There are lots of questions surrounding nofollow links. These links, which use specific HTML code in order to impact how Google treats them, can cause confusion about what they are and how they work. Many people have questions such as are nofollow links good for SEO and should they be be valued by site owners?
We’ll cover the main things you need to know, including what nofollow links are, how nofollow links affect SEO, and how they can help you build your site.
Understanding Nofollow Links
Nofollow links are links that have the special HTML attribute (rel=”nofollow”). When this code is attached to a link, it means that Google does not allow it to contribute to PageRank. This is in direct contrast with links that have the attribute (rel=”dofollow”), which signals to Google that you want them to follow your link and consider it for ranking purposes.
This means that while backlinks can help signal your site’s authority to Google, nofollow links will not be used by Google to affect your ranking.
While this may seem frustrating to site owners, the nofollow attribute was created for good reason – to prevent spam. Before nofollow links were introduced, spammy sites were beginning to gain traction in rankings, pushing out quality content instead.
There was also an large rise in site owners’ spamming comments with links to their content. Nofollow links mean that these efforts are now ineffective, and high-quality sites can be appropriately ranked on Google.
Nofollow Links and SEO: The Traditional View
Traditionally, it was the general consensus that, as nofollow links did not pass PageRank, they were completely useless and had no impact on search rankings at all.
In 2009, Matt Cutts, then head of Google’s Webspam team, explicitly stated:
“The nofollow attribute allows you to link to a page but remove the endorsement (by not passing PageRank). The net effect is that the link is there, but it doesn’t confer any benefit in terms of ranking.”
This helped to contribute to the idea that nofollow links were completely ignored by Google and had absolutely no SEO value. Many then treated nofollow links as though they were completely worthless, and instead focused entirely on gaining dofollow links and even ignored nofollow links in all important site audits.
However, now we know that things aren’t quite that black and white.
The 2020 Google Algorithm Update: A New Perspective
In Google’s 2020 update, the company shared some information about how nofollow links were to be treated by the search engine going forward. They shared that, going forward, nofollow links would be used as hints. This means that while nofollow links are not automatically considered in PageRank like dofollow links, Google may choose to consider crawling and indexing the link.
So, while nofollow links still do not directly impact rankings, they can help Google to become aware of your site and its authority if it identifies a link as being genuine and useful for them to analyze.
This means that nofollow links are now no longer entirely worthless for site owners and should be considered when building an SEO strategy.
Are Nofollow Links Good For SEO?
So, are nofollow links good for SEO? Despite having no direct impact on rankings, they can stil indirectly impact your ranking. When building an SEO strategy, it’s easy to believe that keyword optimization is the be-all-and-end-all but your backlink profile is just a crucial an element and should therefore be considered when building your strategy.
Here are some of the top ways nofollow links are good for SEO.
Traffic Generation
Nofollow links can still drive traffic to your site if people choose to follow them. An increase in traffic can signal to Google that your site is good quality and that people want to use it, which can have an impact on how it ranks your site.
Building A Natural Link Profile
When a site has a combination of nofollow and dofollow link referrals, it can actually be a good sign to Google. This is because it mimics natural human web behavior rather than a curated strategy. For example, links coming from social media or Wikipedia are generally nofollow links. However, combined with dofollow links, they signal to Google that your site is being authentically linked by people in a variety of valuable spaces.
Long-term Value
While nofollow links won’t have an impact on your site’s ranking, it may actually trigger people to create dofollow links to your site that do impact your site’s ranking. For example, if your site gets a nofollow link on a popular site that many people read, those readers may then end up naturally posting dofollow links to your site. The increased exposure from well-placed nofollow links can naturally increase dofollow links from other places.
Website Authority And Trust
While nofollow links have no direct impact on rankins, they can signal that your site is valuable and trusted by an authoritative source. This will help Google to see your site as valuable and trusted, meaning it is less likely to penalize it when it comes to rankings. This can be a huge benefit for small business owners when implementing an SEO strategy.
How To Include Nofollow Links In Your SEO Strategy
As you can see, there are a number of ways that nofollow links are good for SEO, so it is worth considering them when building your strategy.
When making sure your nofollow links are good for SEO, you want to think about the benefits they offer. This includes
- Building brand visibility
- Diversifying link sources
- Creating opportunities for future dofollow backlinks
So, when considering how to approach nofollow links, you will want to approach them in ways that best support these benefits.
This can include:
- Contributing to large or high-value publications
- Make sure your site is linked from a wide variety of online places
- Sharing content in niche communities or business directories
These methods will allow you to build a link profile that actually supports your site and signals to Google that it is high-quality and trustworthy for your readers, which will directly impact your SEO.
Why Should You Work With SEO Baguette?
At SEO Baguette, we know exactly what kind of links are needed in order to build a trustworthy and effective backlink profile.
Alongside our authoritative on-page and technical SEO services, we also offer an off-page SEO service. Thanks to our experience and connections in the sphere, we can help you build backlinks in authoritative places that will actually help your site to grow.
As part of our backlink strategy, we can provide
- An off-page SEO audit to see what your site needs.
- A link-building strategy with targeted outreach campaigns.
- Content promotion services.
- Reputation management services.
By leaving these tasks in our experienced hands, you can be confident that your site will build a backlink profile that can help your site to grow.
