“nofollow” Explained in Layman’s Term
Have you ever heard the “nofollow” attribute before? Have you ever wondered what was its use or how does it affect in anyway your pagerank with Google? What if I say that after reading this article you will exclaim “wow, that was so plain simple!” So grab a cup of coffee and continue reading.
Definition of the “Nofollow” HTML Attribute
Putting the “nofollow’ attribute in your links simply means not to rank and not to follow the destination pages of your outbound links OR it prevents the linked page from affecting its rank or pagerank…
“nofollow” is an HTML attribute, meaning it’s a code and you cannot see it on the web pages that your viewing unless you view the source code. The “nofollow” attribute simply instruct search engines (not all of them but Google pioneered this thing) to disregard the link in evaluating its importance. As we all know and agree so far, an outbound link is considered a vote for evaluating the importance of the web page being linked to and is used to rank that web page. When we use the “nofollow” attribute, search engines now will not follow or will not count that link as a vote therefore the destination page will not in any way affect its rank. Below is a typical example that will help you understand further. Don’t be confused, if the “nofollow” attribute is NOT used, the link is called “dofollow.”
EXAMPLE 1 – “dofollow”
The link below is considered a vote and will affect the rank of the destination page, AGAIN don’t be confused, if the “nofollow” attribute is NOT used, the link is called “dofollow”:
- Sample Link: Looking for something in the web? Search it with Google.
- HTML code for the link – <a href=”http://google.com”>Google.com</a>
- no html attribute was used
EXAMPLE 2 – “nofollow”
The link below will not count and will not affect the rank of the destination page:
- Sample Link: Submit your site to a Web Blog Directory
- HTML code for the link – <a href=”http://exclusivedirectory.net” rel=”nofollow”>Web Blog Directory</a>
Did you see how the “nofollow” attribute was used in the second example? It is placed just right after the link you will see rel=”nofollow.” Google pioneered this “nofollow” thing to discourage spammers from using or leaving links to manipulate pagerank, most specially in the comments section of websites and soon other search engines followed. By default, comments section now have the “nofollow” attribute including WordPress, but this should not affect your commenting in anyway, leaving comments gives exposure and traffic to your website.
What are the Uses of the “nofollow” Attribute?
Remember, Link Building is not just all about rank with search engines. There are many benefits of having inbound and outbound links in your web pages using either “dofollow” or “nofollow” links; like driving traffic, being listed and indexed, maximizing exposure to your website, share of information etc. Listed below are some of the uses of the “nofollow” attribute.
For Illustrative purposes – If you want to point out, show or make some illustrative examples by showing to your readers some links in your articles or posts but not worthy of voting for them (like spammy websites), you can use the “nofollow” attribute.
Advertisements and Paid Links – Google allows you to sell links in your web pages as long as it does not pass pagerank or it does not manipulate pagerank. In short when you sell links you must place the “nofollow” attribute. Advertisements are also recommended that you put the “nofollow” attribute on them. If you have been buying or selling links without the “nofollow” attribute, you are in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, read their policy about Paid Links.
Internal Link Between Web Pages – Putting the “nofollow” attribute to some pages linked within your site is recommended. This might be your sign-up page or register page etc. or web pages linked to other web pages which are not related.
Those are just some of the uses of the “nofollow” attribute, for more information, it is highly recommended that you read Google’s explanation of “about rel=”nofollow” attribute. Always remember creating links are not done just for the fun of it. From now on, before you link to anyone, make sure you are linking to website of value or to web pages which you think might be beneficial to the internet users.
Now it’s your turn, a simple exercise to know if a link has the “nofollow” attribute or not. Can you tell me if the link above “Paid Links” has the nofollow attribute? Just click the View in your browser’s menu, then click source or page source and search (Ctrl F) for the words “Paid Links” and look beside the link if you can see the attribute. If you can’t see the “nofollow” attribute in the link, then that link is “dofollow.” You might find this important if you want to leave your link to websites that don’t use the “nofollow” attribute or you might want to check if the websites where you left your links are being followed or not.
Have you found this article useful? You might want to link this page in your site and spread this important information.
this is indeed helpful. thanks for sharing it. just recently my site has been disabled because blogger thought that it was a spam blog
that can be one of the reason because I usually add links on my post directing to related website without “nofollow”. I should have added that when I just wanted to share some information. now I know it already. I just have a question though, is there a way where we can enable the “nofollow” on page-wide aspect, for instance, if I wanted to collate all my related posts on static page, should I put each links that redirects to each of that single post i made with a “nofollow”?
thanks much
Interesting article, however I am startin to get the impresson that things are changing and that nofollow and dofollow are going to soon be irrelevant, especially when google no longer uses pagerank.