Don’t say no to nofollow links
The nofollow tag, devised by Google as a method to , means that if this tag exists on a link, the link will not count towards the ranking of sites in the search engine. This tag is used to some extent by Yahoo! and MSN does not use it, which means nofollow links still can help your ranking in these two search engines, that is if anybody still uses these. (That’s a joke, I am sure that some people still use them, but I am also sure that the people who do likely have a really hard time finding what they are looking for.
Recently, however, some SEOs have been experimenting with nofollow tag links to see if these were entirely disregarded by Google in determine site rankings, and during my participation in the seocontest I experimented with this as well to see if the nofollow links had any impact on my rankings. (N.B. I was not spamming)
Here were my findings:
- Nofollow links will help in MSN, and in Yahoo to a lesser extent.
- Honestly, in Google if you get enough nofollow links, this will impact your search ranking. But you need them in great numbers for this to work. I know they say that they don’t help in Google, but my observations told me otherwise.
- You still get traffic from nofollow links so what are you complaining about? A nofollow link may not greatly impact your rankings as much as normal linking, people can still click on it and get to your site.
Of course, there is more value to no nofollow links, but I would not turn down a link to my site if it was nofollow. At the end of the day, the point of blogging should never be to rank #1 in Google, the point of blogging is to blog. Collecting links to your site should be an afterthought. (And I say this only because I am so jealous of and the gazillion links that got him into the Elite Top 10K Team :P )
But just in case this does matter to you, I have collected the following links to information about the nofollow tag to help you in your link building ventures:
There is a movement of bloggers that revolves around the idea of U Comment - I Follow, to which I belong. This is at once to say you want the search engines to follow to the blogs that belong to those that comment on your blog, and also that you want to help your commenters with links. Really, the people that return again and again to comment on your blog are in fact contributors on your blog, so it is nice to be able to say: Thanks for taking the time to add to the conversation! Links are a form of blogging currency, after all. :)
Posted: July 18th, 2007 under SEO.
Comments: 21
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Comments
Comment from
Time: July 18, 2007, 10:57 pm
wow… Nice to see your site back.
Good to know that nofollow is not that bad.
Comment from
Time: July 18, 2007, 10:58 pm
hey …
by the way, there is an error below the comment form.
You can delete this comment though.
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 18, 2007, 11:08 pm
Thanks for letting me know about the error!!!
Yes, while of course a normal link is better, I don’t really see why people are so touchy about the nofollow issue. It serves a purpose, as it does cut down on the importance of these links, and they are usually used where spam occurs in great amounts. But nofollow links are still links - and the end result could be that people find your site and at the end of the day that is the point of having a site or blog - to have people visit it.
Comment from
Time: July 18, 2007, 11:27 pm
Mwahaha :D
I read not to long ago (can’t remember where) that apparently some people are dumping the I Follow movement now. Not quite sure why. The only reason I could imagine doing it for is if you start to get a ton of spammy, or crappy comment not related to your posts just for the sake of backlinks.
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 18, 2007, 11:39 pm
Ah, the famous Technorati Boy! Here on my blog!!! Oh my gosh, I am so excited and honoured!
I have only gotten 1 spam comment so far, and 1 that was substandard and clearly for a link. Am I doing something wrong???
I am not dropping it - I like it personally.
I know that you can leak a bit of PR, but these are on post pages and not on the main page, and so I don’t really see what the big deal would be. And if you read your comments (as you should) then you can identify which comments are spammy and delete them… am I wrong? If there is a substandard comment that is clearly for a link, it is easy to tell. If the comment has worth and merit, then what’s the big deal, even if it WAS just for a link.
Are you going to drop it like a hot chicken nugget?
Comment from
Time: July 18, 2007, 11:48 pm
Yes it is I, Technorati Boy. Rejoice :D
In the very beginning when I joined the Do-Follow blogroll I got a few spammy comments. People would leave stuff like “just passing through via the do-follow blogroll”, which was irritating but I haven’t received anything like that in a while. I don’t have any plans to drop it ;P
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 19, 2007, 12:34 am
Sorry I can’t reply to your comment - I am much too busy rejoicing! :P
Yeah, I can see that it would open you up to a bit more spam, but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives.
Cool… we can stick with it then, out of principle. And when everyone else starts using the nofollow again we can be really snooty about it like we are driving electric cars among the SUVs.
Comment from
Time: July 19, 2007, 3:45 am
Bringing back nofollow has never entered my small and unused mind.
I can understand that there are people who are too busy to spend a few extra minutes every day to check their comments. Lucky for me, I don’t have that problem.
Links are the blogging currency. Yep, that about sums it up nicely. Great post. Stumbled.
Comment from
Time: July 19, 2007, 10:45 am
so, let me get this straight. by leaving this here comment, i should soon have a link, or “follow”, from your site to mine now? i’ll check technorati tomorrow to see if this worked. if it did, i’ll think about switching over.
Comment from
Time: July 19, 2007, 10:49 am
Well since reaching the Top 10k yesterday I’ve learned how to be snooty, so that shouldn’t be a problem :D
Comment from
Time: July 19, 2007, 10:52 am
BTW, ya need to mess with the margin on your Pink Internet Marketing link up there. It’s hanging outside the theme ;P
Maybe try something like “margin: 0 auto”
:)
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 19, 2007, 11:00 am
@hubs - it does not count as a link for Technorati - but it does count for a link in the search engines - though I plan to add Top Commenters to my site which will count as a link in Technorati for my top commenters. :)
@Technorati Boy - Oh exalted one… please teach me so that I too my rise to the Top 10K!!! :P
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 19, 2007, 11:02 am
Yeah - I noticed that and I will work on it tonight! I am still trying to fix everything after transferring hosts yesterday (what a colossal headache that turned into!)
Comment from
Time: July 19, 2007, 4:18 pm
Aren’t ya glad to be on a host that you can depend on now though? :)
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 19, 2007, 4:25 pm
So happy!!! I know now that my blog will be there next time I check - you think it was annoying for you to come here and find that my blog was there - imagine for me!!!
And plus, now I have unlimited hosting and a bunch of cool domains so when I have gotten this blog all nice, and my SEO is for Girls blog started, I can start imarketingsource.com which is another domain I am excited about!!!
Comment from
Time: July 19, 2007, 5:33 pm
Hehe…it was the same way for me with the last web host I had. They were just awful. Sometimes my site would go down for hours. That just wasn’t cool.
I love the ability to host unlimited domains with HostGator. It’s so simple to set up new domains on your account. Just a couple clicks :)
Comment from
Time: July 20, 2007, 1:49 am
Thanks for the info about nofollow links, it’s very useful.
I prefer to use do follow links, and for the spam commenting it’s just delete the comment.
Comment from
Time: July 20, 2007, 10:59 pm
My web host bites. My site went down today…again. If anyone is ever like “Hey, do you know anything about Web Hosting Buzz” you should tell them “Yeah, I hear they hurt kittens just for fun.” Anything else and they might still consider them.
I am glad that both you and Mike are happy with your hosts now though :)
As for Nofollow, I am glad that I got rid of it on my site. I love knowing that people who take the time to read my rambling and comment actually get a little something out of the experience. Page Rank is great and all, but it isn’t why I blog. I blog in order to connect to people. I think people like to know that some love is heading back to them when they comment.
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 21, 2007, 2:41 pm
@samuro - Glad to help!
@Andrew - I feel the same way about nofollow. BTW I would be more than happy to host your blog on my HostGator account. I have unlimited hosting and unlimited databases. Let me know if you are interested. You could just point the domain to the DNS and I can set you up an FTP account.
Comment from
Time: July 22, 2007, 5:34 pm
Awww, Danielle. You are so nice. I really appreciate the offer. For at least the time being I will have to decline, but I really, really appreciate it. Your awesome score totally just went up by 5 points. It was super high already so it is quite an achievement. Thanks again :)
Comment from Danielle
Time: July 22, 2007, 5:38 pm
Hey no problem! Just thought I would offer! I am hosting another of my friend’s blogs, and since it is unlimited I want to take advantage (you should see me at the all you can eat buffet trying to get lots of value out of the meal!!!) :)
I will let you know how it goes with HostGator - but so far so good!
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