It remains a
matter or great debate among SEO professionals worldwide whether or not a site
should have nofollow backlinks, if they serve any purpose and how many they
should be. Many bloggers and SEO professionals believe that having dofollow
inbound links is the only way that sites can improve their rankings on Google
search engine results pages (SERPs).
Technically,
this is kind of true, since nofollow links are not crawled by Google, which means
that they cannot pass link juice to the site they point for the purpose of
assessment for ranking on Google and other search engines. This does not mean
that nofollow links have no part to play in any site’s SEO strategy. So, what,
exactly, is the role of nofollow links?
As a newbie
in SEO, digital and mobile
marketing, it’s important to understand the relevance
of backlinks from various sources and with various attributes for any site. A
good link building strategy would be made of links of various kinds rather than
leaning towards just one technique. Understanding the difference between
dofollow and nofollow links can also help sites to escape the clutches of a
manual or Penguin penalty.
Dofollow and
nofollow: what’s the difference?
‘Dofollow’
is an attribute in HTML, used to describe a link when it’s placed on a page. It
tells search engine bots/crawlers that they can follow that link as well as
consider it during the assessment process for ranking. This passes on some link
juice to the target destination (the site that has been linked to) and helps
that site to get a better rank on SERPs, provided the link is high value.
Dofollow inbound links are the most useful backlinks that a website or blog can
acquire since they directly contribute to the ranking position of the site on
Google and other SERPs.
Nofollow, on
the other hand, is a HTML attribute assigned to links. It tells search engine
crawlers that they should not follow said link, hence they will not consider it
during a site’s assessment for ranking. Nofollow backlinks do not pass link
juice to targeted sites, and hence will not directly affect the SERP ranking
position of the site to which the link points.
To be clear,
nofollow links are followed by search engines crawlers, but they are not
indexed and hence do not add direct SEO value.
Best SEO
Practices for Dofollow and Nofollow links
While
nofollow backlinks do not contribute directly to SERP ranking improvement, it
would be a big mistake for site owners or SEO professionals to neglect building
nofollow links. Aside from the fact that they don’t pass link juice for ranking
purposes, nofollow links share all other qualities of dofollow links, and hence
it’s important to maintain a healthy ratio of both for an effective linking
strategy.
What’s a
good ratio of dofollow to nofollow links, you ask? Well, there’s no hard and
fast ratio. Some professionals say 80:20 while others go as low as 50:50.
Whether or not you have a higher nofollow link ratio will depend on your exact
link-building strategy. For instance, if you acquire links from more nofollow
sources like social media, forums and certain blogs you’ll have a higher
nofollow percentage.
What does
Google want?
Suppose you
have just set up a site and would like to improve your rankings by
link-building. You can set up hundreds of dofollow links from related websites,
thinking that Google want more dofollow links. You’ll more likely end up with a
Penguin or manual penalty instead.
As a new
site, the only way to explain addition of a high number of links in such a
short time would be if you were a celebrity, or you posted highly (and I mean
highly) viral content. For the rest of the sites, any huge leaps in your link
numbers within a short time can lead Google to believe that you are engaging in
unnatural link building.
Since
nofollow links undergo assessment for ranking, you are free to build more if
such links and reap the other benefits from them.
Importance
of nofollow links
Nofollow
links are not inferior to dofollow links in any way other than for SERP
ranking. Therefore, all other benefits of links can accrue by having nofollow
links. Having a certain percentage of nofollow links helps your link-building
strategy to look well rounded hence more natural. The rule of thumb is never to
lean on one link-building technique too much as this could tick off Google and
land you a penalty.
In addition,
your site stands to benefit from the referral traffic that comes as a result of
nofollow links. Users can still follow such links back to your site, and if
backed by other SEO strategies, this can help to increase the number of
conversions and hence increase revenue realization for your site.
Where to get
nofollow links
The best
source of nofollow links is through blog commenting. Typically, links found on
most forum signatures, discussion threads and sites like Quora are set to
nofollow. Social media sites like Twitter only offer nofollow backlinks, while
other social sites offer both nofollow and dofollow links, but the latter
within special circumstances only.
In
conclusion, take care as you build you dofollow link profile. No matter what
ratio you choose to go by, remember that the secret to natural link building is
diversification.
