A few years ago, while I was still on the client side of things, I received an email from a blogger I was working with. As part of our fledgling link building program, my company had been sending out free products in exchange for a review and link to our site. Oldest trick in the book, right? However, the blogger's email threw me off: she told me her policy was to nofollow links, and asked if this would be all right.
"Uh, sure," I eloquently responded, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about, "just as long as there's a link!" I then scrambled to look up just what in the heck a nofollow link was, and roughly five minutes later started cursing at my monitor. We'd just invested thirty bucks in a completely useless link!
While that may have been my viewpoint back then, my opinion on nofollow links has changed. Obviously, for those of us who are trying to earn links for our clients, receiving a nofollow link can feel like a slap in the face. But these links have hidden powers that make them just as important as followed ones.
Here's why nofollow links are more powerful than you might think.
Links build awareness
A link has a few different connotations these days. It could mean, "this is an article that supports my viewpoint, and you might benefit by reading it, too." It could mean, "I do a lot of shopping here, and I think you should look at their cute dresses." Or it could simply mean, "I like cat videos!" But at its very core, a link is designed to create awareness of something on a different page.
When you're out there trying to make people aware of your business, links are hugely important. SEO companies now offer link building services because businesses realize how important they are. So to that busy CEO who sees his or her website traffic dipping, and believes that links will give them a way to get back on top, a successful link building campaign is going to be really desirable.
That busy CEO is probably going to flip out if you say "well, we got 50 new links this month, and 40 of them were nofollow." But it's important that neither you nor the CEO (nor their marketing team) discredit the power of a nofollow link. Links still build awareness, as long as they are seen. They don't have to be followed. They probably don't even have to be clicked! They just have to be visible.
How many times a day do you see someone you follow tweet a link to an article with an interesting headline? Let's say the article is really well written, and is on a site you don't currently follow. So you add them to your feed reader. A week later, you think "oh, you know, that post I read is really relevant to this blog post I'm working on now!" So you link to it in your post. This accomplishes two things: one, it probably negates that original nofollow link from Twitter (more on that shortly), and two, it has made both you and your followers aware of that site.
Links lead to profit
A nofollow link can also directly lead to someone spending money on your company's products or services. If you consistently create awareness and engage with people, those nofollow links may earn you way more than domain authority. Don't believe me? Here's the story of how I became a paying Buffer customer.
A few months ago, I saw a tweet with a link to this case study about how Buffer responded to being hacked. I had no idea what Buffer was, but it gave me an idea for a blog post. After I wrote my post, I followed Buffer on Twitter. I engaged with them a few times (for example, mentioning them after my post went up), and they engaged right back.
Over the next few weeks, I visited the Buffer blog when they tweeted links to new posts, learned about their company, and admired the heck out of their content marketing skills. I'd say it was at about the two month mark that I decided to actually give them a try. A month later, I upgraded to the Awesome plan and began using it daily to manage not only my accounts, but also our agency's accounts.
To recap, this is how it all went down:
- I became aware of Buffer through someone else's Twitter link
- I followed Buffer on Twitter
- I engaged with their content
- I tried, subscribed, and ended up forking over $10 a month (well worth it!)
This was all because of a single nofollow link. Over the course of three months, my general awareness turned into lifetime value for Buffer. That one nofollow link directly led to profit.
You can make an equation out of this:
a + e = p
Awareness + engagement = profit. By becoming aware of Buffer, and having opportunities to engage regularly with them, I converted into a paying customer. This all happened because of social media, and all those links you see on social media are nofollow. (Who said there's no ROI in Twitter?!)
Links lead to more links
A few years ago, Joshua Unseth wrote a post for YouMoz explaining how a single nofollow link earned him a second link that was followed, increased his traffic, and boosted his article to the top of the SERPs for a specific phrase. His post, titled "The Importance of nofollow Links," has a really great conclusion that stresses the importance of even a single link:
To put it into context, of the people that came to the article as a direct or indirect result of the nofollow, ~1% made a comment on the article itself, and ~2% blogged about it – actually, if you count this article, then the results were blogged about by 3% of the visitors.
While I don't think that these numbers would hold on a site with more viewers, I think that they represent the way in which content ends up going viral. In the end, ALL IT TAKES IS ONE LINK, and its follow status doesn't seem to make a difference.
I couldn't say it any better! What Joshua wrote still holds true today – and in fact may be even truer, considering how many of us use Twitter to amplify messages and blog posts we enjoy, or rely on a feed reader to provide us with interesting content that we want to share on our websites.
Here's a real-life example of the potential power of a single nofollow link. Back in March, we published two maps showing the ISP landscape in the United States, and how the potential Comcast buyout of Time-Warner would affect it. The post was picked up by the Amazing_Maps Twitter account, which has more than 160,000 followers.
This was a nofollow link, obviously, as were the retweets that followed.
Two days later, we made it to the front page of the Huffington Post.
After HuffPo picked up the story, the maps spread to several other websites, most of which had followed links back to our blog post or homepage. But even if those links hadn't been followed, we still would have created new awareness of WebpageFX, our blog, and the work we do.
Like Joshua said: it only takes one. One link can lead to many.
How to make the most of your nofollow links
"Okay, Nicole," I can hear you skeptics saying, "I'm on board. nofollow links are powerful. Magical, even. But you don't see any of my tweets getting picked up by HuffPo."
Well, food for thought: we've published hundreds of blog posts, and only one of them led to a Twitter link (not ours) that led to HuffPo. Success on the Internet is all about being at the right place with the right content at the right time, and with all of the blogs, websites, and companies vying for attention, your chance at getting noticed is lower than low.
Here are some ways that you can make the most of your nofollow links, whether they're on social media, someone's blog, or elsewhere.
Motivate viewers to click your link. This might mean testing headlines, trying different tweets, or coming right out and saying, "look, if you click this, this cool thing will happen." For example, Buffer found that one tweet earned a blog post 100% more clicks than another, just because they changed the language surrounding the link.
Increase your audience. Want more people to see, click, and act on your nofollow link? Get a bigger audience. This may be as simple as following industry figureheads who are likely to follow you back, directly asking for shares, or sharing your post multiple times. Try emailing people of authority and asking (nicely) for them to check out your content. If it's really good, it may earn you a share.
Another trick: if you write blog posts or product content that references someone else, make sure they know about it. It may seem like you're just trying to stroke their ego, but it works. If someone wrote a blog post about me, heck yeah I'd tweet the link out to everybody I knew! (Unless it was bad. Then I'd just cry.)
Ensure your link is relevant. This, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects of a nofollow link. So many links on social media go unclicked simply because the content isn't relevant to them. This one is hard to control, because it's pretty difficult to know when your audience is going to be in the mood for your blog posts vs. photos of puppies, but you can still get ahead by thinking very carefully about what you share, when, and why.
Make sure your content is relevant, too. Okay, so your link got clicked. Great! But your bounce rate is at 99%. Not great. You can write the best headline in the world, but if the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is empty, nobody's going to stick around. Avoid misleading headlines, unfulfilling content, or just plain marketing to the wrong people.
This is honestly the biggest flaw of the ISP map I linked above. Lots of people checked out the maps, and even visited our blog to see the rest of the study, but then they left. Probably 99% of our visitors to that post have no idea who WebpageFX is and what we do. That doesn't mean the content was bad, but it just wasn't relevant to the kind of audience we want to attract (that is, potential clients).
Optimize your landing pages. What do you want someone to do after they visit your link? What's the next step for this visitor? Keep them around a little longer. Use a related posts plugin to provide some additional reading, or try a service like snip.ly to suggest relevant content or links.
Don't complain. If someone gives you a link and it's nofollow, please don't storm into their inbox with guns blazing. Maybe they just don't know you well enough to follow your links yet. If you're cool about it, the second link they give you may be a followed one. And even if it isn't, you're still getting exposure out of it, right?
A nofollow link isn't the end of the world
As SEO professionals, I know we're all aiming for followed links that pass a lot of "juice" to the websites of our clients. If we all had our way, earning links would be easy, every link would be followed, and Google would never, ever penalize websites for having too many links, or too many links of a certain type. We would all have millions of dollars, and would spend our days on the beach drinking fancy cocktails. Unfortunately... that's just not the way things are.
Honestly, a nofollow link isn't the end of the world, either for you or for a client. These links are valuable, and important for anyone trying to build their brand online. As I've shown, they hold significant power, and more than you might expect.
Instead of focusing on whether or not a link is followed, we should do our best to get those links in front of the right people at the right time, crafting content beyond the link that motivates conversions. As it is for everything in SEO, obtaining links is all about balance: the balance between followed and not followed, "juicy" links and dry ones.
In my case, that nofollow link I talked about at the beginning of this post went live, the blogger was happy with her product, and the review she wrote was fantastic. It led to a fairly high amount of clicks through to our site… and what do you know, even a few purchases. Seeing was believing for me, and now I'm an advocate of earning links in general – not just the followed ones.
Image Credit: Public domain images from Pixabay (links, beach); cat screencap from Maru's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/mugumogu); Twitter & snip.ly screencaps I took; Buffer blog (source linked in post)
You forgot one: Nofollow links may actually pass value.
As I wrote on YouMoz many, many years ago (2009?) "nofollow" isn't a commandment - it's just a guide. Google's algo almost surely weights a nofollow against:
If it's a relevant link from one trusted site to another, why shouldn't Google count it?
Put another way: It's beyond foolish to assume that Google doesn't use nofollow links on Wikipedia (for example) to rank sites. Same goes for links from a popular Twitter profile, YouTube profile, and any other trusted/quality site with an automatic nofollow policy.
Thanks for your comment, Jason! I dug up your post (and I LOVE that title): https://moz.com/ugc/the-nofollow-tag-is-a-lot-like-...
I like one of the comments from the thread there, which I think sums things up pretty well:
"I think that nofollow is meant to say Google that webmaster is not ready to share his page's Page Rank with that particular linked page. But Google can give some value to the linked page without taking it from linking page."
Food for thought. I'm not really debating that nofollow links don't pass some kind of value -- I don't really know how the algorithm/system works for sure, only the Big G really does. :) The reason I wrote this post was more because I've been hearing people get stressed out about not having enough dofollow links. I wanted to illustrate that, generally speaking, nofollow links can and DO lead to sales and conversions -- which are potentially more valuable for some businesses than PageRank. Hopefully that was clear, and if not I'll have to do a better job with my next post ;)
Thanks again!
Jason mentioned in his 2009 post:
While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and state the obvious and say that “follow” links are more valuable than “nofollow” links. Still, I've seen some results from my own work that highly-relevant nofollow links are boosting search results.
Unfortunately, he didn't share anything more about the cases where he experienced boosts in search results - Nicole do you have any personal experience on this?
I'm currently running a test to see if nofollow links can in fact boost rankings, which is what probably interests most SEOs.
My hypothesis is that nofollow links do not pass PageRank or anchor text value, which is what Matt Cutts said on his blog when nofollow was introduced. It will be interesting to see if Google's stance on this has changed over they years (not that I would expect them admitting it).
Hey Modestos! Unfortunately I've never been able to really conduct a case study or targeted test where the results clearly pointed to nofollow links = a ranking boost. In fact, my experience as a brand marketing manager would indicate the opposite -- but again, this is just speculation because I never did this in a testing environment or anything.
Also, Matt Cutts recently said again that social signals do not play a part in ranking. However, the specific quote from his video was that follower/fan count don't make an impact. So maybe there is a tiny, tiny bit of influence that share count has...? Hrm.
I think this would be hard to test, actually. I'm thinking of a few posts on the WebpageFX blog that have little to no dofollow links, but tons of social shares, and rank well for their targeted phrases. But my gut feeling is that they rank well because the content is good (appropriate length/keyword presence/low bounce rate/etc). I'll have to give this some more thought...
I've never tried to "prove" it, but it's a recurring theme in my work. Sites with quality nofollow links - and not much else - seem to do OK provided everything lines up in terms of quality, relevance, etc.
The problem with testing it is that you need nofollows from great sites - Wikipedia is just one example - and you can't really get those without earning follow links as well. Still, my guess is that a link from a Wikipedia article will boost rankings.
Proof? I ran into this exact scenario - a nofollow comment to a good blog post caused a spike in rankings...but it wasn't actually my site that was ranking; it was the blog post! Google Webmaster Tools implied it was my site!
I wrote it up here: https://www.analyticsedge.com/2014/06/hidden-value-blog-comments-nofollow-links/
Thanks - this is a pretty interesting scenario.
I agree that No Follow links do not pass value. I do, however, agree that they can be seen as an authority single and indirectly increase rankings.
Totally agree. Nofollows pass value but in not the same "number" as dofollow links.
Let's look on socials now. All over there are nofollows, but they're part of search results ranking factors. If nofollow doesn't pass "power", socials won't give You much but it's not. IMO all link counts but not in the same way.
I agree with your position on that, Jason.
I too believe in the same. But, will this really useful (practically)? Even MOZ is also not giving DA & Trust score to the NOFOLLOW links.
Hi Nicole.
Great post, and very timely. I actually do do a bit of link building for my clients, but in reality the majority of the links I build are nofollow. I explain to clients that it is all about the traffic, awareness and opportunity to gain links indirectly. For a brand new site, the traffic boost from nofollow links is really important.
I also find that getting your brand and name in front of the right people, over and over until they recognise you is a great way to improve your linkability - people like to link to sites they know, so if a nofollow link makes you known, it can earn you links.
Thanks, Mark! I agree, exposure is so important, especially now that consumers are tuning out more traditional marketing methods and other forms of paid advertising. It definitely worked with me and Buffer -- and probably a fair amount of other subscribers!
Totally agree with this approach Nicole. Links should be thought of as referrals that bring relevant traffic that's likely to convert in a goal funnel, not something that brings "link juice." Let's retire that term, shall we? Ha.
Agreed Brady! I have to admit that the term "link juice" makes me cringe a little... but sometimes it's the only way to describe what I'm doing and why to those who aren't really informed on SEO, and I'm not sure if talking about the dilution of a link's "magical powers" is quite as effective. ;)
Hi Nicole,
Loved the post. I definitely have been guilty have worrying too much about the follow status in the past. When it all boils down to it, the important thing is gaining exposure to your (or your company's) site and driving conversions. If these "nofollow" links can lead to more "follow" links, all the better.
Thanks and keep up the great posts!
Hi Nicole,
Great, great, great post! I think you should rename it to "The power of NoFollow links".
I totally agree and I think NoFollows are a great way to engage authoritative industry profiles which will then lead to more followed links. At the end of the day a link is a vote, an endorsement. I'd rather have a NoFollow from Rand Fishkin than having a followed link from a complete stranger.
For sure each vertical and country behave differently but I've seen some spammy sites ranking with 100% NoFollows in Google Italy
I would also recall the Webmaster tools series video where the lovely Matt Cutts says: "NoFollows don't pass juice but don't abuse them". So......if NoFollows don't have any value why you recommend me to not abuse them :).
Just about anything can be abused online, when you get right down to it -- even nofollow links.
Great post, Nicole.
I'd also argue that if a website's entire inbound link profile is 100% dofollow, that's got to raise suspcision over at Google. Websites surely acquire nofollow links of their own accord (from forums, blog comments, social media sites, some business directories, etc.), even if they are not willingly or directly engaging in any SEO and link building practices. I'd be curious to know your (and anyone else's) thoughts on this, as I don't think it's anything that's been 100% proven or stated before, however I certainly do wonder if it's something Google takes into account when assessing the 'naturalness' of a website's inbound link profile.
Hi Steve! Thanks for your kind words. This will be a bit of a long comment, so sorry in advance!
This is something I originally looked into when I was writing this post (that is, what's a "safe" percentage of dofollow/nofollow links) but I couldn't find anything concrete. The first thing that came to mind when I researched this, of course, was MyBlogGuest. Part of the reason they were penalized may have been the very high volume of dofollow links on their site. But I'm sure there were other factors at play, too.
I think that most of the time, Google can spot an "unnatural" link profile regardless of the amount of nofollows and dofollows. Not too many nofollow links from social media probably doesn't raise a red flag, but tons of sitewide footer links? Absolutely.
The potential problem with this is that we're allowing Google to decide what constitutes a "natural" link profile vs an "unnatural" one, and who deserves punishment on that basis alone. The truly gray area here is trying to decipher a website owner's actions. Did they know they were getting 100s of links from a directory? Were they trying to insert their links on unrelated websites? When the penalties get handed down, sometimes the people who receive them have no clue why, or what they did wrong.
To answer your question :) I doubt Google has a set percentage of no/do links they like to see. I'd guess they use other factors to make their penalty decisions. But it's hard for them to sniff out intent, and that's what worries me a little.
Cool, awesome comment, Nicole - thanks for passing on your thoughts :-)
I hear what you're saying but you also have SEOs out there like Chris Cemper who have seen patterns in penalized sites by vertical/industry--the ratio seems to be different by industry.
After all, who hasn't run into those industries in which sites seem to get away with a ton of spam as opposed to those in which sites get penalized for many fewer spam offenses?
Hey Shawn, I've run into that. I managed a site for a while with a direct competitor who was doing horribly, terribly spammy things (mostly cloaking/KW stuffing IIRC) and outranking everyone for ages. They finally got penalized (at least, I assume -- they disappeared from page 1 for a bit) but then came right back after gaining 100s of terrible links. It was frustrating!
As I think I said in a comment somewhere else in this thread, there's unfortunately not much you can do but focus on yourself and your efforts and let them be.
I admittedly haven't seen the research by Chris Cemper you're talking about -- would love a link if you have it handy!
Hey Nicole, yeah I see what you're saying and if we follow Rand's and others' advice by focusing on the user instead of the search engine, we should be penalty-free.
You can see Cemper's case studies here: https://www.linkresearchtools.com/case-studies/ but you have to subscribe to his tool to see the industry-specific link analyses. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing Shawn! Appreciate it!
Hey Nicole & Shawn
I just found this by chance - thanks for the menion - those 40+ case studies are certainly A LOT to read - hope you like them!
Something specific to the NoFollow question I got to offer is a current research, survey and follow up case-study that we just started this week
I would appreciate you taking the time to tell us your opinion & experiences in there too
https://www.linkresearchtools.com/case-studies/nofo...
Thanks & best regards
Christoph
Hello Christoph! I'll definitely check out the link and will chime in with my opinion for you! :)
Hey Nicole,
Thanks for spreading that awareness among Mozers. You are absolutely right. A no follow high quality relevant link are the strategies to make the customer engage with your content and out of that at least people who follow your site would yield a micro conversions in the long run and might become your customers in future. Marketing funnel as Rand said in the recent WBF is to start working on to initial part of the funnel rather than to bottom of it where most of us struggle to have the first mover advantage. So SEO being a long run play, these are essential too.
YES Amit, great comment! Precisely -- we should look at links (both nofollow and dofollow) as crucial components at the start of the marketing funnel. Awareness is what you need, after all, and links can give you that. I can't discredit the value of followed links for SEO/ranking purposes, but when it comes to creating awareness and driving action, even nofollow social shares are super important.
What do you think are the top factors involved when someone decides to give a no-follow or follow, given that they have a choice? I suppose more and more people are hesitant to award follow links now that we are seeing penalties on the rise.
Hi Tim! I think fear of penalties may have something to do with it, especially if the link-giver in question knows about them. In the example I opened my post with, the blogger later said it was her policy simply because she didn't want people to "game" her for link building.
So I think the two biggest reasons may be fear of penalties and unwillingness to be "used" for the power of a link. Both valid reasons, IMO.
That's true. If the link giver is knowledgeable about SEO I would think they would no-follow more often. I certainly take precaution when adding resourceful external links that are necessary. Thanks!
This is true that A good quality no follow link can pass certain value to your website. But Concentration on the do follow links should be you first priority. I observed that a good no follow link from an authentic and relevant source can pass excellent visits toward the website.
However with Panda 4.0 update, you should concentrate on good content around that link. I think that if a link (Dofollow or Nofollow) is in a web2.0 profile with good content, this will pass excellent value as compare to the profile that only has a link.
As you said in your blog... even though dofollow links are better than nofollow links, we should be happy if someone nofollow-links to us... after all a nofollow link is better than nothing.
Couldn't agree more with everything that you've written Nicole. We need to view links as an opportunity to gain relevant traffic and build brand awareness. I strongly believe that if you're working on a link building campaign, you should never target a site/blogger with the sole objective of gaining a link purely for the link juice value. There should always be secondary objectives of gaining awareness or traffic from relevant sites. That way, you only target the sites with a relevant audience, and regardless of whether the link is folllow or not, you still get value from the link.
Hi Liam, thanks for your comment! I agree, and you brought up a good point about relevance. I remember being so confused, years back, seeing links to unrelated topics in the middle of articles... and now I know why!
I've been doing link building for quite sometime now, it's fun, although I admit it's a bit frustrating too especially when I get nofollow links, which happens most of the time. After reading this post, I started seeing nofollow link in a different angle. Now I know it matters, and I should never underestimate it. Nofollow links can and DO lead to sales and conversions. :)
I'm glad you see link building as fun, Pam! Sometimes it frightens me a little, honestly. :) But I'm glad you can see nofollow links differently now. I think the proof is usually in the pudding -- when you see a nofollow link turn into a successful conversion or a huge social media mention of some kind, it can definitely change your perception of them.
So what is the result of debuts, NOFOLLOW link practice is good or not? Even I believe that NOFOLLOW link will help to gain traffic, not from search engine but from that particular site/blog. May be I am wrong, so just clarify myself to that NOFOLLOW is good or not.
I think even a nofollow link from a reputable website is better than a dofollow link from a non-reputable one.
i believe in nofollow to but is hard a lot to give same results
Just what I need! Very easy-to-digest article. Thanks!
i believe in it but each link having different results
Think about your business. Before creating any link you should know "If i create a link in this website does it add any value in terms of Bringing right audience/Right customers. If some one sees your link are they going to get some relevant information in your page which they expected before click ? If Yes forget NOFOLLOW DOFOLLOW !!! Just add your link. If users likes the link means search engines will definitely love the link. @ Nicole-- Thanks very nice article..
One more thing, i need your opinion for this statement--"You should be very careful while creating/Earning Dofollow links... If you are earning/creating a Dofollow link from low quality site then it can harm your SEO. But If you are building Nofollow link from low quality website it will not harm you " Please share your views on this
In my opinion, nofollow links are still valuable. I've ranked site with mostly nofollow links plus a few do follows only. Depends on how you use them.
You can get a free nofollow link at repdigger.com - type your company name and it will build your profile with a site link automatically.
Natural is the key here. Google wants you to receive links "naturally." I believe it is important to have a diverse link portfolio. If I am a normal Internet user I am going to comment, do some writing, etc. that could result in nofollow links. If all your links are dofollow this will also look suspicious. Keep it natural, keep it real! Perhaps Google looks at all links and some value is given "in that secret sauce sort of way" to those nofollow links you have. So the point is don't be afraid of nofollow links! Great post!
This is a very insightful post, Nicole - and a great discussion in the comments. It confirms some things I've had as hunches. Of course, a Wiki link is still of value even if it is a nofollow, and my feeling is the value of these is growing slowly over time.
Very thoughtful of you, Nicole! With the dramatic transformations in the web, and emergence of social media, any links can be equally potential. While the no-follow attribute doesn't directly pass link juice, they still have some tangible benefits to the marketer and value to the customers. .
i personally beleive that the nofollow keyword has proved itself to be a very useful for the blogging world. Now most SEO spammers when they come to know that they will just get a nofollow link by posting comment at your site, they will avoid to post unwanted link at your site.
[link removed]
All comments on this site are nofollow, though we will completely remove links that are off-topic or promotional.
Power of "no-follow" links give weightage to site as-well-as provide traffic based on page authority & relevancy, such as: facebook. It gives impressive traffic with more user database so no-follow links are important if they're relevant.
Thanks!
Great posts Nicole and Jason. I completely agree with all the points mentioned here....another thing is that google itself mentions that " in general we dont follow them" means there could be scenarios where it they could actually count these.
I was wondering if there were any kind of hacks or tools that could make a nofollow link give link juice! I think it doesn't make sense, or just may deserve some research or new innovation.
thanks for the article I think it makes sense to build link even if they don't pass link juice, after all they might get a worth lead. and conversion.
Hey Elias, no, not to my knowledge. The only thing you could do would be to ask the site with the nofollow link to change it (and that's usually a can of worms you don't want to open for various reasons).
Very interesting topic to discuss! I will go with do-follow links as it furious one. Overall article shared by you is nice and useful
Good article. I always thought that nofollows links had no interest in terms of link juice. There I am appalled! Now, I think there was a time to use them.
Great post Nicole! I agreed with you and always focus on quality linking whether it is Dofollow or Nofollow. But the only thing I feel missing is you didn't the fact that Nofollow links may actually pass value and we are not sure that from where we are going to get value.
I see the benefit of nofollow from the perspective of possibly drawing more traffic to a website. However, for myself who has a local business, I'm not sure I see the benefit of them. As the traffic that I may receive will most likely be from across the country. Since the money I make is off of photographing weddings and selling golden retrievers, I don't really see the benefit in my case.
Well i was come here to find what is the no follow link any way other sites clear my doubt , but your information is goods its similar to do advertising on sites who has good traffic but more effective way because you mention by someone thanks for this information have an nice day. :)
On a directory like PureLocal, I have nofollow to ALL external sites EXCEPT for Google brands and a few trusted URL's - Google telling us that pointing to "bad" sites . or too many "good" ones will either have us penalised or bleeding pagerank , the system is flawed no?
[Link removed by editor.]
We run a directory with about 110,000 listings , most of whom link to their website and many link to 5+ social profiles. Upon giving this more thought we are considering applying nofollow to all external links EXCEPT for Google/YouTube etc. Placing a nofollow to Google's pages seems to be counter intuitive and potentially subject to penalty if Google sees another site is not endorsing it at all and essentially stating , by use of mass nofollow , that the PureLocal website considers Google not trustworthy...ditto for Youtube...can someone please shed some light...?
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I'm thinking of using something like prweb where you can publish an article on multiple news websites. All backlinks will be nofollow. Has anyone had experience with this type of service and recommend it?
Hello Nicole,
Thumbs up to you! Interesting post.... I have a query in my mind. Can you please sort out it?
My website has 25% no follow links and 75% do follow links. No follow links are more than do follow links. Is this a good signal for my website? Do I disavow no follow links? No follow are increasing day by day. How do I stop it? Please tell me I am in confusion.
I was just confused about whether I should get a no-follow link or not. I was just going on building do-follow links. And it's damn hard to get even one. Then I read this post. My view changed. Now I am going to head towards both do-follow and no-follow links.
Think about it - everyone is now using nofollow links to keep their precious rank juice ... Google knows this and I imagine will soon change their algo , or already have done , to remove this short sighted spam solution.
Build your no-follow links , in a short amount of time they will probably have no distinguishable characteristics in the eyes of Google.to that of dofollows.
Katie
[Promotional link removed by editor.]
i have tried many dofollow backlink method but no one works.. and how will i sure that the webmaster will change their link with mine.
Completely agree over this post as NO-FOLLOW are still links which live on world wide web. This links to the website can provide direct or indirect real conversion to the website. The best example is in front of us. That is, i posted a comment here, now this comment will show my profile name. Now if you will wish to see my profile, you will definitely open the profile. My profile also contains the NO-FOLLOW links to various social networking sites which i manage and it also links to my site which is also NO-FOLLOW. But still if you feel like visiting my site or my social profile then? It may not help me drive you to any conversation right now, but it may be at some time you may remember that there is a site which i visited through MOZ community comments and that may help me with my current requirement. That's it. The NO-FOLLOW did the work :) So even NO-FOLLOW is amazing, it never hinders.
And hats off to you Nicole Kohler, bloggers like you who contributes in creating awareness regarding facts and funs.
Thanks for the post. It's good to know that nofollow links have a purpose.
Even its a no follow attribute, your site will be benefited in terms of traffic. A site of no traffic is not good for the seo of your website. But in passing link juice follow attribute could lift your site rank up.
I know this was written a while ago but I have some questions. I am a fairly new blogger and really didn't know much about follow and no follow links. I did, however, just receive an email from Google. This is what it said -
Google has detected a pattern of links from your site to other sites that is either unnatural or irrelevant. This pattern attempts to artificially boost other sites' ranking in Google Search results. Such unnatural ranking would cause search results to show preference for results not relevant to the user's actual query. It also violates Google Webmaster Guidelines. Therefore, we are discounting the trust in links on your site. This manual spam action has been applied toopinionsofone.com/. To fix this, remove the unnatural links on your site and file a reconsideration request. After we determine that you have complied with our guidelines, we will remove this manual action.
Here’s how to fix this problem:1
Identify unnatural links on your site
Look for links that were added to your site in exchange for some type of compensation like money, goods or services, or reciprocal links.
2
Remove or use <nofollow> on these links
The nofollow attribute allows you to tell Google not to crawl a specific link.
3
Submit a reconsideration request
Include any details or documentation that can help us understand the changes made to your site.
I looked this up and it said that most of the time it is because I have used no follow links. I am unsure what to do about this. I have removed the no follow links for now but I really am clueless on this one.
Ahh..Great. Really needed to know the importance of follow and no-follow links. Thanks for sharing.
Great post Nicole, i have not really know the power of Nofollow links as you explain in your post. Thanks
Super post, exellent information about no follow links..
Interesting read! For a while I was on the fence about what to do in terms of thousands and thousands of do-follow footer links in sites built for clients. My observations showed that competitors were able to rank well using this practice (do-follow) and yet at the same time Google best practices made it clear that these should in fact be no-follow since they were not editorial and in essence amounted to a self-promotional advertisement.
In other words, you build a site for a client and then you place a footer link pointing back to your site since you are the developer. I finally took the leap and decided that regardless of outcome I would convert all of these from do-follow to no-follow. This took a while on a ton of sites but once it was completed..... what would be the outcome?
After monitoring keyword rank for months in Google Webmaster Tools it became apparent that this change made literally no noticeable impact. What does this mean? Does it mean Google is smart enough to know if a footer link is not editorial and thus gives it little or no weight regardless of whether it is do-follow or no-follow?.... hmmm or does this mean that keyword rank based on no-follow vs do-follow is less significant than some would lead us to believe?
I don't have a concrete answer but my suspicion is that Google algo's are advanced beyond just no-follow/do-follow and thus are able to have a deeper and more complex methodology of determining how any backlink (do-follow or no-follow) will impact keyword rank. With that being said, I would not be surprised if an editorial no-follow link from a PR9 and niche related site would in fact be more helpful in terms of SEO than say a do-follow non-editorial link from a PR0 non-niche related site ;)
Ok so I have few questions regarding no follow links - I am a rookie in this field so just looking for a bit of help.
1. I agree to the benefit of no follow links. I do not complain because it brings in traffic and that counts at the end of the day to bring in leads. But is it alright if some of the blogs we are contacting are giving us no follow links? I mean no follow links matter only when the blog's / forum's audience base is huge right? Like Twitter. If they are a small blog - I need to insist on a do follow link right?
2. We have a very active blog whose reader base is 10,000 strong. We sometimes post content that requires a link to an outside domain. Should we include no follow tags in all these links or should we allow the links to remain as is?
How Many Link Needed to get top rank on Google
Great post on this subject which intrigues us all.
I would like to share a experience which does prove the importance of NoFollow links on google.
I had created a long technical post on How to Draw Lewis Dot Structures and would check every day on google to see how it was doing on the SERPs - and it was nowhere to be found. I was a little frustrated as my efforts didn't seem to be bearing fruit.
In order to get a back-link, I replied to a post on one of the technical forums and at the end of it placed a link to my technical post. The link was a NoFollow one as were all others on that forum. The same day when I checked it on SERPs, I found it suddenly on the second page. I was quite happy to note the jump it had got.
Now comes the interesting part. The administrator on the forum found the link, and promptly removed it. That day when I checked in the SERPs, the page had again gone missing.
The above just goes to prove the following:
Your views on this experience of mine are welcome.
Thanks.
I've just realised that one of my sites only has followed links which made me think about the balance of follow vs no follow. Like you mentioned - I'm the hardcore SEO who only wants follow links - But after this article I'll go for some no-follow's as well.
Thanks for the article and putting my mind at ease!
I often find that a nofollow link will come from more of an authority website and therefore find that I get a good trickle of visitors from my nofollow links.
I recently commented on a blog relating to the creative industry I also serve. The comment was not to gain backlinks - it was a genuine comment about some equipment queries I've had. The comment section of the site asked for a url, so what the hell, I included it.
However, Google Webmaster tools is now reporting around 180 backlinks from this site to my site. I checked the code where the comment was placed and noted that it is, indeed "nofollow". Well, it looks like a nofollow. I've also just posted again on the forum to see what webmaster tools does.
I have essentially two queries about this:
- Why is Google Webmaster tools recording so many backlinks from, what I can tell, is a single forum comment?
- Why is Tools even recording these no-follow links back to my site? Does it record nofollow links anyway? If so, how does one sort between what links are passing juice and what ones are not?
To answer at least some of my queries in my own post above, my Moz report came back and provided more insights. Through the Moz report I could see all of the multiple pages that were reporting backlinks. However, I could not find my link in SEO code. However, what was on the page was a "latest comments" lists. So instead of showing up on only one page, the comment and backlink was reported on multiple pages. The comment must have been there at some point - hence the multiple backlinks. I'm still not sure why they showed up at all though since all seem to be nofollow.
how to get backlinks from moz?
What is the guest blogging strategies og moz?
i want get more backlinks to my SEO blog.
Totally agree with you, even no-follow links have a marketing value which can convert to sales. Being present in forums, blogs etc helps spread your brand name and it is lead generation procedure.
Thanks for sharing.
Nicole, after reading your this article, many people will love to Nofollow Links. I am one of them. "The Hidden Power of Nofollow Links" is like "Something is better than nothing".
Haha, great to hear it Suraj! I wouldn't put it that way, though -- nofollow links, when they're used in the right context, are really fantastic. So I think it's "something is WAY better than nothing" :)
Great Post Nicole!
For my team nofollow link is also a part of the link building process. Specially for small/ medium businesses with good content on the table, no follow should always be a positive option. The only thing that the webmaster need to take care of is who are these no follow links showing and what type of sites are updating your content even with a no follow link. Once these links are placed at the right target platform, they will generate meaningful traffic and will eventually bring in business. Once established the 'nofollow' would change in 'dofollow' (Keeping the quality of the content high).
However, all this requires alot of patience, time/money investment and commitment. ROI follows!
Thanks for the Post, Now I've Very Deep Knowledge on No-Follow Links
Hey Nicole, Love your post !
SEO guys still confused for creating dofollow links from Others blog profile.
I enjoyed the read, I can remember many years ago explaining to clients not to worry about the no follow links, but all about the branding and the followers to come. Yes, it did take time for those no follow links to convert into google's real links. But, regardless it was all about the relationship building that was always in progress.
Yes! Relationship building is such a great term for everything we do. Thanks for your comment!
Wow!
This is full of information .Useful facts made on your site ,most I agree with .Recall viewing a similar blog which I will look to post .I will bookmark in any case I await your next thought provoking article....
Thanks a lot for sharing this post link.
[staff removed link]
Nofollow links are still a great source of tarffic and (sometimes) rankings in an SEO strategy .. as well as co citation :) thanks for sharing your great article! :)
last time I found that nofollow links make very good job and very strange - anchor on this links was working, but everybody say that nofollow is not moving the power of anchor text
You never know, Google may incorporate no-follow links into their rating algorithm and count them as a partial link, in the future. That is another reason why you should pick no-follow over disavow.
URL Citation and what not.
Hi Nicole,
great post. This reminds me when I started doing some SEO for one website and we were the only web in this niche. There was not so much oportunities where to place a link. There was only wikipedia page about this topic. So I put link there and one so-called SEO expert was telling me all the time that links from wiki has no juice and value. Untill today most conversions came from wiki :D
Great Article Nicole,
I tend not to worry when I am creating back-links, any back-link will do for me so long as it helps my clients get better results online.
I have noticed some sites have 30 Back-links and some have over 30k all on the same page 1 on Google. How does a small firm compete with these big private firms who make there own powerful private back-linking websites?
Thank you Danny! That's a great mindset to have about links :)
Ahh, the age old "how do we compete?" question. This actually came up a lot while I was in a marketing manager role. Honestly, the only thing I was able to really do was wait for the hammer to fall -- that is, wait for Google to notice or get clued in on the linking scheme. If it's really blatant and you know it's something strictly against Google's policies, you can always report it.
Over time, I've learned to focus less on what others are doing and more on what I'M doing. The more time you spend focusing on your competitors, the more you become like them. Don't give in! :)
I'm a blogger and work in SEO, and I've noticed that most bloggers and blogging networks are moving toward no-follow links due to recent penalties and all the "hooplah". I think it's important for brands to realize when working with bloggers that this is becoming more of a "norm" and not to immediately dismiss these bloggers for their guidelines. Personally, I've seen many examples when a no-follow link actually benefited the client more than a do-follow one in terms of traffic, exposure, etc.
Yep Rachel, totally agree! In the example I used in my post, the nofollow link was completely negated by the fact that we got exposure and purchases out of the review the blogger did. Thanks for your comment!
Hey Nicole,
Great post. You highlighted the real aspects of no-follow links and I must say it's a perfect read for those bloggers who have changed all the previous do-follow links to no-follows coz of the recent updates.. (I just hate them).
Jokes apart, it's really a worth read. :)
Just like to add one thing, sometimes no follow links can also produce lots of do-follows. (If play smartly :))
Great read. Thumbs up!
Thank you, Umar! I actually started writing this shortly after the MyBlogGuest fiasco... it makes me a little sad to see so many bloggers changing their links to nofollow out of fear, but what else is there for them to do, you know? :( I definitely understand not wanting to get slapped by a penalty!
Nicole,
It's not mandatory if you're giving away do-follows, you'll get a slap. The prime example are these Moz people. What they should do is to strict their editorial policies and allow only those posts that are solely written for the community rather than for the links.
I'm a true believer that nofollow links are going to have to become the core of any linking strategy - dofollow links have been abused, and whilst Google has yet to omit them from their algorithms, they certainly seem to be looking for a way. Time to end the discrimination against nofollow links!
Personally, I think the power of dofollow links will stick around for a while. There was some discussion a while back on a "linkless" Google algorithm, I believe with Matt Cutts even saying it simply wasn't viable.
Having said that, with every new tactic that emerges to "boost rankings," there is a flood of acceptance, usually followed by a flood of usage, and then Google tries to find ways to stress once again that it isn't about links, or shares, or keyword density -- it's about people. This is why I'm surprised that social shares don't carry more weight (but then again, they'd be SO easy to fake/game). So maybe in the future, algorithms will become so advanced that dofollow links don't HAVE to carry as much weight. It's hard to say. I'll leave that one up to the experts. :)
Yes it is so much true that nofollow links are great source of gaining traffic.But we should not ignore to the dofollow ones cause for the rankings relevant dofollow links from high authority sites are very important.So we have to make balance between nofollow and do follow links while building the backlinks for our clients.
Hey Subodh! I agree, dofollow links are still extremely important. But I think we sometimes overlook the powers of nofollow links -- even simple tweets or nofollowed links from blogs -- which is what inspired my post, in part.
I'm a big fan of the term "link earning," which I think I read for the first time here on Moz. I've started relying on that phrase instead of "link building," and I think it represents a big shift in the approach to link aquisition in our industry. Instead of building links every way possible, we now need to focus on earning those links by doing truly amazing things.
Sorry for the aside there, that's just something I feel super passionate about! :D Thanks for the Twitter discussion we had, too!
No-follow links seems natural links(sometime), and of-course, getting relevant no-follow link still better than ir-relavant do-follow link.
It's true, links have their own intrinsic value and can bring traffic directly to your site. That's what a link is. It's refreshingly simple and it does seem to get lost in all of the clickbaity headlines. Link placement matters, anchor text call-to-action matters, all of the same principles apply.
Compare a nofollow link on a high traffic page to a result on a low traffic keyword. Which would you rather have?
However, I do take exception to what Google thinks should be nofollowed. It's too much work frankly. Paid links and advertising obviously make sense. But why shouldn't a widget I made for other people to embed contain a link to my product? It's not a paid link, it's something I made and (probably) gave away.
Is it advertorial? If it is, then what link wouldn't be by that standard? Links by their very nature are advertorial.
And of course, the embedded widgets from Google Plus contain follow links to Google. ;-)
Hey Kyle! Thanks for your comment.
I think I know what Matt Cutts would say in response to your question about the widget: you shouldn't make and distribute something useful purely because you want links, but because you think it will add value or fill a gap of some kind.
It's a tough pill to swallow, and I may not necessarily agree with why some links out there aren't followed, but that's something I personally agree with. Plus... well, I've seen at least one case of a "free tool" like that (think a blog theme or widget) landing the creator in hot water because it got used on a bunch of spammy sites. Penalty by association. Not totally fair, but it does happen.
Paul Shapiro did a great post on this topic here:
https://www.higherclick.com/building-follow-links-high-quality-nofollow-links/
I think dofollow link means direct SEO value and nofolllow link means indirect SEO value. Dofollow and nofollow links are equally important for a site. So who are want to change their links to nofollow, I want to say them all of nofollow links are not good, mix is fine.
Hello Nicole,
I always believed what you pointed out. Live examples are the links posted in the comments of moz blog posts. Almost all the referral links get visited by many of us as soon as we discover them. It not only improves the visit to those websites but some do get a followed link somewhere else.
Regards
Sasha
Agreed Sasha! Moz is one of those sites where I know links in the comments will always be relevant, actually :)
And if they aren't relevant, a thumbs down helps alert us to potential spam so we can take care of things. :)
Totally agree with @Nicole Kohler. I don't believe the fact that nofollow links are useless. Though, they may not pass any link juice, yet they are as important as dofollow links simply because they lead to increased brand awareness, more chances of link generation and you never know whether someone coming to your site from a nofollow could actually lead to a conversion!
Nice article Nicole!
I agree. Getting branding exposure & awareness (even with no-follow links) is important, specially if they are coming from authoritative pages. The Search Engines may not get to pass link equity but the information is still available to the readers for their consumption.
Afterall, there’s no point in having a business website if nobody knows about it ;)
Hi Nicole,
Your post is great and it reminds me of the how Google is seeing Do Follow and NoFollow Links. These are two aspects of link building that should not be ignored.
The powers associated with NoFollow links have been shared I bet they are they are revealing for me.
This line on profit readily caught my attention "A nofollow link can also directly lead to someone spending money on your company's products or services."
Hi Nicole Kohler
I am looking something like this.
Its really very informative post.
Thank you
I thought that those links will not help me :(
Hi!
Thanks for the Post, Now I've Very Deep Knowledge on No-Follow Links.
Very well said! Actually, I think no follow links are the way to go. I don't think Google likes the whole messy trail of links here and there. But with this in mind, generating unique and engaging content has become really difficult. So, to say that the best way to engage with your readers is to convince them that what you are posting is worth the time and read.
[link removed]
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for meaningful post. I have always doubt about No-follow links. Now, I am clear after reading your post.
Great post Nicole.
I feel the obsession with follow links is an artefact from when black hat link building tactics and paid guest post empires were the foundation for a lot of SEO practice. When SEO professionals become caught in the momentum of delivering a monthly ‘link quota’ for clients it becomes easy to lower standards on link quality; they settle for lower quality content on weaker domains and it was justified because the final link was ‘follow’.
Securing the ‘follow’ guaranteed the flow of ‘juice’ which in a way absolved the responsibility of the SEO to worry about the metrics that are really important (legitimate site traffic, visitor engagement, really good content that’s actually relevant and specific to your client etc.) Of course a ‘link quota’ is a dangerous model to use for client delivery, but it’s comforting and familiar and standardised. Clients feel like they’re getting clockwork exponential growth, even if it’s at the expense of link quality.
Our service to a client should focus on how we strategically communicate a long term plan of action for their Brand. Organic link building is a long process and inconsistent process with no guarantee that X links will be delivered in Y time frame. We can be pro-active and enthusiastic but we’re still fostering relationships with real people – these can’t be rushed or they become brittle and break before they mature. I think there’s a strong analogy between successful link building and the design principle of ‘slow architecture’. Put simply – don’t build for short term gain. Build a sustainable foundation of organic roots over time and they’ll grow deep enough to weather any Google update storm.
Sorry if you mentioned this already, l have one specific question: I use a WordPress site, and l keep it updated with an RSS feed which l keep as one of the widgets on the main page. Is there a way l can make those links in the RSS feed no-follow? Will that help my ranking? Please advise!
Thank you! :D
I am so glad I read this post. I am certainly one of those who only cares about do-follow links but this post has opened my eyes into the value of no-follow links. Thanks Nicole
Hello Nicole,
Nice Strategy to get the best Nofollow links from a top ranked website with traffic. Thanks to give this awesome information about Nofollow links. It's really worthy for every website specially who needs the traffic gain. (Ex- Wikipedia)
Totally agree with most of the topics on this article, nofollow links can get frustrating most of times, these are great way of making them worthy links! Thanks for the post!
Thanks for reading! It's all about changing your mindset. :)
Nice Strategy to get the best Nofollow links from a top ranked website with traffic. Thanks to give this awesome information about Nofollow links. It's really worthy for every website specially who needs the traffic gain. (Ex- Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook) Still, these websites are useful even they are providing No-follow links. Web sites have to maintain do-follow and No-follow Not 100% Do-follow.
No follow links for me are important in terms of passing traffic too. It doesn't take a lot of time to coment and drive significant traffic to your company website. You just need to select right places to comment with a lot of visitors and relevant content to your site content.
Great Post, i build websites and put my link on the bottom of each site i build. Lately my rankings have fluctuated and i think it can be cause i have thousands of links not related to web design linking to me. Im now putting no follows on them. Hoping that helps.
Nice Post Nicole i must say.
The NoFollow Links still counted in Google Algo and sometimes it can lead to penalty and even let you back in Organic search if you have a large amount of Nofollow links pointing on your website with direct money keywords in anchor text.I have seen that a lot of ours are saying that Google sends Bad links example even if the link attribute is of NO Follow.
So i must say yes Nofollow links still counts and the days are not long when all the Network would become only NO Follow.Thanks
Great post Nicole I never new that no follow links do help thanks for clearing that up for me learned something new today appreciate you thanks.
Earl N Cox
[staff removed link]
Yes, they can be a benefit, when used in the manner described. However, un-related nofollow links in comments don't help anyone, are often removed by moderators, and can get you banned from sites, too.
i dont know what is the benefit of no-follow links
We're happy to help answer your questions regarding what this post left unclear.
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Thanks for good article
i allways knew no follow link will count , and they are not useless
i have many no follow link and my PA is increase here look your self
https://hostirani.com/web-design/
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I call BULLSHIT!!!
in the first example, you spent $30 for product plus shipping and back and forth. You could have spent the money on a Facebook Boosted post or Outbrain (minimum bid is .03 cents per click). You could have had your post in front of hundreds of people for less effort and less cost.
Also this approach would give you a lot more control and flexibility to scale up and down with clear metrics.
Tell me more seoer nofollow links are not good. I think links are nofollow and dofollow links important for SEO. And we need to balance it the best, how harmoniously combined. Thank your post!
such a lovely piece of writing
Nice Post! Actually i have been looking for something like this, which can clear my doubts about no-follow and follow links. Thank for this one.