Google's John Mueller said that if you can, it is best to use the rel=sponsored link attribute on your affiliate links. You can still use nofollow or combine them if you want, but it would make things clearer for Google if you uses rel=sponsored.
Here is John's tweet:
Yep. And definitely use rel=sponsored for affiliate links, if you can. And to be more complete: affiliate links are not bad. It's fine to monetize your site. Google's OK with that. There's no need to hide them, just use the right kind of link if you can.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) February 4, 2020
He said "And definitely use rel=sponsored for affiliate links, if you can."
If you forgot, Google announced changes to the nofollow link attribute back in September. Here is the chart summarizing that change from Moz:
The new link attributes are to help Google and Google said you do not need to use them. But if you help Google, does it help you?
In any event, if it is easy to change your affiliate links from nofollow to sponsored, then do it. If it is a huge pain, then don't bother.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
