Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How can I check a website to see if it is "nofollow"?
-
I'm a little new to SEO, so maybe this is obvious to some . . .
I'm attempting to build backlinks by submitting articles, posting on forums etc. I just wrote my forst article for ezine and submitted it.
I was feeling pretty good about myself until I mentioned it to someone trying to sell me their SEO services and he said that ezine articles are considered "nofollow" on all their links.
Well, that was pretty frustrating to hear! It got me wondering, how many of these other sites have all their posts and blogs listed as "nofollow"? Is there a way for me to figure it out ahead of time? Obviously, there are only so many hours in the day and I would rather focus on posting on sites that will actually help me build backlinks!
Thanks for your help in advance!
-
Hey Domaon,
This happened to me once and I was furious. I would contact the publisher and show them this article.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/
Basically it explains that the site gains no additional PR to it's other links by nofollowing your links. Who knows maybe they'll chance their stance on nofollowing links to use submitted articles.
That said there are good reasons why a link can have a nofollow attached to it. However, if you contributed an article to an ezine that selectively publishes user submitted content you deserve a "dofollow" link.
-
Ain't it fun?
-
Thanks everyone, very helpful! I DO have the toolbar, and now I know how to use it!
My head is swimming learning all this stuff!
-
Will still require a manual check before hand but 'Right Click > Properties' will give you a link relationship.
For FF you'll need - https://addons.mozilla.org/af/firefox/addon/element-properties/
Alternatively you can get a nofollow highlight plugin
FF - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nodofollow/
Chrome - http://floridaventureblog.com/2009/03/highlight-nofollow-links-chrome-plugin.html - (Not tested)
Then you can see at a glance if a page comment does give followed or unfollowed links, though you still have to visit the page first.
-
Never had used before their toolbar but its just great, i was using the SEO Site Tools but just turned that off now
-
Hi Damon,
Get the SEOmoz Toolbar, it has a function to highlight NoFollow links. very handy!
http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar
Regards
Aran
-
There are a few ways. If you have the SEOMoz toolbar installed, you can click the nofollow button and it will highlight all of the nonfollowed links in pink for you.
Or, you can check the source code. To do this right click on the page, and select "view source". then, do Ctrl-F and search for "nofollow". This will show you if the whole page is set to be nofollowed (i.e. meta robots noindex, nofollow) and if an individual link is nofollowed.
As a side note, I don't do much article submission. I do believe that the links from ezine are followed, but the link juice you get from them is usually minimal. The way that an article would have more link juice on ezine is if other people from high PR sites linked to it. But, if it's that good an article that it deserves links then it would be much better to have it on your site.
Similarly, forum sigs are usually not terribly helpful for ranking unless you are targetting a really,really non competitive term.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
My site is linked from over 900 "The Globe"-domains - disavow or not?
Hi! As some of you may be familiar with, there is a giant spam-network with the same design and same page title on all domains: "The Globe - The world's most visited web pages". For example: theglobe.at
Link Building | | Sindre
theglobe.co.za
www.internet-search.us I've now discovered that over 900 of these spam-domains link to my site. My plan was of course to disavow them all, but Google is explicit on telling me to be careful. «Only disavow if you are certain that the links are damaging to your rankings». And to be honest, I'm not sure. Also: it seems drastic to disavow almost a thousand pages. I'm afraid to mess something up. What would you do?3 -
In Google search console all of sudden a lot of backlinks have disappear at "Link To Your Site"
Hi after update in Google search console yesterday a lot of backlinks in "Link To Your Site" have disappear, before we had 43x domains now we have 12x domains linking to the site. I have checked the sites where we had link do-follow before and they are OK. Can you please tell me the reason what has gone wrong. And also please guide me in fixing the issue , Hope to hear from you soon..! URL: https://www.finanstopp.no/
Link Building | | heleneolsen3 -
Other websites copy content and giving a link back
Hi, I've just noticed a few back links in Google Search Console, I was excited. But when I saw the backlinks, 2 other websites that had completely copied my content and then gave a backlink to my website. Is this bad for SEO and would google penalise my website for this?
Link Building | | thinkLukeSEO1 -
Are stackoverflow links follow or nofollow?
I've tried to find the answer to this question myself, but I've found differing opinions. The conclusion I've come to is that Stackoverflow allows follow links when the user that posts the link has sufficient reputation or if the link receives user validation. Has anyone else here used Stackoverflow.com that knows the answer to this question? 🙂
Link Building | | RG_SEO0 -
Should I disavow nofollow links?
I've found a bunch of nofollow links with the help of Link Detox. Now, should I disavow such links (after contacating site owner directly and unsuccessfuly) or i can just filter my nofollow links and handle dofollow ones only?
Link Building | | VinceWicks0 -
Do links to my website improve all pages?
I'm currently building links to my home page (through directories) and blog pages. However, none of these pages are actually targeted pages for main keywords. In SEO, do links to any webpage of a site contribute to the improved rank of other pages?
Link Building | | Gavo0 -
Does the ratio of external nofollow links to external "do follow" links matter in terms of SERPs ranking?
My site has an external link nofollow:dofollow ratio of approximately 1:1 That is, there are about as many nofollow external links as "do follow" external links. I have an impression that the ratio of no-follow to "do follow" links is a factor in the way that our website shows up in SERPs. I have the impression from reading a variety of sources, and from looking at Seomoz, that calculate "trust" factors as if they mattered (in SERPs), that seem to value a relatively low nofollow:dofollow ratio. Am I correct about that? Thanks,
Link Building | | tcolling
Tim PS - I don't know whether or not this matters, but our website is at: www.trustworthycare.com - Tim0 -
Site stuck on 2nd page on Google - how can it improve?
Hi I am working on a site http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk that for search terms such as 'Chartered Accountants Swansea' appears near the top of the 2nd page of Google. When looking at what is listed on the 1st page for 'Chartered Accountants Swansea' I would appreciate any advice/guidance on what else could be done to give the site a final push to get on the 1st page of search results. Over the past 2 weeks I have been building inbound links from local citation sites yelp, qype etc along with sites from competitor analysis via opensiteexplorer. Looking at the sites that are on the 1st page I cant understand why many of them are ranking higher than me? Any insight and plan of attack would be most appreciated from any search experts on the forum. Many Thanks
Link Building | | idv0