what is nofollow?
What is nofollow?
A lot of internet marketers, and website owners ask “what is nofollow?” In this article I answer this question of
what is nofollow?
Ok lets answer this question “what is nofollow?”
Nofollow is html tag that website owners, add to links in their website for the search engines not to crawl, notice, or acknowledge a link.
Basically when you add the nofollow attribute to a link; you are telling the search engines that you do not want them to notice that particular link
- The nofollow attribute looks like this: rel=”nofollow”
- This here is an example of how a nofollow link looks like:
<a href=”http://www.website-link.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Link text</a>
- What is the purpose of nofollow?
Google created the nofollow tag to stop spammers. In 2005 google made the announcement that, any clickable link with the nofollow tag in it, would not be counted as a backlink for page rank.
Google’s intention for creating the nofollow tag was to decrease the value of spam, like spam website links and spam comments, made by people and bots(automated programs, and softwares), because these people and bots would go to forums and blogs and submit spam comments and links.
This nofollow tag also meant that you as a website owner, could add this tag to any link to tell the search engines like google that you don’t want them crawling or following a particular link in your website.
This is all part of what is nofollow.
- How you should use nofollow?
You don’t have to, but my advice to you is to use nofollow for links that you don’t want the search engines to follow on your website; and use nofollow for your affiliate links.
My article http://www.kfm24.com/17/2012/internet-marketing/internet-marketing-newbie/what-is-dofollow/
what is nofollow
51 Responses to “what is nofollow?”
Hi Kenny! Now I understand the use of no follow on Internet marketing. Well, due to large capacity of spam’s in blogging industry, I think Google created a great kind of link. Can I ask you how to determine o follow links in Google? Thanks for sharing informational article to readers. Another knowledgeable idea pops our minds again!
Tracyann0312 recently posted..SMS
@Tracy yes the nofollow html tag attribute is very good. here are two firefox plugin that you could use to find out the nofollow links and the dofollow links on a website
“nodofollow” https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nodofollow/ and
“linkparser” https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/linkparser/
AND HERE IS A TUTORIAL VIDEO I CREATED TO SHOW YOU HOW TO USE AND INSTALL THEM “Nodofollow and Linkparser How to use and Install Firefox Plugin Nodofollow and LinkParser” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKfczKHenKk
Hi
I use Seerobots it let’s you easily see the websites Meta-Robots (index/noindex and follow/nofollow) and X-Robots configuration Download the addon here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/seerobots/?src=ss
Anthony Johnson recently posted..Ultimate Demon | SEO Automation Link Building Software
@Anthony thank you for your seerobots suggestion my friend, it looks like a great tool, and it helps people see the nofollow and dofollow attributes of a website
As webmasters we have a tendency of becoming too caught up in link juice at times, shunning and overlooking nofollow links in favor of dofollow.
@Andreas that is so true I agree with a hundred percent, because believe it or not, nofollow is a very valuable html tag, it helps us against spammers and bots
Hi Kenny,
I was thinking baout the beginners who still don’t understand what “no follow” and “do follow” means.
It still reminds me when I first started learning.
Great post,
Sandy
Sandy Maudet recently posted..How to Use Free Screen Capture Tool Called Jing
@Sandy yes I love the newbies, I have a category in my blog specially for the newbies, and “nofollow” and “dofollow” is very important, they are basic things that newbies need to know. Thank you for your comment Sandy.
Good useful info. I use a firefox plugin which can easily distinguish between no follow and do follow links. When the plugin is enabled it will show nofollow links in a different color.
Shamelle@BetterBloggingWays recently posted..How To Prevent Copy Paste Bloggers & Auto Bloggers From Stealing Your Blog Post Content
@Shamelle yes I use two firefox plugis I use “nodofollow” and “linkparser”
I have to admitted that NO-FOLLOW links are not benefit to bloggers at all but they are good for spammers. So it’s great advise to kick only those spammers away and place FOLLOW to our blog because it helps blogger to grow their blog. And as well, it doesn’t impact anything to our blog.
Ferb recently posted..StudioPress User Guide Book is Released
@Ferb I agree with you my brother, Nofollow is great for the spammers, but nofollow does have some great advantages for bloggers because we can use nofollow for certain links that we dont want crawled like affiliate links.
Because one of the things search engines dont like is when we link to things that has no value like an affiliate link, which equals a sales page. So you see nofollow is a great attribute to us bloggers too because it helps us protect our search engine rankings.
You have not mention that nofollow attribute will not pass on the link juice. I personally think that link with nofollow attribute still counts as vote in your favor but it will not give you page rank favor.
Mohsin Ali recently posted..10 Most Common SEO Mistakes
@Mohsin thats true a link that has a nofollow attribute will not get crawled by the search engines, and it will certainly not get any link juice
Hi Kenny,
I add no follow to affiliate links too and links to other sites. The only exception is for guest posters on my blog. They get a “do follow” link.
Justin Mazza recently posted..Heal the World by Living Your Dream
@Justin yes thats great, I’m happy that you give your guest posters a dofollow backlink because they deserve it
Not using nofollow links for your blog comments is a great way to reward commentators, but this also will generate a large number of spam comments. Tough decision.
PS: “nofollow” is actually a value of the html attribute “rel”.
Constantin Druc recently posted..Sharing the goods – why you don’t share?
@Constantin thats true but for wordpress blogs there is plugin called akismet that I use to stop all spam comments, so that way its easy for me to reward my lovely readers and commenters with links
A lot of newbies will find this post very useful. Keep those informative posts like this coming!
Harlin recently posted..guitar learning software
@Harlin thank you so much
NoFollow attribute is very necessary in order to stop spammers. I think Google guys are very genius.
Zeeshan recently posted..Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Free License Keys
@Zeeshan I love the nofollow attribute because it protects us as bloggers, and it helps against spam I think the google guys are very genius as well
Hi Kenny,
This is my first time visiting your blog. I enjoy with your post. When I am beginning in blogging several years ago, I confused about ‘no follow’ or ‘do follow’. hahaha…
But the more important think in blogging is killer content in blog, so I ignored about that issues.
Faisal Reza recently posted..I.D.K.H.T.S. Syndrome In Internet Marketing. You Must Avoid It.
@Faisal thats so true, we must give our readers the best content that we can possibly give
I don’t know about ‘no follow’ or ‘do follow’ before. Thanks for the information. I very appreciate it.
@Sherry yes thank you for reading, I’m so happy that you learned something
Kenny, I really appreciate your great advice, as I was unaware of this tactic. It’s a great idea, because we do not want those spammers and “bots” and I do get them.
Thanks for the step by step instructions as to how to set this up! Great post!
Lynn
Lynn Jones recently posted..Enjoy Life’s Journey
@Lynn thank you for reading, the nofollow attribute is an awesome tag, like you said it helps us protect our websites against bots and spammers
Thanks Kenny for quite an informative article. I have a question here though, that is, when we normally allow comments to be posted on our blog, any links that the visitors would add, are they NoFollow or DoFollow by default?
Sarah Reece recently posted..Bluehost Discount
@Sarah the links are nofollow by default but there is a way you can make the links “dofollow” you can make the comments dofollow by using these plugins in your blog
Dofollow
Wp-Dofollow
DoFollow State
and I recommend you use commentluv they allow you to make your comments dofollow or nofollow commentluv
Thanks for the easy explanation. Sometime the explanation is more complicated than the original question. Your video really helped to explain the whole comcept.
Joyce Edwards recently posted..What Happened to Lard?
@Joyce I’m so honored and happy that you understand nofollow now, I appreciate you very much my friend
I still make a point of building no-follow links to my site as I believe that it makes for a more believable link profile. Is that the right train of thought? I just hope that I am doing it right, but there is so much mis-information online that sometimes it sure gets confusing.
Josh Hartman recently posted..libre de deudas consejos
@Josh my advice is you should build as much dofollow backlinks as possible, but nofollow links also helps you build website traffic
I think we sometimes not only assume everyone knows what we do, but also we think everybody thinks like us or acts like us.
We think that if we love do follow, everybody will use it, and if we like to comment on every other blog we like, regardless its page rank, or whatever, everybody has the same practice. Sadly, word is diverse and opinions are diverse, and views are unique to each individual. So let’s not judge others, but critique positively their approaches and respect their opinions.
That’s why I like commenting on blogs, and I do it regardless the link juice or page rank value
Maya recently posted..Top Bollywood Movies 2011
@Maya thats true because I just comment give my honest opinion and drive traffic but everybody is different
I agree with Maya I have my excel document with all my favorite blogs or those who have stopped by and commented on mine, and while I do have them sorted by PR most of my comments tend to be on the lower PR sites.
I think the reason for this is because these people tend to try harder than those who are already feeling “established”
Warren recently posted..How to Write Comments that Attract Readers
You know I have absolutely no idea if my affiliate links are nofollow!
I had to go through and setup a robot.txt file to exclude them because they were showing up as broken links in my webmaster tools (cloaked)
You’re giving me more work to do!
I was going to say “Way to go” for being up so early, but then I remembered your on the other side of the country!
I’m in Calgary, Alberta (MST)
What are you working on today Kenny?
Warren recently posted..How to Write Comments that Attract Readers
@Warren my brother I’m currently working on finishing up my marketing funnel, and finishing up my products for the marketing funnel.
and you can use these two firefox plugins to see if any links in your website or nofollow or dofollow
here are two firefox plugin that you could use to find out the nofollow links and the dofollow links on a website
“nodofollow” https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nodofollow/ and
“linkparser” https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/linkparser/
AND HERE IS A TUTORIAL VIDEO I CREATED TO SHOW YOU HOW TO USE AND INSTALL THEM “Nodofollow and Linkparser How to use and Install Firefox Plugin Nodofollow and LinkParser” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKfczKHenKk
Installing them now, will have to check out the video later.
I’m finishing up an eBook “Blog Owner’s Manual” that I’m working on. Hoping to have it finished in another week or so. Will be 150+ pages filled with info on all the topics we have to cover as bloggers.
Warren recently posted..How to Increase Your PageRank Quickly
@Warren WOOW!! thats great my brother, I’m looking forward to seeing your product, I know its going to do great. I also have ebook about blogging sitting here in my microsoft word, internet marketing is fun I love it
Nice, is yours finished yet?
I launched one earlier this year called “Blog Traffic Tactics” and wanted to do another that covered all the other aspects of blogging.
You’re right it is awesome and I love it as well.
Ps. If yours is finished (or when it is) let me know and we can do a post and publish it on my site, Facebook wall, list etc.
Help get the word out.
Warren recently posted..How to Write Comments that Attract Readers
@Warren well mine is finished, but I’m also working on my last product for the funnel, I’m calling it “Four Way Traffic” I’m basically teaching buyers four traffic strategies and how I leverage them to get more traffic. Its a video course and mixed with written text.
I’m Excited well my brother we can certainly promote each other as you share my ebook, I will be more than happy to publish your ebook on my blog, send it out to my email list, and send it out to my social media profiles.
and by the way I’m calling my ebook “be a master blogger”
Hey Kenny!
Just wanted to stop by to let you know that I really appreciate all your fantastic training wekkafter week. You are a TRUE Leader!
Penny Turko recently posted..Sexy Network Marketers Choose Network Marketing VT!
@Penny thank you so much, you are a great leader as well keep empowering and building others up, lets keep adding value my friend
let’s see if Pinterest will start using the [no-follow] feature soon, since they’ve just experienced an increase in spam on the site. Keep the fingers crossed on it… LOL
College of Content recently posted..Viewing The Best Of Peru
@College of content lets hope they dont use the nofollow feature
then what happens if have a web directory. Should I earn pagerank with or without nofollow?
Thanks
juan recently posted..La Distribucion de Poisson
@Juan you can rank your web directory with nofollow, and without nofollow, it all deppends on how much relevant and good quality backlinks you have pointing towards your web directory
Helpful article to know the importance of nofollow and how it reduces spams.I think quality link from relative article have more importance than other link. Thanks for sharing
@MomGrocery yes thank you for reading my friend, I love nofollow because it helps protect us from spam