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Rank In SERPs Dropped After Adding No Follow Codes
juderm
Posts: 31
Joined: 28 Feb 11
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17 Dec 13 11:54 pm

Rank In SERPs Dropped After Adding No Follow Codes

I need your help to figure this out. I created a site with almost 17 posts and affiliate links (text links and image links) to some of the posts.

My site 's homepage keyword is ranking page 3 in Google so to improve ranking I added the "no follow" codes to each of the affiliate links, however few hours after adding those codes my site went down from page 3 to page 500 in the Google search. It stayed there for one day and it went back again to page 4 and now it is in page 500 again. I added them correctly and made sure everything is on the right track. Why is this happening?

I was confused! It was better before I added the codes. Should I remove them all again? Will my site go back to the previous page 3 or higher? Or is this just temporary? What was your experience when you added the "no follow" codes to your affiliate links?

I would appreciate your help and answers. Thank you!
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cecille.l
Posts: 6369
Joined: 25 Feb 11
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18 Dec 13 3:14 am

 Hi Jude,

I'm sorry to hear your site dropped rank in the SERPs. Adding "no follow" code on your affiliate links has no direct impact on your pages' rank. All the "no follow" code does is to tell search engines that no link juice should be passed from your site to the site the link refers to.

Is your site new? If it's online now for less than 6 months then you can expect that your pages' rank will fluctuate as search engines are still determining your pages' relevance to their target keywords. I suggest you continue with your link building efforts. Your pages' rank will soon stabilize.

Hope that helps. Have a good day!
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Cecille

Building affiliate marketing websites is a breeze: https://www.affilorama.com/affilojetpack
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juderm
Posts: 31
Joined: 28 Feb 11
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18 Dec 13 4:43 am

 My site is not new. It's been up since about 1 year and a half already. I did the changes of all my affiliate links in one sitting. I have 17 posts and from it about 9 posts with many affiliate links but I have not placed the "no follow" codes since I built the site. It's been in page 3 in Google with no "no follow" codes installed and I want it in page 1 so I thought that adding those codes will bring my site to page 1 but unfortunately this happens.

Is it because that I did all the changes in one sitting that maybe Google thought that I pinged my site many times in the span of 2 hours? I heard that pinging the site many times in one shot will trigger a penalty. I'm not sure tho. Thanks Cecille for your advise. I hope I can get more information.
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cecille.l
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Joined: 25 Feb 11
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19 Dec 13 10:01 am

 Hi Jude,

I don't think adding the codes did it. If you kept pinging the site each time you added the code then that might have some sort effect, but not so much as for you to lose your pages' rank just like that.

i suggest you look at Webmaster Tools as well as Analytics. Check the backlinks to your site. Maybe there are some negative links pointing back to your site that's affected your pages.

Hope that helps. Happy Holidays!


All the best,
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Cecille

Building affiliate marketing websites is a breeze: https://www.affilorama.com/affilojetpack
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/affilorama
 
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aletta
Posts: 3392
Joined: 09 Jul 06
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19 Dec 13 10:12 pm

 If you wanted to be a little scientific about it, try removing the "nofollow" tags from all your links again. See if that causes your page's position to stabilise.

If not, then it's probably something unrelated. Pages go up and down in the SERPs all the time as Google tweaks their algorithm. The tweaks are happening all the time now, so it's natural to move. If removing the nofollow tags doesn't solve it, then it's probably not anything you've done yourself, and you should just keep doing what you're doing.

One thing to check is that your pages are all still indexed by Google. Webmaster tools will be able to show you if any have dropped out, or if Google are having problems with any of your pages.
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