“Nofollow” isn’t just a fun-sounding term SEO professionals use to sound more cryptic. Nofollow is an HTML attribute that has been around for 14 years.
At its most basic, nofollow is a hyperlink attribute that tells Google not to pass PageRank, so Google won’t even crawl nofollowed links.
You can Control nofollowing of any link Just add the nofollow attribute on your site (whether it’s an external site or an internal page).
There are also nofollowed links that you have no control over – when another site links to you but has marked it as a nofollowed link.
advertise
Continue reading below
But is there any connection between nofollowed links and rankings?
As it turns out, there is a lot of confusion on this topic. Let’s dive into it all.
Disclaimer: Nofollow links are ranking factors
Do nofollow links provide any value?
Nofollow links are more than just a glorified attribute. This is a way to get search engines to ignore spam or low-quality links.
Think of nofollow links as armor that protects your site from shady tactics.
It looks like this in your source code:
But don’t follow the link real Affect rankings?
advertise
Continue reading below
Evidence of Nofollow Links as a Ranking Factor
Google Introduced nofollow link attribute 2005 Helping website owners fight spam. Google requires sites to add nofollow link attribute If you are exchanging links.
If you don’t and you get caught, Google may penalize you for the link scheme.
That’s when nofollow links were introduced. The Nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore the target URL.
While Google can take manual action on your not using nofollowing links, will it help your rankings?
In September 2019, Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed these Directives act as “hints”.
Focus on the other part: nofollow becomes a prompt. Ugc and sponsors are the icing on the cake and it’s one of those things you don’t want to do anything about. If you want to help us understand the web better, please implement them. If you don’t want to, don’t.
— Gary Khalei / Gyeongri Illyes (@methode) September 11, 2019
Google’s Danny Sullivan chimes in Support Illyes comments related to nofollow links.
People may simply adopt these because they are specific to what they want to communicate about these links to use. They don’t have to turn nofollow into a cookie-cutter thing. They can choose to refine if they want to….
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 11, 2019
These sentences are in nofollow announcement from Google, which states:
“When nofollow was introduced, Google did not consider any links marked in this way as a signal to be used in our search algorithm. Now this has changed. All link attributes (sponsored, UGC and nofollow) are considered For tips on which links to consider or exclude from searches.
We will use these tips and other signals to better understand how to properly analyze and use links in our system. “
advertise
Continue reading below
Most recently on September 10, 2019, Google introduced two new attributes to support nofollow links: Sponsored Links and UGC Links.
These property created Help Google understand the intent behind the link.
Sponsored Links (rel=“Sponsored”) are used for promotional, advertising or sponsored links.
UGC links (rel=”ugc”) are used by users who generate their own content that is not endorsed from an advertising standpoint.
Do nofollow links hurt your site?
In the September 9, 2013 Google Search Central YouTube video, Matt Cutts shared that nofollow links won’t hurt your site.
Katz said:
advertise
Continue reading below
“No, usually nofollow links don’t harm your site. So, up front, a very quick answer.”
Can I use the nofollow tag to control the indexing?
No.
Simply adding the nofollow tag attribute to a link doesn’t mean Google won’t index or crawl your site.
The best way to preserve your crawl budget is to use other methods, such as using the noindex attribute or banning from the robots.txt file.
Nofollow Links as a Ranking Signal: Our Ratings
While links with the nofollow tag are no longer ignored, they do not pass ranking signals.
advertise
Continue reading below
While it’s interesting that nofollow links don’t directly affect your rankings, it’s clear to see the little hints it provides for Google and search engines.
If you’re reading between the lines, these “hints” we give Google mean that you can tell Google not to follow a link, but in “some” cases the final decision rests with Google.
Finally, in most cases, your rankings will not be affected.
Featured image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Magazine
All screenshots taken by author, September 2021
