Since the very beginning of SEO , the follow vs nofollow links debate has been getting a lot of airtime. Are nofollow links brought into the ranking equation at all? Is a nofollow link from a high DR valuable? Are all nofollow links entirely useless for SEO and therefore not an important PR metric? These are questions raised and debated on a constant cycle in the world of SEO. And, with nofollow links recently becoming more and more common, we thought we’d chip in our two pence.
This blog will firstly take it back to the basics, explaining what nofollow and follow link are, and how they came to be. We’ll then get into the juicy stuff – how they differ in terms of SEO and overall value. But if you don’t have all day, here’s the whole blog nicely summarised in 3 takeaways:
➡️The difference between nofollow and follow links lies in the message they’re giving to Google. Follow links pass link equity and tell Google to crawl the page, whilst nofollow links are a way of saying it’s not very important.
➡️Despite this, nofollow links are still valuable for SEO and should not be overlooked! Search engines value a natural backlink profile with a mix of dofollow and nofollow links. You should aim for a ratio of roughly 80/20.
➡️Nofollow links can also directly improve your sales by bringing in relevant traffic and improving brand awareness – especially when found on a reputable website.
So what’s a nofollow link?
A nofollow hyperlink has “nofollow” in its HTML code, which tells Google not to crawl the linked page.
So, to put it simply, a nofollow link is a way of telling search engines to ignore a link on your website. You’re essentially saying it’s not very important and not recommending it for search ranking purposes.
They were introduced in 2005 with the aim to combat a dodgy practice where sites were attempting to manipulate rankings by acquiring lots of irrelevant links.
And what are dofollow links?
As the name would suggest, ‘dofollow’ or ‘follow’ links are the opposite! They’re the standard type of hyperlink on websites and tell search engines to follow and rank the attached page. With this, you’re saying to Google that the linked site is relevant to your content and providing valuable information – it’s like a vote of confidence.
How to know if a link is nofollow or dofollow
I see you now scrambling to check your links, and luckily for you, it’s very easy to find out if the link in question is follow or nofollow. Simply hover over the link, right-click it, and choose “Inspect.” You’ll then be able to view the source code and have a look for that ‘nofollow’ tag.
How do they differ for SEO?
Follow links have a direct impact on SEO; acquiring high-quality follow links from relevant sites will have a significant impact on your rankings for related keywords. This is because follow links pass on link equity, boosting the page they link to.
Nofollow links on the other hand are more of a grey area. Some believe they cannot directly impact search ranking and, after all, they were created with the intention of telling search engines not to follow the link and pass ranking powder to the page. However, there’s some evidence to the contrary.
Matt Cutts, a former Google engineer, has acknowledged that nofollow links might be used as a signal in a ‘complex way’. What he’s possibly referring to here is that some studies suggest search engines consider nofollow links in a couple of situations:
- If a nofollow link comes from a trustworthy and relevant website, this might still hold some weight in Google’s eyes
- Search engines will often look at the whole link profile of a website, including both follow and nofollow links, to get a good sense of its reputation. And the evidence suggests that a diverse backlink profile is valuable for SEO, but more on that later.
But whether or not nofollow links can pass link equity, to say they have no value for SEO would be short sighted. Here’s why…
Why you shouldn’t dismiss nofollow links
🔗Referral Traffic
Despite not necessarily passing on link equity, nofollow links can be a powerful tool for driving referral traffic, especially if the linking site is relevant to your niche, with a wide established audience. Their audience can click through this link, land on your website, and be exposed to your content – this increases your traffic and potential conversions!
🔗Brand awareness
Getting linked to, even with nofollow, is great for brand awareness. If your website gets linked to on a popular industry blog or high-traffic news outlet, your business is exposed to a huge new audience who may not have known about you before.
Being linked to by reputable websites reflects positively on your brand. Users aren’t checking the code for each link they see, they’re taking it for face value as a signpost that you’re as much of a trustworthy source as the site linking to you.
Increased brand awareness from nofollow links can also trigger a domino effect. As more people discover your content and find it valuable, they might go on to link to your site themselves – and these could even be dofollow links this time around.
🔗Backlink Profile Diversity
Search engines want to see a diverse backlink profile; what this means is a profile including a mix of link types, anchor texts, and crucially, follow and nofollow links.
This is because a website with only follow links could appear unnatural for search engines. Having a few nofollow links in there too shows that your site is not suspicious and instead, shows that it has grown organically.
This being said, the ideal backlink profile does lean towards follow links. Search Engine Journal recommends a ratio of 80/20 or 70/30 in favour of follow links.
You can find out your site’s ratio by using tools like the Ahrefs backlink checker. Here’s ours:
So there we have it, our defence of nofollow links. Enough of the hate and leaving them out of your reports – they’re probably benefitting you far more than you know!
Who are we? Cedarwood Digital is a link-building agency based in Manchester, with a track record of landing businesses a healthy mix of follow and no-follow links, all from top tier sites. Contact us today to have a chat about your Digital PR strategy.
