Will affiliate links in sidebar kill SEO practices?

[Harvey_6]

Anyone who can help me out with this? I've working on my website since this year and I don't have that much knowledge.

[rproffitt]

Interesting. Is this some attempt to avoid what looks like Google penalizing unchecked affiliate links? I'm reading https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/187aun2/affiliate_sites_are_getting_stomped_by_google_and/ and it appears that such programs are no longer a sure thing. What do you think about this?

[Dani]

No, rproffitt. The link that you found is irrelevant and talking about something else entirely. It is discussing people with affiliate sites advertising with PPC (paid), which is different than SEO (organic).

To answer your question, to err on the side of caution, I would use the rel link attribute when linking to the affiliates, as so:

<a href="https://www..." rel="nofollow sponsored">Affiliate Link</a>

That sends a request to Google that the link should not be followed because it is, essentially, a sponsorship. It used to be a directive, but Google downgraded the attribute, and so now it's just a request, but Google does tend to honor it. It also gives Google some context into why those links are there.

Good luck!

[Dani]

Over in the noted SEO discussion it looks grim.

Yeah, Google doesn’t like to promote affiliate sites, which is what that Reddit thread is about. However, the OP doesn’t have an affiliate site. They want to link out to one, making the Reddit thread irrelevant.

[Dani]

If I follow you then the link out in the SIDEBAR will have the same effect

Huh? Same effect as what?

But let's hear more from OP!

The OP’s questioned seemed pretty self explanatory to me. In this case, and this very much does not happen often with seo, I was able to provide a definitive answer without needing any additional clarification. Hopefully this helps other people stumbling across this thread as well. :)

[Chris Hüneke]

Well, Google will propably lie, if you ask them.

The question you are asking, is...

If you advertise and earn money with something, Google doesnt't get his rev share - will it keep giving your site the same visibility or will it prioritize showing a website, which displays Ads, on which Google makes its cut.

The SERPs belong to Google.

Which sites are being favoured to be shown on top?

Easy.

The ones, paying the most.

@Dani: btw. The link is not irrelevant. There's some interesting discussion (see images attached)

[Osama_Khan]

I am not as expert as others are here , In my opinion Affiliate links in your sidebar won't necessarily kill your SEO, but they can if you overdo it.
make sure the links are relevant to your content, don't clutter your page, and use natural-sounding link text. Focus on creating great content first, and use affiliate links as a bonus.

[Finacus]

Affiliate links in your sidebar aren't necessarily bad for your SEO if used correctly. Make sure they are marked with the "nofollow" attribute to avoid link equity being passed on. Strike a balance by not overloading your site with affiliate links and focusing on high-quality original content. Properly managing your affiliate links will help maintain the SEO health of your site.

[QuintinFields]

I’ve dabbled with affiliate links in my sidebar, so I can share some of what I’ve learned. From my experience, it doesn't necessarily kill your SEO if you handle it properly. The key is to make sure you’re not overloading your sidebar with links and that they’re relevant to your content.A couple of tips: use the nofollow attribute on your affiliate links to avoid passing PageRank to those external sites. This helps Google understand that you’re not trying to game the system. Also, keep your content high-quality and your user experience top-notch – that’s what really matters for SEO.
If you’re just dropping in a few well-placed, relevant links, you should be fine. But if you start stuffing your sidebar with tons of links, yeah, that might start to look spammy and could potentially hurt your SEO.