Will an inbound follow link on a site be devalued by an inbound affiliate link on the same site?

[ipancake]

Hey guys, quick question I didn't find an answer to online.

Scenario:

1. Site A links to Site B. It's a natural, regular, follow-link

2. Site A joins Site B's affiliate program, and adds an affiliate link

Question: Does the first, regular follow link get devalued by the second affiliate link?

Cheers!

[SEO5Team]

Hi Maksym,

Are the links on different pages of site A or on the same page. It would be advisable to put them on different pages. The regular link on the existing page and the affiliate link on the page hosting the affiliate content.

Cheers,

SEO5

[Chris.Menke]

The affiliate link should be nofollowed so it wouldn't impact the regular, natural link, even if they are on the same page.  If the aff link is not no followed and is on the same page as the regular, natural link, the link that is first in the html will be the one that counts, so if anchor text is important, the one with the preferred anchor text should be first on the page.  If the two links are on separate pages, it won't matter.

[Everett]

Most of the time the URL will be different for the affiliate link because tracking is involved. If this is the case then you don't need to worry about which one comes first, or one devaluing the other.

However, if both URLs in the href tags are exactly the same, the answer is Yes - the one nofollowed link could devalue the followable link, even if the nofollowed link is below the followed links. The issue Chris Menke is referring to above has to do with anchor text, not follow Vs nofollow. Yes, the anchor text in the first link is what counts. However, if any link on a page is nofollowed Google may choose not to follow that same link elsewhere in the document. This is an issue that was looked into when people were using nofollow tags to sculpt pagerank.

[Chris.Menke]

Thanks for the clarification Everett.