Linking out: Follow vs. Nofollow
-
When linking out to other sites, such as resources on .gov pages, should I use follow or nofollow links?
-
You bring up a good point Nico. I've had bloggers/reviewers who have no followed link to my clients and it has been a little frustrating to know you did all this communication just to know they didn't give you an equity link.
What your saying is true, if its relevant why would you nofollow it. What i think it might be is that when you link to a site, you are also linking to its domain. The domain may be fine, but in the future it might start engaging in black hat seo and other things that would be detrimental. It kind of sucks to say it, but I feel like its almost like you have to make a call on the site's integrity for the future.
I'm sure there are other cases, but this is what came up to my mind first. Love to hear from other people.
-
Let me ask a counter-question: If a website is bad quality, why would you link it at all in the first place? (Barring that you want to give a negative example ...)
Imo the use of "nofollow" should be clearly restricted to paid links and ok, maybe forum/comment links. It is somewhat idiotic to slap a "do not follow or count this link" on a link you set yourself. A link you set yourself with a purpose, because it is relevant to the topic, gives additional information etc. If I was a search engine, I'd really consider NOT honoring the nofollow tag when somebody puts it on every link. To me it also feels somewhat dishonest: You point to a good ressource and also say "but do not give them any credit for me linking and recommending it!". Never mind the human visitor does not see or feel the nofollow in any way at all... and when user signals get more and more important, why exactly should search engines (continue to) honor something that has no bearing on human users at all?
In short: IMO nofollow belongs on paid links and on links the website owner has no way to endorse/influence (comments &c.) if necessary. If you set links yourself, it should be a normal follow link. If you want to put nofollow on it, question why you want to set this link in the first place.
Nico
-
Glad to be of service! Good luck with everything
-
Thanks for the speedy response. This confirms what I thought.
-
The general rule is to evaluate the Domain/url you are linking to. If you trust the site and it creates good content, among other factors of a properly optimized site, then you are free to use a follow link.
If you feel that the site is not of the highest quality and can actually be detrimental because you are associating yourself with a bad site, use the nofollow links.
The best quantifiable method is to check Domain Authority, Page Authority, Spam Score. Another way to check is the good ol' eye test. If it feels like a good site then go ahead. If you just feel like there is something fishy, do a little research.
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
-
Link Audit
Reviewing a list of links from webmaster console for a client and there are links to their website which render a page but there' s no mention of the clients website on that page. Why does this happen? Why is Google thinking that there is a link to the clients website yet on the page there is no mention of that clients website. There's no comments etc. I don't understand this and if anyone can shed a light??
Link Building | | AL123al0 -
Why Links from Top Level Domains doesn't Pass Link Equity?
Hello, I have a doubt about Equity-Passing links report of OpensiteExplorer.org According to Sam Weber http://moz.com/community/users/432678 links which pass value from one page to another including followed 301 and Meta refresh links are under Equity-Passing links. I am surprising after looking at the links report generated by opensiteexplorer.org. Most of the article and directory links which have low DA and PA are under Equity-Passing links. Whereas websites like EzineArticle or Articlebase which have good DA and PA are not found in either Equity-passing links or under only nofollow category. Please suggest me if the report of Opensiteexplorer is not good enough or the links from the site like Ezine Article doesn’t pass the link equity. Thanks.
Link Building | | TopLeagueTechnologies0 -
Nasty links
Hi My first q on here (hoorah!), and it's about links (boo!). I've got what appears to be a handful (but worryingly, increasing in number) of links pointing to my site like this: http://condos.mrgulffront.com/florida-condos-for-sale/320-scenic-gulf-drive-miramar-beach-fl-32550-mls-567591/ I've made contact with the sites concerned, and had only one positive response who flatly denied all knowledge of it. The issue (as far as I can see) is that as in the above example the links (on the bottom right in the grey box) are forever changing so not always visible. Can anyone offer any guidance as to these kinds of nasty links.... I'm right at the v beginning on this "path of seo understanding" so please don't assume prior knowledge! Thanks in advance.... tom
Link Building | | T-J-I0 -
Does the twitter link shortening service reduce link value (strength).
We have many SEO team members that use Twitters link shortening service, will this reduce the strength or value of the page to be indexed? I ask this cause the displayed URL isn't the actual page it is going to and would like to make appropriate changes to improve our company's SEO For example: http://t.co/zHu8vIcjPx is going to page http://4wheelonline.com/atv/QuadBoss.107503 Thank you for your assistance.
Link Building | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Are nofollow links really not effecting rank?
I honestly find it hard to believe that nofollow links are not being considered for rank. Take for example Google finds 2,000,000 nofollow links for a site. Are they really going to ignore that?
Link Building | | cbielich0 -
Internal Linking - 100 plus links
Hi Everyone, I have a question of how the on-page links are being counted. Say you have a page with a warning of having too many on page links (100+). How are all of these links counted? Let's say there are only 5 links on that page. Do the links on each of those pages count too and so on and so forth? I just want to make sure I have wrapped my head around this correctly. Thanks!
Link Building | | dirigodev0 -
.edu links
Hi mozzers, I've had some great success reaching out to many .edu webmasters. Often they are professors and such. My question is, i'm guessing during the summer holiday period, reaching out to these webmasters won't be so fruitful. I'm not in the US and was wondering when the US Summer holidays are for universities over there? Also, does anyone have experience outreaching to these webmasters over the holidays? Peter
Link Building | | PeterM221 -
Link Acquisition - PA vs PR
I am wondering if someone can please advise on link acquisition. I have the opportunity to acquire a few good backlinks that will bring both traffic and some potential link juice. All things aside, if we are strictly comparing Page Authority with Google PageRank which will provide the most benefit to my SERP ranking? 1. Google PageRank 4 and Page Authority of 25 or 2. Google PageRank 2 and Page Authority of 35 We are strictly talking about SERPs!
Link Building | | initialeffort1