. All in all, they can make for an easier maintenance job and therefore a better experience for your visitors.

Yes, do make sure your redirect pages are nofollow, noindex.

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Andrea Wilson

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Thank you very much, Andrea, your answer helped a lot!

In the linking window (in Xsitepro) there is a box you can check to make it 'nofollow', but how do I make the redirect pages 'noindex'?

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Kanute Fleming
OnlineBusinessAssistance

In Web Page > Advanced Settings > Robots, uncheck ALL THREE boxes.

_________________
Andrea Wilson

1. Custom XSitePro Templates. XSitePro Consulting and Training. FREE TIPS!

2. Off-the-Shelf XSitePro Templates! Versatile designs. Easy to manage and maintain!

3. AllWebMenus Pro and XSitePro Work Perfectly Together! NEW!

With normal pages I could uncheck the robots boxes (but I want those pages crawled and indexed), but I can't see a way to do it with redirect pages...?

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Kanute Fleming
OnlineBusinessAssistance

Oh yes, I forgot that we don't have access to these files directly. Best you can do is to manually edit your robot.txt file:

_________________
Andrea Wilson

1. Custom XSitePro Templates. XSitePro Consulting and Training. FREE TIPS!

2. Off-the-Shelf XSitePro Templates! Versatile designs. Easy to manage and maintain!

3. AllWebMenus Pro and XSitePro Work Perfectly Together! NEW!

Thanks, Andrea!

Then I have to do this for every redirect page, if I understand you correctly?

_________________
Kanute Fleming
OnlineBusinessAssistance

Correct.

_________________
Andrea Wilson

1. Custom XSitePro Templates. XSitePro Consulting and Training. FREE TIPS!

2. Off-the-Shelf XSitePro Templates! Versatile designs. Easy to manage and maintain!

3. AllWebMenus Pro and XSitePro Work Perfectly Together! NEW!