Relsponsored links

**RTJ2CP** · 23 August 2022, 4:10 am

Hello all,

I am trying to build a solid backlink profile for my affiliate company and I realise that non-sponsored links are considered far more powerful through Google's algorithm.

However, has anyone in the forum seen positive impact through rel=sponsored links?

Are they something I should pursue to improve my SEO standings, what is the general opinion on them, are they worth it?

Thank you in advance

**PaulEchere** · 24 August 2022, 5:44 am

Everything you normally hear about links is usually tribal knowledge and tap dancing. There is almost not real way to measure how effective something is. You may spot correlations, but that doesn't prove causation. In addition to link building you will be doing a hundred other things to try and move your website up the rankings.

The rule I used to follow so far - pure do-follow links, no sponsored (or any other) tags. This delivered good results i tandem with everything else I am doing.

**newcustomeroffer** · 24 August 2022, 7:06 am

As I understand it, rel=sponsored is to show that you're (potentially) getting paid for the link, so tagging outbound affiliate links with this is good practice. As for deliberately building inbound links with that tag, take a look at this which suggests that they aren't followed: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/qualify-outbound-links

**chaumi** · 24 August 2022, 10:32 am

Originally Posted by PaulEchere

Everything you normally hear about links is usually tribal knowledge and tap dancing.

Haha, another quote of the month! Pretty accurate, of course. But with enough exceptions.

So, you're considering whether you should actively seek rel=sponsored links into your own site/pages, Rory.

The answer is probably clear already. No.

Now, whether it would hurt you is not fully clear. But extremely unlikely. Maybe if you had a wildly distorted balance of them. But that's not going to happen. The most likely result either way is they'll just get ignored.

Will they help you? Again, unlikely. As NCO pointed out, there are 'rules' for their use. And those are for a reason. To be absolutely sure of their potential to be of any benefit (or as sure as possible) someone would have had to run a controlled test. It's possible they have, but to my knowledge, no one has. Not much point, since there are pretty clear guidelines suggesting it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

If you think about what NCO pointed out...if you did get some for an affiliate site...then, in theory, you're telling the algo up front you're paying (or might be paying) for links. Probably not a good idea.

OFC, if you were an operator, a number of rel=sponsored inbound links would naturally be expected (by association with the affiliate side of the business).

Taking these two and thinking about it, it's not quite clear (to me, anyway) how a search engine would know the difference between the two cases. One valid, one 'not valid'. Let's say 'questionable' rather than 'valid'. Some ways spring to mind, but whether they (the search engines) would 1. technically be able to do it or 2. even care deeply enough is possibly doubtful. Probably, if they do 'act' or 'take a view' on either, there are other combinations of signals they're taking into account.

But now you come to the question of 'is any link valid in some way'. The evidence says rel = sponsored or rel=nofollow aren't worth actively pursuing. But it's possible (I don't know) that just the citation itself (I'm thinking as a naked URL, whether in a link or not, or any form of link) could play some (positive) part.

Just a wild and speculative thought on that last bit, we probably need Randy or Michael M to comment.

**jonnymaxwel** · 25 August 2022, 2:30 am

For the most part, the rel=sponsored tag is designed to get good sites out of the filter (sandbox), which at one time sold a lot of links to their sites.

Of course, you should just focus more on dofollow links.

**RTJ2CP** · 28 September 2022, 4:03 am

Thanks very much for your help on this everyone!

We currently have a small proportion of rel=sponsored links which I think we will leave as is and continue with, as it doesn't seem to harm at all, and also makes the site look more natural. (As you say, a number of them are expected with the affiliate side of the business).

Best wishes,
Rory

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