What are nofollow links?
Nofollow links, as the name suggests, are links with the <rel=“nofollow”> HTML tag assigned to them, which essentially just tells Google and other search engines to pay them no mind.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How do nofollow links affect SEO?
Nofollow links do not affect SEO—at least not directly.
As we have seen earlier, the nofollow tag is designed to tell Google to ignore a link. This means that nofollow links do not actually count as valid backlinks, which, in turn, means that they do not have any impact on how you rank in search.
Question #2: If nofollow links do not affect SEO, why should I even pay them any attention?
Even if nofollow links do not affect SEO, you should still pay attention to them for the following reasons:
- They can still help drive traffic to your website. Keep in mind that it is not just search engines that see links. Your target audience does too, and they cannot tell the difference between follow links and nofollow links—at least not unless they actually check the code of the web page that has them.
If they think a link to your content might benefit them, they would just click on it, regardless of how it is tagged in the code.
- They help you keep spammers from benefiting from your content. You work hard on building an audience for your content. The last thing you want is for spammers to just leave a comment on it with a link to their own website and instantly start ranking in search, right?
Fortunately, the nofollow tag—which most modern CMS platforms automatically assign to all commented links—prevents that from happening.
- They help keep you from getting penalised whenever you pay for a legitimate feature on other websites and online platforms.
Keep in mind that it is against Google’s policies to buy backlinks in an attempt to game the system and trick search engines into bumping up your search rankings—which is technically also what paying for a feature is despite the massively different intent.
Using the nofollow tag for these paid features prevents you from getting penalised.
Question #3: What is the difference between follow and nofollow links?
The main difference between follow and nofollow links lies in the name. As we have seen earlier, nofollow links are largely ignored by Google (and other search engines) in terms of being valid backlinks. Well, follow links are the exact opposite.
Unlike nofollow links, follow links have a direct impact on your site’s search ranking—but they are by no means the only thing you should focus on if you want to do well in search. You also need to take a look at things such as:
- The quality of your content
- The relevance of your content to your target audience
- They keywords you use (and how you use them)
Question #4: Is it okay to have only follow links?
No, it is actually risky to only have follow links because it seems unnatural in the eyes, so to speak, of search engines. It is much better to have a healthy balance of both so you do not get suspected of or flagged for engaging in suspicious link building activities.
Question #5: How can I get more backlinks?
The best way to get more follow links is to focus on creating high-quality shareworthy content because as long as you keep publishing content that your target audience finds interesting and/or valuable, there is a big chance that they will share it with their family and friends—and one share creates one more backlink to your content.
In addition to this, however, you can also tap contributors or do collaborations with brands and content creators who operate in the same industry as you because they will naturally share the work that they did with you, which ultimately creates even more backlinks to your website.