Does the follow link from the moz Profile really count after first with nofollow?

[Sebes]

Hey all,

I discovered that the link from the public profile might not count. To my knowledge Google "counts" the first link to another page on any given page. The public profile has a nofollow link before your follow link:

linktodomain.tld

linktodomain.tld

Doesn't this invalidates all the public profile links? What is your stance on this?

Regards

Sebastian

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Granted, this correction probably doesn't matter, but for posterity: *there's no distinction (in the video) between if it's the first followed link or no follow."

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Sebastion,

Interesting question. Testing has shown that Google counts the anchor text of the first followed link. Unless the first link is an image, then Google counts both anchor texts.

We haven't tested this in awhile, but I assume it still holds true today.

In this case, because the first link is nofollowed, Google neither passes PageRank or anchor text through it, and does not follow it. They should, however, count the second link.

Also, the first link isn't a text link, but a link across a class that contains an icon. While not quite an image link, it's possible it might work the same as one. (but because it's nofollowed it doesn't matter in this case)

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.

[Alex-Harford]

That is interesting - perhaps just a coding issue as the other links are all nofollow.

The link should still pass juice - Google counts the anchor text of the first occurrence of a particular link on a page (often called "first link priority") but as far as we know ignores the anchor text of repeated links - so that's probably what you're referring to. Subsequent followed links will still pass juice.

My moz profile link does show in my Google WMT account.

[LesleyPaone]

Interesting point. I get traffic from my site link in my Moz profile, but at the same time a link to my root domain does not show up in GWT.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Hey Sebastian,

i just went back and checked the moz academy "how links are valued" video. It says the second link is not as valuable as the first, but doesn't say it "does not count at all." Also, there's no distinction between if it's the first followed link or no follow. Granted, this doesn't completely answer your question, but regardless, you should still get some value from the link even if it's second.

• Ruben