NOFOLLOW Links: Can we 100% ignore them for SEO purposes?

[GregB123]

Some SEO articles say we can completely ignore NoFollow links. Other articles say they still matter - but then are very vague on what they count for or against. So which is it really?

I do realize that they can provide traffic, and for that they are worthwhile. But it is SEO I am asking about...

The SEO purpose I am most concerned with is the Link Profile. Separating the Follows from the NoFollows often gives really different anchor text distributions.

If they don't matter, why do MOZ and other SEO Analysis programs still include them in their standard reports? (I can see some benefit to having them as part of the in-depth reports)

So what's your thoughts? Can we 100% ignore the NoFollows for our SEO analysis?

[GregB123]

Thanks everybody!

It looks I need to "sort of" consider them in my analysis

[WhoWuddaThunk]

I've ranked a few sites with great onsite and nofollow links.  There's some sort of trust/authority that is passed through them.  That being said, dofollow links pass more authority.

The reason why all of the other SEO tools include them is because they work to show you as many links as the tool finds.  They don't limit it based on what they perceive as valuable.  They provide you the data to make the choice.

[JaneCopland]

you're are going to need some keyword anchor text from followed links - but not an unnatural amount!

Yeah the ratio of what you need is crazily small right now - I've seen sites with some amazingly good rankings in competitive spaces with nearly blanket brand / miscellaneous anchors, but of course the sources from which they obtain these links are largely relevant to their competitive market / keyword. Like Mailchimp - 10,000 unique linking domains linking with "mailchimp" (plus many more variations below); 28 linking with "email marketing" (all from some questionable badges, mind you) / SERPs right now. The commercial terms will pop up naturally from time to time and that's fine, but to be honest, we'd stopped seeking or being happy about deliberate competitive anchor text a while ago.

[iSTORM-New-Media]

Again I would say they both matter (follow and nofollow) but followed links are going to have a lot more value. It is interesting to look at the distribution of anchor text between followed and nofollowed links. If you want to rank high for a competitive keyword, you're are going to need some keyword anchor text from followed links - but not an unnatural amount!

[JaneCopland]

I would look at them for the entire backlink profile, but pay more attention to the followed links when it comes to something like anchor text distribution. Here's why:

If I were Google and I were looking at a car insurance website, and I saw that it had 200 followed links with brand mentions, URLs as anchor text, "click here", etc., then that looks fairly good. However, if the site also has 400 links with "cheap car insurance" as anchor text, does that look somewhat like the site has been doing something like comment spamming? Yup, it does. They make up a telling part of the profile and Google would be silly not to take them into consideration, but they should not directly affect site authority in the way followed links do.

Keep in mind that DA scores are a Moz metric and whilst Moz attempts to replicate how Google operates to the best of its ability, it isn't a Google figure so can't be relied upon to show how Google views a site's authority.

If you've been penalised, I'd most certainly start with removing followed links that are poor in quality. I have not heard of a situation where someone has recovered from a penalty after removing nofollowed links (this doesn't mean it hasn't happened). It's the followed links that Google cracks down on if they dislike them, and the followed links that make a large difference to your rankings.

[hecklerponics]

For what is it worth Gregory, I've built DA with almost entirely no-follow links. So I personally would say that it would be good piece of information to have regarding the anchor text of those links.

[GregB123]

Thanks iStorm. I just looked at the Factors article and see NoFollowed in there as part of the grand total number of links.

What I still want to hear more about is if they should be included when looking at things like a site's Anchor Text distribution....

[iSTORM-New-Media]

Nofollowed links still have value (especially in the fact that great traffic links can be nofollowed), but you want pure SEO value. Take a look at Moz's latest Search Engine Ranking Factors: http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors

This is their list of the highest correlated ranking factors which include link totals (follow and nofollow) - look at #12 on the list. So yes, they do correlate to ranking factors, but they are a much smaller factor compared to the value of a followed link.