Should I disavow nofollow links?

[VinceWicks]

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?

[Dave_Schulhof]

Personally if you are using a tool like Open Site Explorer and are already undertaking a link cleaning exercise. If you identify no follow links on spammy or dodgy sites then I would add to the disavow as you are doing this anyway.

I would rather clean all links as who know that Google will change next so I prefer to ensure everything is legitimate and as it should be even if our clients currently aren't being penalised.

I wouldn't go out of your way though to disavow these no follows if you are not cleaning your links anyway.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Honestly the only way I would do that is if you have then hit by a penalty that Google is told you about. And you can check this via the e-mail account attached to Google Webmaster tools.

Without that information, its very hard to understand why you disavow  no follows or any links at all unless you have been hit with a penalty. Truthfully you are better off spending your time earning good links there worrying about no follows hurting you.

If you have been contacted by Google then told the you are penalized then they will need to see you've actually tried to contact the webmasters of websites with the offending links pointing to your site and ask the webmasters to remove the links. Rather they do it or not is up to them however if they are a spam directory or something of that nature when you disavow the links during the reconsideration request you must show that you at least tried to get them to remove these offending links.

However to be honest with you without that information I cannot tell you directly what the best method is for you.

However just to be clear if you are not affected by penalty don't waste your time with no follow links they will not harm your site and concentrate on earning links rather than getting rid of no follow links. Of course unless as was said they are erroneous to your business or harming you in any other manner.

Sincerely,

Thomas

[Ikusa]

Definitely do not worry about the disavowing nofollows, unless the domain itself is somehow egregiously offensive to your brand.  Otherwise, you're safe to stick with dofollows.