Are NoFollow Links a Waste of time?
-
I share links to my blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. However, my links on social media sites are NoFollow Links. Do No Follow links help my Search Ranking or is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media?
Ytellsocial
-
John Cross - thanks for providing with wonderful information and the slide share link.
-
Neal
Sharing links on social media is becoming more important to ranking as time progresses. So my view is the better you get at social now the more influence it will have on rankings now and down the track. EGOL has nailed its importance but I think social will only get more powerful on search/ranking influence.
Google is looking at ways to amplify social as it maybe the most pure (incorruptible) measurement tool for rankings. Earlier this year google & twitter announced they were re-connecting and google would have full access to the "firehose" or all tweets. Though yet we have not seen any significant changes in causation between ranking and tweets google will be working on something given the open funnel they now have into twitter.
Positive social shares validate a website and inform google your website is relevant, current and being talked about.
Moz published the slideshare below, which maybe helpful.
http://www.slideshare.net/jennifersablelopez/social-medias-influence-on-search-going-beyond-rankings
So I recommend think less about the technical side of nofollow links and more about the positive aspects of social media ie driving traffic to your website, creating links by sharing and then owning the space as the of power social to SEO is amped up.
-
Patrick Delehanty - Thanks for sharing great content with me to help me understand that no follow isn't bad.
-
Hi there
First, nofollow links are not a waste of time, if they pass the following questions:
-
Does this link help my website?
-
Is this link relevant to my website?
-
Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?
-
Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?
-
If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?
-
Are the links from directory templates? (example)
-
Inspect URLs with blatant spam words
-
Free
-
Porn
-
XXX
-
Submit
-
Directory
-
Paid
-
Links
-
URL
-
Sex
-
etc.
-
Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs
-
This can usually show link farms or spam
...then that is a link I would consider obtaining.
Second, I would take a look at this resource from Moz. Going through this will help you in the following ways:
- What your user looks / act like
- What kind of content they like
- How they digest that content
- Where you should share that content
- How often you should be writing
- Where you should look to link build based on your audience
Here's another great resource on personas to help you. What it comes down to is knowing the type of content your audience wants/needs, and where to find them to get it to them. Once you get that figured out, the rest is just finding a way to keep up!
Hope this helps you! Good luck!
-
-
thanks for providing great insight to me EGOL
-
**.... is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media? **
This is the real crux of the question.
If people see your postings on social media and click through to your website then that is a sign that you have something worth sharing. But, it also could be a sign that you are dropping clickbaity shares. You can check Google Analytics or Clicky or whatever you are using to monitor your incoming traffic.
If your shares are productive then you have to value your time compared to the amount of traffic and possible revenue or visibility that you are receiving from social sources. I don't share my content on social media because I am not a social media participant with a large number of people who interact with me. It is not a productive use of my time. It is more important for me to write content with that time.
However, all of the pages of my site have buttons that make it easy for my visitors to share in obvious ways and many visitors do that. I get traffic every day from social but occasionally I get enormous traffic from it. The best thing is that my visitors are doing the sharing for me.
Cultivating a tribe of people who like your website is the most effective way to take advantage of social media. For this to happen you must have strong sharable assets on your website.
Another thing that you can do to facilitate social sharing is to be sure that you are showing your best, most highly sharable content with all of your visitors. Obvious links to your most popular content, your most often shared content, what's hot today content can trigger content consumption and sharing.
Learn what content is winning for you and then play your strengths.
-
You are very welcome
-Andy
-
Andy Drinkwater - thank you for the response
-
They aren't a total waste, but they don't pass any page rank.
As for them being on social media sites, this is considered to be an emerging way to pass additional signals to Google around popularity, etc, so they could be useful in some way.
If you are looking for links that do something for you, then you need to get a bit more creative in where you try and share your content and how you perform your outreach. Target sites within your niche, make contact, introduce yourself and your article to them and explain why it might be of interest to their readers.
-Andy
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
-
Add Tracking Parameters to Website Links on Facebook/Twitter
does anyone know of a way to add tracking parameters to facebook/twitter website links in the about us section so that we can understand what traffic is specifically coming from that page? I already add tracking to posts, but I am more trying to track each standard link on these social channels. I am currently running into character limits or the result looks like a long url that will most certainly deter clicks because it looks suspicious.
Social Media | | dsinger1 -
Is Link Earning the same as Blogger Outreach?
Hello all - is there a difference between link earning (from Rand's WBF post) and blogger outreach? Little confused 🙂
Social Media | | Seabrook0 -
Is there a way to set up a business Facebook page without linking it to a client's personal page or having to use our own employee's personal page?
Our clients want us to manage their FB pages. I need to know how we can do this without having to enter through the FB page of whomever set up the business account. I'm aware of the ability of the person who set up the Business page to allow admin access, but that too requires an our employee to give his or her personal FB info for this access. In the same vein, a former employee set up a client's FB page using his own personal account and now when we enter the client's business page, we do not have access to the search window and we don't have the ability to go to other pages to "like" other pages - the button doesn't even appear if we are signed in and search a FB page through an engine. We do have the ability to see Admin settings and metrics but we don't have the news feed, and we have other limited access/abilities. I would like to have a central access so neither client or our employee has to offer personal FB log in information. Thank you, Julie
Social Media | | HogWild0 -
Importance of Links and Social
I am putting together a presentation for my managers about why link building and social media is important for SEO so that we can get more resources allocated to these areas. Does anyone have advice/links of convincing arguments for me to include? Thanks!
Social Media | | theLotter0 -
Where is the Link Site button on Google+?
I want my content authors to be able to associate their work with their Google+ profile. I read about an update rolled out in June that included a Link Site function on the Edit Profile -- About Tab. I don't see where to do this. Can anyone help me figure out how to enable this function?
Social Media | | wlefevre0 -
Should my small business website link to Yelp?
I'm kind of on the fence about this one. Should I include a social media icon for Yelp on my website? We have great reviews, but so do most of my competitors. I'd like to share my reviews, but I also do not want to send traffic away from my website to another website (Yelp) that lists my competitors. What do you think?
Social Media | | pharcydeabc0 -
How long until Social Spam achieves the same notoriety/problem as Link Spam used to be
What are people's thoughts on whether or not social spam will become a major problem soon, just like forum profile/blog comment spam, etc, and what do you think the search engines will do about companies that are blatantly gaming the social signals game I.E. since social proof seems to be google's answer to combating anchor text manipulation and content farms, what do you think will be google's answer to combating the rampant social spam that will surely overtake us.
Social Media | | ilyaelbert0 -
Do links in Paper.li twitter round-ups help my SEO?
My twitter feed is picked up in the daily roundups like Paper.li. Do these links count towards my SEO effort or are they just empty. Clearly they spread my content so that great, just wondered if the links pass juice to the site.
Social Media | | GlobalLingo0