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The “nofollow” attribute refers to an insertion of html code within the source code of a web page effectively instructing search engine bots not to follow a particular link to its specified destination.
The source code appears as follows:
<a href=”http://www.exampledomain.com/exampleinnerpage.html”rel=”nofollow”>exampleanchortext</a>
This is also shown below in html as you can see, if you have a firefox SEO add on, to detect “nofollow” links.
The “nofollow” attribute was a creation of Google sometime around 2005, ostensibly to counter spamming. To what extent this objective has been achieved is debatable.
The “nofollow” attribute has the following consequences for the web page at the specified destination.
Ideally,
1. It’s contents will not be crawled through this link.
2. It will not receive link juice from the source web page.
3. The source web page will not serve as an index basis for the specified destination.
4. Any anchor text used on the link will not be taken as reflective of the keyword(s) the specified web page is relevant for.
Hitherto, a predominant number of sites/blogs had “nofollow” attribute for comments, retained. This was partly due to ignorance while some maintained it by design.
It is pertinent to state that most blogs are “nofollow” enabled by default.
How do you detect which sites or links have these attribute enabled?
Simple!
Two major ways:
=> Visual inspection of source codes.
As you may know, each web page is made up/structured by html source codes which can be viewed by right clicking your mouse, clicking on “view source code”, and visually inspecting to determine which sites or links have the codes indicated above inserted somewhere within the web page.
=> Installation of SEO for Firefox add on.
This is one of the many reasons why you should be using the Firefox browser as the installation of this add on enables you to view quite easily whichever link has this “nofollow” attribute enabled. A colour, usually pinkish/redish covers these “nofollow” links while the links that are “dofollow” are left plain.
Should those just starting a home based internet business have this “nofollow” attribute retained?
I will say no for the following reasons.
=> The “nofollow” attribute stiffles audience participation in blogging, with its attendant disadvantages.
1. One such disadvantage is that traffic is significantly curtailed. This no doubt is very crucial to a beginner internet marketer who at that stage may not be able to significantly enhance visitor traffic to his blog through other internet marketing methods.
This has a bearing on the Alexa rankings of the webmaster’s site and as is well acknowledged, this is a key statistic for judging site performance.
2. Another of such disadvantages is that it discourages content creation by the visitors to the site via their comments as they will not be encouraged to comment if they see no gain in it for them by way of “dofollow” backlinks.
This also reflects negatively on another vital site performance statistic (page ranking), as enhanced content is a contributory factor which can improve pagerank
=> The main reason – spamming (from Google’s perspective) which necessitated this attribute can now significantly be curtailed by the introduction of many wordpress plugins such as akismet, captcha etc.
Does this attribute have any advantages whatsoever?
Certainly yes, in the following circumstances.
=> It can be used in isolated cases where you insert outbound links to sites you cannot vouch for so that your site does not get punished by the search engines if it is discovered that such sites are “bad neighborhoods” or “scam sites” or “link farms”.
=> Can be used entirely, in the very unusual case where spamming becomes such a worry even to a newbie internet marketer and cannot be combated by various measures already highlighted above.
=> Can be used entirely, where the webmaster has become so established that interaction with his subscribers/audience is not so important vis-a-vis effect of spamming on his site or he is not significantly dependent on this mode (blog comments) in interacting with his subscribers/visitors such that it does not materially affect his business if he turns on this “nofollow” attribute.
In conclusion, in starting your own small business, you need to disable “nofollow” attribute at the least, for comments.
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If a link is made ‘NoFollow’ that does not mean it cannot be indexed by Google or any other engines. If the same link is used by other websites without this link then Google can still index the webpage. Also it is possible to make directory submission of site as well as directly submit webpage to Google or any other engines. Thus these web pages can any way get indexed by engines. What is important is that this attribute will not prevent your site from being visible to and being virally spread by the readers in general.
Nofollow made me confused when I first time saw it on a site but now I have cleared my mind you definitely explained it clearly. Now I know that no follow would not help me.
Hasham from Sell Property Fast recently posted..How To Sell Property Fast In Uk
Great explanation about nofollow attribute. I’m just starting my own business so this would help me a lot. Now I know that leaving a link to a no follow sites would not help my website. Thanks!
Wow! A very comprehensive explanation about nofollow attribute. I agree with you! It’s a big NO NO to make link’s attribute to “nofollow” for those who want to start an online business. It cannot help them grow if this attribute is activated or used.
Hayley@DWI Lawyers recently posted..Hello world!
Hi Sullivan,
Thank you for your comment.
The discussion settings in WordPress can always be set to ensure comment moderation by the administrator/webmaster before comment is posted and that is how mine is set up.
In fact, i believe this is the default setting.
These plugins mentioned : akismet and captcha do not serve that purpose and their roles are complimentary in the comment spam prevention mechanism.
Akismet has been pre-programmed to identify likely spam comments and therefore automatically throw them into the spam category thus giving the webmaster less work to do as he might choose to just automatically delete these categorised spam comments and only pay attention to “truly pending” comments.
Captcha effectively stops bots comments which is how most spam comments originate. These bots cannot answer the unplanned for simple questions posted by the captcha plugin before their comments can become categorised into pending comments.
From what I have read it seems a lot of blogger’s add or leave the no follow link because of the huge amount of spam they receive. I’m not sure, but do these WordPress plugins give you the ability to approve the comments before they are actually posted?
Thanks for the good explanation, I had never seen it in the actual code.
M. Sullivan recently posted..Boat Propellers
Outgoing links from your page has no affect on the Page Rank of that page. It does affect the Page Rank of the pages you link to as the PR your page passes is divided by the total number of links on your page and that fraction is then passed via each link not marked as nofollow. The PR of your page is only affected by links to your page.
Outstanding explanation of the no follow tag. It’s a strange bit of code though. Didn’t Matt Cutts mention something about the tag’s original intent not being honored anymore (i.e. link juice can now be passed)?
Gwen recently posted..How to Profit Online with Mini Sites updated Sat Aug 7 2010 1-48 am CDT