So we know Google does not want you to try to manipulate Google rankings, including through link schemes. So Google tells you to use the nofollow link attribute as a way to avoid being penalized. Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that a good general rule is to use the nofollow on any link that is there for "monetary reasons."

John said "nofollow is good for any link that's there because of monetary reasons." The context was around should affiliate links have nofollows on them.

Here are the tweets:

I _think_ I know the answer to this. Should you nofollow an affiliate link to your own product? Would it be better if you didn't use an affiliate link altogether? I feel really dumb right now 🙄 @JohnMu — Jeff Hawley (@hashtagjeff) August 14, 2019

Yep, nofollow is good for any link that's there because of monetary reasons. I can't really comment on whether affiliate programs are ok with that, and it seems kinda weird to me that you'd make more from going through intermediates, but ... /shrug :) — 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) August 15, 2019

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Update: From John in response to this post: