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The Nofollow Link Demystified
If you’re involved with SEO or digital marketing, you’ve probably heard the term “nofollow” before. Although it’s been around for over 15 years, many people still don’t fully understand what a nofollow link is and how it can impact their SEO efforts. In this post, we’ll demystify the concept of nofollow links and provide you with everything you need to know without any confusing jargon.
What is a Nofollow Link?
A nofollow link is essentially a link that tells search engines not to follow it. When you add the ‘rel=”nofollow”‘ attribute to a link, it tells search engines like Google that they shouldn’t give any value to that link in terms of SEO. This means that even if someone clicks on the link, it won’t pass any authority or ranking power to the website that’s linked.
Why Use Nofollow Links?
Now you’re probably thinking, why would anyone want to use a nofollow link? The answer is simple: to prevent spam and manipulate rankings.
Back in the early days of the internet, link building was often done by spamming irrelevant websites with links in an attempt to boost search engine rankings. However, this led to a lot of low-quality websites ranking higher than they deserved since they had a ton of links pointing to them.
By introducing the nofollow attribute, search engines could differentiate between high-quality links and low-quality links. A nofollow link won’t pass any link juice or authority to a website, so it won’t artificially inflate their rankings.
When Should You Use Nofollow Links?
Now that you know what a nofollow link is and why it exists, you might be wondering when to use them. Here are a few scenarios where you might want to use a nofollow link:
1. In User-Generated Content: If you allow users to leave comments or contribute to your website, you should use nofollow links in their content. This is because many spammers try to sneak in links to their own websites in comments, and you don’t want those links to pass any value to their website.
2. In Advertisements: If you’re running advertisements on your website, you should use nofollow links. This is because paid links shouldn’t pass any value to the advertiser’s website, which would be seen as manipulating search rankings.
3. In Untrusted Links: If you’re linking to a website that you don’t fully trust or isn’t relevant to your content, you should use a nofollow link. This is because linking to low-quality or irrelevant websites can harm your own search engine rankings.
When Should You NOT Use Nofollow Links?
While nofollow links can help prevent spam and manipulation, there are also times when you shouldn’t use them. Here are some scenarios where you should use regular follow links:
1. For Internal Links: You should always use regular follow links for internal links within your website. This is because you want to pass link authority within your own website to help it rank higher in search results.
2. For Trusted Links: If you’re linking to a high-quality website that’s relevant to your content and you fully trust, you should use a regular follow link. This can help your website earn a higher ranking in search results.
The Future of Nofollow Links
In 2019, Google announced a change to how they treat nofollow links. They introduced two new attributes: ‘rel=”ugc”‘ for user-generated content and ‘rel=”sponsored”‘ for sponsored or paid links. This change is designed to give search engines a better understanding of different types of links.
While there’s no need to go back and update all your existing nofollow links to the new attributes, it’s a good idea to start using the new attributes moving forward. This can help give search engines a better understanding of your website’s link profile and make sure you’re following Google’s guidelines.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything you need to know about nofollow links, you can make informed decisions about when to use them and when to use regular follow links. Remember, using nofollow links in the right scenarios can help prevent spam and manipulation, while using regular follow links can help your website earn higher search engine rankings.
