There are SEO benefits to external links, but should they be nofollow?
-
I just read a great article on the SEO benefits of external links to relevant authoritative sites. But it didn't state if the benefits still existed if the external links were nofollows.
The article concluded: “Outgoing relevant links to authoritative sites are considered in the algorithms and do have a positive impact on rankings.”I found this old article on the subject, but opinions on the nofollow issue were mixed:
https://moz.com/blog/external-linking-good-for-seo-whiteboard-fridayCan anyone shed any light?
Thanks! ~Caro
-
Thank you James
-
Thanks for that input Egol. Sounds logical.
-
This is not gospel. It is an old fart kibitzing....
Nofollow is supposed to mean... "we don't vouch for this"... or... "these people paid us"... or... "don't count this"... or.... "we don't trust this".... So, on that basis, I would not add nofollow these links if I wanted them to be helpful.
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 externally from destination pages
Hello, From my destinations pages, is it beneficial to have a link going externally to the hotels my clients are staying in ? In other words is it beneficial to my website or will it hurt me to link external from all my destinations pages to all the hotels my clients are staying in ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Link Resolvers, Academic Publishing, and SEO Visibility
I have recently started working at an academic publisher on their digital products. In this industry it's standard practice to use link resolvers - such as SFX from ExLibris - when updating a product as an easy way to manage URL migration. However, these link resolvers appear to use 302 redirects which makes me concerned about the potential for rankings to drop. Does anybody out there know about the use of link resolvers and their effects on search engine visibility? The main sources of information I've been able to find so far have been a Google Webmaster Central forum post and a piece on DOI news from 2005. Any information that's more up to date would be very useful, thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BenjaminMorel0 -
SEO - is it site or page
Hi When we're talking about SEO does the search engine only look at the whole site in general or do they look at the individual page when we're talking about SERP? So if you have a keyword "my search term" Does the search engine look at the site first or the page with the term on then rank you or is it the page then the site.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Linking to External Websites?
Is it good to link external websites from every page. Since, the on-page grader shows there should be one link pointing to an external source. I have a website that can point to an external website from every page using the brand name of the specific site like deal sites do have. Is it worth having external link on every page, of-course with a no-follow tag?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | welcomecure0 -
Fix broken external links on noindex, follow pages no one visits?
Would you take the time to fix external links on your site on pages that are noindex, follow on pages that no one ever visits? The only reason to do it would be to present a tidier site to Google, but would it really care if those pages are noindex/folllow? The thing that makes it a non-trivial amount of work is that there are hundreds of these on a large site. Do you think Google cares, if they're noindex/follow? I know the safe answer is always fix everything, but really it has to get weighed against the likely benefit and other projects with a limited amount of time to work with. Best... Mike
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Yoast Seo Plugin
When I view html code of our website, I see this from yoast plugin this. I guess there is really something wrong, especially the page 2? Why so many meta? When ask the support team of the plugin, the developer said me that it is caused by the theme. <html xmlns="<a class="attribute-value">http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml</a>" lang="<a class="attribute-value">en-US</a>"><head><meta http-equiv="<a class="attribute-value">Content-Type</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">text/html; charset=UTF-8</a>" /><meta name="<a class="attribute-value">google-site-verification</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">hRZ9ZRlCURkbiJA5Ewf6VJlSfGZipdXnumAKlHcrHaQ</a>" /><title>Villas Diani | Kenya Luxury Beach Holidaystitle><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">stylesheet</a>" href="[http://villasdiani.com/wp-content/themes/decorum/style.css](view-source:http://villasdiani.com/wp-content/themes/decorum/style.css)" type="<a class="attribute-value">text/css</a>" media="<a class="attribute-value">screen</a>" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" type="<a class="attribute-value">application/rss+xml</a>" title="<a class="attribute-value">RSS Feed</a>" href="[http://villasdiani.com/feed/](view-source:http://villasdiani.com/feed/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">pingback</a>" href="[http://villasdiani.com/xmlrpc.php](view-source:http://villasdiani.com/xmlrpc.php)" /><meta name="<a class="attribute-value">description</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Indian Ocean Villas in Kenya, Diani Beach Resort. Find Diani beach Accommodation and Information for Luxury Beach Holidays in Kenya</a>"/><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" href="[http://villasdiani.com/](view-source:http://villasdiani.com/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">next</a>" href="[http://villasdiani.com/page/2/](view-source:http://villasdiani.com/page/2/)" /><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">author</a>" href="[https://plus.google.com/u/0/108558298587711226912/posts](view-source:https://plus.google.com/u/0/108558298587711226912/posts)"/><link rel="<a class="attribute-value">publisher</a>" href="[https://plus.google.com/u/0/108558298587711226912/posts](view-source:https://plus.google.com/u/0/108558298587711226912/posts)"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:locale</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">en_US</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:type</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">website</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:title</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Villas Diani | Kenya Luxury Beach Holidays</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:description</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Kenya Diani Beach Villas, Luxury Villa Rentals</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:url</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">http://villasdiani.com/</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:site_name</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Villas Diani | Kenya Luxury Beach Holidays</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">article:publisher</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.facebook.com/VillasDianiBeach</a>"/><meta property="<a class="attribute-value">og:image</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">http://villasdiani.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/alfajiri-cliff-villa-diani-kenya.jpg</a>"/>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rebeca10 -
What are the most underrated SEO tactics?
Looking over the discussion of underrated SEO tactics at http://sphinn.com/story/178993/ , I'm curious if folks here have any favorite SEO tactics that they feel are ignored, underrated, or somehow not appreciated by the community at large. Any thoughts? Among the tactics listed in the Sphinn post: Blog commenting Analytics to identify low-hanging keyword fruit Getting your site set up properly at the server level Unique and relevant imagery Internal links Google Place page optimization Several more... Any others that should be included? I'd personally add segmenting your keyword traffic into trademark (those that mention your brand name) versus non-trademark segments for more thorough analysis.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jcolman2 -
RSS feeds- What are the secrets to getting them, and the links inside then, indexed and counted for SEO purposes?
RSS feeds, at least on paper, should be a great way to build backlinks and boost rankings. They are also very seductive from a link-builder's point of view- free, easy to create, allows you to specifiy anchor text, etc. There are even several SEO articles, anda few products, extolling the virtues of RSS for SEO puposes. However, I hear anecdotedly that they are extremely ineffective in getting their internal links indexed. And my success rate has been abysmal- perhaps 15% have ever been indexed,and so far, I havenever seem Google show an RSS feed as a source for a backlink. I have even thrown some token backlinks against RSS feeds to see if that helped in getting them indexed, but even that has a very low success rate. I recently read a blog post saying that Google "hates aRSS feeds" and "rarely spiders perhaps the first link or two." Yet there are many SEO advocates who claim that RSS feeds are a great untapped resource for SEO. I am rather befuddled. Has anyone "crackedthe code" onhow to get them,and the links that they contain, indexed and helping rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tclendaniel0