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[THB]

Pseudo question:

I have a website that has 100K pages.  On about 50K of those pages I have information that is fed to me via an outside 3rd-party website.

Now, I like to give credit where credit is due, so I add a backlink to the website that is feeding me this content.  A simple backlink like so:

Information provided by: Company ABC

Now, this 3rd-party website wants me to remove the nofollow tags from the backlink, but I am very, very skeptical because to me, sending ~50K dofollow backlinks to a single site might make the Google monster upset with me.

This 3rd-party site is being very hard-headed about this, to the point where I am thinking of terminating the relationship all together.  I digress.

Scoured the net before writing this, but couldn't really find anything directly related to my issue.

Thoughts?  Is a nofollow required here?  We're not talking 1 or 2 links here; we're talking tens of thousands (50K is low; it will probably be upwards of 100K when all is said and done as my site has many, many pages).

Thanks in advance.

[SEODinosaur]

This is very tricky.. Giving them thousands of backlinks in one shot might raise a flag. However, are these links all anchored the same or would it look like natural links? (natural link profile = mostly URLs/brand mame some with exact/diverse anchor text.)

IMO they do deserve the credit for their work (do follow). However, doing all this in one shot with a thousand links is going to look like you sold them links/that they bought those links (NOT a natural progression). This may negatively influence both parties. I would recommend asking them if they are ok with a few links so it looks naturalt and let them pick the links they want. Also, let them know that by you giving them thousands of links in one shot can hurt their site...

[THB]

Thanks for the prompt reply!

And we're talking ~100,000 backlinks as that's how many pages on my site that will be using their content.  The content is actually mortgage rates that they offer, and is ultimately an affiliate program.

Their link would be a standard brand name backlink with no targeted, rich anchor text.  Literally, it will be the exact same anchor text/backlink URL on every single page their content is used.

I have looked at how many big players on the net handle this kind of situation, and it appears that they all have nofollow on the backlinks in identical situations, but with other companies.

[SEODinosaur]

Yeah this makes sense, it's ok to have links within articles to other sites that help the users. However thousands of links appearing at once is playing rush and roulette with a fully loaded gun. IMO you are better off taking their content down then giving them thousands of followed links in one shot.

[THB]

This is what I'm really leaning towards.  At the end of the day, and one of the first "tips" I ever read regarding SEO and Google/crawlers, is: "does whatever you're doing look natural?"

SEO has become very, very complex over the years in terms of what you can/can't, should/shouldn't do.  I don't even know what's natural and what's not anymore it seems.

[SEODinosaur]

Yes it did become more complex and will continue to do so. However SEOmoz has always for the most part suggested building for the users within Googles guidelines.

I like to think of Google as the God of information and its rules as a bible that SEOs need to follow... Just like the bible everyone interpits it in their own way and tries to be good...