Adding the link masking directory to robots.txt?

Hey guys,

Just want to know if you have any experience with this.

Is it worthwhile blocking search engines from following the link masking directory.. (what i mean by this is the directory that holds the link redirectors to an affiliate site:

example:
mydomain.com/go/thislink

goes to
amazon.com/affiliatelink

I want to know if blocking the go directory in robots.txt is a good idea or a bad idea?

I am not using wordpress but rather a custom built php site where i need to manually decide on these things.

any advice would be much appreciated.

i use no follow ,no index with hidden links

but no follow or no index....
...doesn't mean search engines can't read it

misteryou. said:

i use no follow ,no index with hidden links

but no follow or no index....
...doesn't mean search engines can't read it

Click to expand...

totally agree.
hence why i am blocking the /go/ directory in robots.txt or maybe even htaccess
i want to know if that is a bad idea?

anyone?

Sir,
according to me it's not a good idea at all!

SEOZONE3 said:

Sir,
according to me it's not a good idea at all!

Click to expand...

thanks for replying.
may i ask why in your opinion?

I'm pretty sure google can and will follow the links still and follow the redirect, they're going to want to know what your still doing. I wouldn't say its a bad idea, your cloaking you affiliate links as to ensure you get the commissions, I see a lot of sites doing this. Just don't put to many of these type of links on a single page or it will cause a penalty. I seen spencer haws write a post about this on his blog that caused a penalty because he had like 50 of these links on a page and once he numbed the number down the penalty was lifted.