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
-
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 -
Links from Directory Websites with NoFollow Tag
In reviewing our root domain links, I noticed that many of the directories (like Yellow Pages, Insider Pages, Merchant Circle, etc) that there are no follow codes included in the link to our website. Is this a common practice for these directories? Also, I wanted to confirm that this would not help in our link building strategies with any relevant "link juice." Below is a copy and pasted (with some extra characters that shouldn't have copy and pasted), but the key note here is the no follow tag that was included in this link to our site. Visit Website Thanks as always MOZ Community - cheers!
Link Building | | Leithmarketing0 -
Difference between rel="nofollow" and rel="no follow"
Does rel****=****"nofollow" mean the same thing as rel=****"no follow"? I mean written in one word or two words. Can Google feel the difference? Thanks
Link Building | | DDL0 -
GWT Best For Link Checking?
Even though GWT's Links to your site is about a month behind I am finding that it reports new links faster than either OSE or Majestic. Has anybody found anything more current than GWT?
Link Building | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Where I can find a backlink community exchange?
I know is difficult but it's worth to try. I am looking for a community eager to exchange links. I am in the venue rent for weeding and conferences in London and I would be delighted to find other people to exchange the links. At the moment my page is PR4 I have seen communities for games where they exchange anything, why don't link exchange!!!!
Link Building | | lnietob0 -
Searching for Quality "Follow" Back Links
I'm in a highly competitive national market where the top sites have links from between 325 and 1300 unique linking root domains, therefore, you have to have an aggressive approach just to get on the map. (I'm at 317) If we were talking about needing 50 good links, I could take the time to cultivate relationships, get to know people, and get 1 or 2 great links from each webmaster, but the scale of the challenge is out of control. My competitors, and myself, seem to all be getting links in the following ways: Hoards of directory links. Some high quality paid links from industry sites ($2,400 per each link per year) and hundreds from 9-$49 per year. At the bottom of the list of most all my competitors, there appears to be some links from their early beginnings that were reciprocal linking arrangements. Blogs where they submitted articles and have good links back to their sites. Paid ads on sites all over the internet that link back with their specific key words. Some from relevant sites, but mostly from sites that would give them a good deal and have high enough traffic and/or page rank. Blog comments with a link back to their site; sometimes with good anchor text and sometimes you're forced to have to use your web site address as the anchor text or even your name. (Does that even do any good?) My dilema is where to find 1,000 good places to get links and I don't do black hat? I can write good quality comments on blogs from a wide variety of industries, but most are now eliminating the possibility of using my anchor text other than my web site and my name. As I scour the playing field, it almost appears that it has become a "pay to play" proposition as far as getting links everywhere other than writing good blog articles, but then what good does it do to have 500 blog articles coming from a handful of linking root domains? You're just stuffing the ballot box! As for me, I'm in the teens with all the high value phrases I need and must come up with a better strategy for the home stretch. In all the other varied statistical measurements that I see on SEO Moz, I'm no lower than #5 out of the top 10 competitors in any of them except Alexa rank. So, I'm close but it seems so far away! Would appreciative and be grateful for some wisdom from the community! Lowell
Link Building | | lwnickens1 -
What's the difference between follow and nofollow links?
I understand this may be a really dumb question and from my understanding there is a piece of code in some url's that tell search engines not to follow that link. I am interested in finding out what the purpose of nofollow links are and how they apply to search rankings. Thanks for the help
Link Building | | A2890 -
The quality of links is measured by website relevancy to my business?
In Open Site Explorer links are being valued with Domain Authority and page Authority. My question is if you measure somehow the relevancy of the website with the business of the website to which the links are going? I have learned that an important part of the value of links is the relevancy of the website with my business. I am seeing for example a link from a children website to a car related website as very much valued. I dont see very much relevancy with both so I wonder you take this into account.
Link Building | | ceesie0