Google Nofollow Link Attribute
The major search engine Google has a rule regarding use of the rel=”nofollow” tag/attribute in links, which has generated some controversy in recent months. The rule is intended to prevent websites from gaining better Google search result rankings by participating in link exchanges or sales. This is becoming more relevant in the recent weeks as Google recently performed an internet wide update of Page Rank (PR) and many leading directories and sites that participate in paid link advertising seem to be singled out by Google.
In general, Google and other search engines allow websites with more links to them from other sites to appear higher in search results, considering each link as a “recommendation” for the site it links to. The “nofollow” tag, when added to a link, prevents Google from counting the link as such a “recommendation”, thus not providing any search ranking benefits to the site being linked to.
Google believes that a link which has been purchased or exchanged in a reciprocal manner should not benefit websites’ ranking in search results. Thus its “nofollow” rule calls on all website owners to use the “nofollow” tag when creating such links. According to mattcutts.com (a blog created by the head of the Google “webspam team”), any website which doesn’t use the tag for a link of this type may be penalized. Some have speculated that the recent reductions in PageRank values for many websites were caused by violations of this rule.
This has created controversy and complicated the process of buying or exchanging a link. Some argue that a reciprocal link exchange does indicate a recommendation for each other’s websites by the respective sites’ administrators, and should be counted positively. Website owners who gain a substantial part of their revenue from selling links, or had already exchanged many reciprocal links without the “nofollow” tag before Google instated the rule, are understandably displeased with it.
If the Google “nofollow” rule is to be followed, website owners now have to agree whether or not to use it when exchanging or selling link(s), which may complicate the matter if one of the two owners involved does not believe in following the rule, doesn’t know about it, or lacks understanding of the “nofollow” tag. Some claim that Google’s method for detecting bought or reciprocal links is not effective enough to make following the rule necessary. Website owners who do not believe they will be able to gain any other types of inbound links are especially likely to violate it. In addition to their automated system, Google has a page on their website where anyone can “report” the sale of links to them.
It remains to be seen how significant an effect Google’s “nofollow” rule will have on reciprocal linking and link sales, with the level of understanding and acceptance of the rule among website owners playing a significant role in the outcome. One thought to keep in mind is the that the use of “nofollow” might actually leave an SEO footprint for Google to detect that a site has been “SEO’d”.
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Link Building Tips | seowhitehats | November 5, 2007
Thank before has share about do follow, But I still don’t understand how to sign a site then included it as no-follow or do follow one. Give me the explanation please.
Very well written post however, I would recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you, we appreciate your comment. We have downloaded and activated the Do Follow Plugin For WordPress, which lets us remove the nofollow attribute from our comments. I just updated the Plugin so we shouldn’t have any issues with the nofollow attribute on our comments.
SEO White Hats
i think no follow link is not counted by google but yahoo only.
Agree with sulumits, today google doesn’t count nofollow link anymore, but yahoo does.
No follow has recently been changed, it still does not allow credit to be passed to the site that it is tagged to, however, it no longer allows the other links on the page to share increased credit. Previously if a site had 3 links and one was nofollow then 50% of the credit that page would pass would go to each of the links.
Now the 2 links will each get 1/3 of the credit and the third will have no credit passed.
Nofollow is not ignored by google
I can understand the theory in why Google wants to stop people paying for links, as to generate more targeted search results but the way Google Adwords work is a bit hypocritical, the higher someone bids, the higher their advert appears. In other words if you pay Google more money than your competitor you can have a link that appears higher for a key phrase, however if you pay another company money in order to increase your ranking for a key phrase, then that’s a no no.
I like looking back at stuff like this when so much more is known. Who at this stage would have thought that the nofollow attribute would have been used to sculpt pagerank internally within a site – I know we are now even past this stage now as its no longer effective but it shows what creative thinking can do
I feel that a nofollow link will yield no benefit to the link recipients page rank, however I do think that nofollow links are still of benefit. My own personal feeling about them is that the anchor text of the link is still valid and considered by Google, but in term of link juice it has no value. I am quite possibly wrong tho….
I do not neglect nofollow links. Google wants natural link building and if 100 percent of your backlinks are dofollow it will look not natural in google’s eyes.
it still does not allow credit to be passed to the site that it is tagged to, however, it no longer allows the other links on the page to share increased credit. Previously if a site had 3 links and one was nofollow then 50% of the credit that page would pass would go to each of the links.
I don’t neglect nofollow links either, especially from established authority sites.
- Gillian
So it’s still an unknown how google value nofollow links. How about rel=”external”?
Yes no follow link will not be beneficial for rankings purpose but if you do get a no follow link from a good page rank webpage then it does seem to make the page rank of your page powerful.
you should use no follow links. it builds awareness in other ways. people see it and still can go to your site!
I belive google’s introduction of the nofollow tag was because the blog spam that was booming in ’07 however many bloggers complain that this had nothing to prevent spam as nofollow links are still clickable links and help in traffic.
Mike Jason
SEO Manager
to be honest I have seen from my experience that no follow do play some part. It might not be as effective as do follows but no follows do play good part especially if it is from a good source.
As others have been saying SEO should include both dofollow and nofollow links from reputable sites.
It is clear from Link Analysis that credit is still being given for no follow links in the overall PR – so the subject is a little misleading. As long as you follow the rules to ensure you links appear natural you’ll be ok. So ensure they are from multiple root domains, a range of PageRank and well indexed
From my experience, Nofollow doesn’t mean it wont give juice to the external website linked-to.
I assume that since its announcement many people became “selfish” in terms of external linking.
90% of blogs are no follow but I can give you my word that in terms of SEO. the external website will still get the juice.