One of the biggest debates in the SEO world (and one that shows absolutely no signs of ever going away) is the do-follow vs no-follow links debate. There is one camp who stringently argue that the only links worth anything are do-follow ones; on the other hand, there is a group who say that it doesn't really matter.
So who is right and who is wrong? Is there any hard evidence when it comes to do-follow vs no-follow and their importance to the humble affiliate marketer?
The Do-Follow Links Argument
The proponents of the "do-follow only" camp have a pretty logical argument backing them up. In terms of SEO value ("link juice", to use the nomenclature) Google should theoretically only count do-follow links. Any link that is no-follow has a direct and clear instruction telling search engines to ignore it. Think of the rel=nofollow tag as one of those detour signs you occasionally see. The street is still there, it's just you're being told to pass by it.
The No-Follow Links Argument
On the flip side of the coin, some people believe that no follow links actually do provide some form of link benefit. Over and above this, they can provide great referral traffic from people clicking through your links. An excellent example of useful no follow links are blog comment links. The vast majority of blogs are no follow these days, which was put in place to discourage comment spam. Howevever, a well-place blog comment on a popular blog can deliver hundreds of visitors in a very short space of time.
Wikipedia is another great example of the usefulness of no follow links. Way back in the day, Wikipedia links were actually do-follow. But then link spammers caught on to the fact that this was a huge authority site that anyone could edit add their own links to. No-follow links were introduced on Wikipedia to directly combat this. However, a link from Wikipedia even today still makes your site look more credible, and more to the point, you can get lots of referral traffic from it. One of my websites recently got a link from Wikipedia (it was credited as a source) on a fairly obscure article, but that single little link still sends around 100 visitors a month. Not bad, if I do say so myself.
The Evidence
There isn't really much solid evidence to back any side of this argument up. In fact, when it comes to SEO everything is an inexact science. What works for one person may not necessarily work for you. That being said, I strongly urge you to take a "balanced" and holistic approach to link building.
Build a stable of quality, context-relevant do-follow links to your website to boost it up the search engine rankings. Guest blogging, blog networks, web directories, and article marketing, these are just a few ways to get do follow links to your site that will help deliver that all important link juice. Check out the Affilorama SEO lessons for more great link building ideas.
Then, once you've done that, start building some no follow links from blog commenting, forums (some forums are no follow) and other places that are going to deliver you high quantities of referral traffic. If you can pre-sell effectively then big bucks await from quality referral traffic. Having an opt-in newsletter list is even better, as you can seize that traffic and keep them in your sales loop over and over again.
The Conclusion
The conclusion is simple - do-follow links provide better "link juice" for boosting your website up the search engine rankings. This cannot be denied. However, no-follow links can often be highly context-relevant, and come from sources that are likely to generate greater levels of referral traffic. In addition to this, search engines are more likely to regard a mixture of both types of links as following a "natural" link profile. This is a good thing, as an unnatural link profile is much more likely to see you booted from the front page of Google for SEO malpractice.
Therefore, it is prudent practice to balance do-follow links with no-follow ones. I wouldn't stress too much about whether the links you are getting are do-follow or no-follow. In fact, I wouldn't stress about it at all. Why? The reason is simple - if you are actually out there actively building links to your site, you are taking action, and that counts for more than anything.
What are your personal thoughts on the do-follow vs no-follow links debate? I'm sure your opinion probably differs greatly from mine, and I'd absolutely love to hear it. Just leave a comment below and get the discussion started.
View all 143 comments (Currently displaying latest 50)
I hired a link builder who is creating backlinks on high PR sites that are totally irrelevant to my site. He tells me that posting dofollow blog comments is the most efficient way of getting keywords ranked. He says that he makes the comments manually.
I have my engineers telling me, however, that these are blackhat techniques and that Google will penalize our site. My goal, of course, is to just get my site to show up on the first page when relevant keywords are searched - which is happening because of my linkbuilder's efforts.
I'm just a marketer - I don't know the intricacies of SEOs, and I'm trying to understand whether or not it matters where these dofollow comments if, in the end, I get the ranking I want when someone searches on Google using my target keywords -- where my site is completely relevant.
Hi Nick, I would suggest that you avoid using any link building service that places your links on unrelated websites - this kind of behavior could result in you getting penalized/sandboxed by Google, or the other search engines.
If you are going to blog comment, make sure it is on relevant blogs!
It is a very good article. I have to agreed with Sam. But dofollow maybe better in link juice, the best if you get both dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
It is a good article.. But I still prefer dofollow above nofollow backlinks. but I don't care to get a good nofollow link. Better somthing then nothing :)
I assume that google still values nofollow links, even though they arent as much worth than a do-follow. If google give a do-follow link 10 points and a no-follow link 1 point.
Then what is best?
1 Do-follow + 1 No-follow
or 1 Do-follow
Besides that. Human interaction can happen!
Hi Sam, thanks for this interesting post.
I have a question for you and I hope you'll have the right answer to it. I've read that it's not good to have a single page with a lot of links on it, because that will weak the website rank and there won't be any benefits. So they say to put 'nofollow' on those links.
Now, I have a page that suggest iPhone and Android apps to my readers, and there are more than 100 links to apps for now (embedded with a google docs spreadsheet). That spreadsheet is increasing all the time.
What should I do? Do they count even if they are embedded like that? Should I write all of them as nofollow? (I don't even know if I can do that on the spreadsheet btw).
Thanks :)
I totally agree with you. Google locates all backlinks even if they are dofollow or nofollow . . The no follow backlinks can help your website and by sending you referral traffic and bey helping your rankings
After the penguin update, it will not matter if its do-follow or no-follow. All that matters now is quality content. I have a feeling that other search engines such as Yahoo does consider no-follow links as from my experiences. I did an experiment where I obtained lots of no-follow links to one of my site and I realised that it was doing well in Yahoo but not in Google.
You need to remember that the whole point of SEO is to get people to your site. Not to build links or increase rankings. Getting a site to rank well is all well and good but if no one visits your site then the effort is wasted.
Think of link-building as marketing of two fronts: Direct (referral) traffic and Indirect traffic that comes from increased rankings due to the links you have built.
Concentrate on getting links that will do one of the above and you will not be short of traffic, which is the primary goal of SEO anyway. Well, that and conversions.
Sam, I agree with you! From my own experience, I found out that you still get benefit from nofollo links. I am not sure that effect comes from some sites or all nofollow sites. But it does help your rankings. For instance, Youtube nofollow links always has positive effect on your rankings.
I have noticed good results from nofollow links too. But have tried to have balance all along. It's hard to find dofollow sometimes.
Its a good practice to have a perfect balance between this two valuable resources. Both plays a vital role for brand awareness and quality links for your site.
As far as I am concerned, I noticed rather good results from forum posts which are nofollow links. So I don't worry too much about dofollow links
Thanks for you providing so much useful information.
I try this way for a while,but its not so easy to make some efficient links for my site.
I checked the pages that outrank my own page and they all have more backlinks that I have of which most of them are no follow links and have a link value of 0.0 I checked with SEO Spyglass. So my guess is that at least for now all links are being taken into account to some degree.
Awesome article, thanks so much!
Both links were explained with simple examples.
I think its so easy to understand for those are not really very familiar with these.
Most people are concerned about these when they are leaving the comment (like what I am doing). But what are the real chance of getting a click from a comment ? I don't think you can get much traffic from a comment link. So, nofollow comment has little value. Comment with follow link can atleast give you some juice.
I always click on comments links IF that link is useful for my search and the post itself do not deliver what I am looking for. So it is logical that the one who comment and leave the link to write purely on topic and of course to have the link on topic. This is the beauty of natural link builing: be on topic.
It depends on the specific nature of one's business. If you have a website that sells something (much more online than offline) and the owner wants to sell a lot and quick (especially to raise profit on regular basis) then commenting on a high PR and high traffic blog even if it is no-follow will be of great benefit for him as he gets potential buyers. Personally I am searching for do-follow blogs only when I take a website which has poor serp for some keyword, than I would make a landing page including that keyword in url and I would make a link in some do-follow blogs for a while until I get my top 3 or right no 1 serp result and after that I don't mind to comment on no-follow blogs if the website I am on needs fast flow traffic.
I have to agree with the general viewpoint displayed in this article. My personal experience is that a good mix of both do and no-follow links generally works best for me. As long as the link is in some way relevant it is generally useful. Patience is the key however.
Our research has shown that follow vs. no follow is mostly irrelevant. The links themselves are the most important factor besides natural link development.
I've been reading, writing and testing Do-Follow and No-Follow links for a loooong time. You know what Sam, I see no follow links as references, maybe Google crawlers sees them more as references too and note direct votes. References in a blog/article/book/magazine/site are always there in one way or another, but internautes are not really looking for these references, they're looking for content/ product/service/game etc.... I'll give you an example: You wrote a blog, you used too many references and you gave them credit. Your blog became famous and your name became known. People or users became interested in the book's story (Content) and the author (web address/ url). Therefor the referances become important and will be clicked on. Not to make the comment longer than it should be, as another SEO professional, I join my vote to yours for the importance of both do-follow and no-follow links.
As SEO Professionals we should concentrate more on providing our clients with top content and attractive texts as well as value comments that could be used as references, and this will create a positive digital/internet word of mouth.
I'm surprised i only fell on this article now. Good job and keep up the good work buddy!
***Please forgive me for any mistakes in my comment, i am writing from a mobile device with extremely small buttons.
You Rock!
Jean
Hello! In my personal and professional opinion both links are important. I did a test with only no follow links and indeed it help to rank better. I made another test with only do follow links and also rank better. The only difference is the amount of no follow backlinks that do the same job as the do follow. Also another think is the relevance. For example a do follow backlink can have the power of 20 no follow backlinks. Also no follow backlinks will not improve your page rank but the do follow will. Also please note that another major factor is the relevancy.
It is a good article.. But I still prefer dofollow above nofollow backlinks. but I don't care to get a good nofollow link. Better somthing then nothing :)
Hi, many, many thanks for taking the time to share.. It was useful for my team. Thanks for all of your hard work! I enjoy your weblog and will sign up to your feed so I will not miss anything. Fantastic content.
Great, thanks for the thoughts and the reminder not to stress over the type of links you have coming in. On the flip side, I'm trying to figure out what out-going links to no-follow. I'm currently no-following everything except other, relevant non-commercial blogs. Is that overkill? I don't want the search engines to think my links to company sites are paid.
Keep this going please, great job!
Wow! this is a good article! and also the people who commented here are giving their good opinion which is best for me to understand things beside from the post. Well, this is nice site. :)
Have you ever considered writing an ebook or guest authoring on other blogs?
I have a blog centered on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information.
I know my readers would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free
to shoot me an email.
Great post as usual!
I do not create a leave a response, however I looked at some of the responses on Do-follow Links vs No-follow Links - Does it really matter? | Affilorama.
I do have a few questions for you if you do not mind.
Is it just me or do some of these remarks come across like they are written
by brain dead visitors? :-P And, if you are posting at other social sites, I'd like to follow you. Could you make a list of every one of all your social community pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?
As per Google's algorithms do-follow links are more valuable than no-follow.But i must say this is one thing of seo myths.sometimes no-follow links are preferable.
My experience has been that there has been some benefit to the no follow links. I have a specific page where the page authority increased by three points based only on no follow links.
I don't dislike the nofollow attribute- Don't get me wrong it's not a bad thing, it just doesn't give a link any credence and clearly states that the owner has no trust whatsoever in the persons site that he/ she has agreed to link to. It should be noted as well that Google actually takes into account the link juice that would have been passed onto the "nofollowed" site and subtracts that from the site sending the nofollow link. In effect, a nofollow may save you from a "bad neighbourhood" but that is all it'll do.
Sam
Great Post. Wanted to understand, how do we come to know if my link to any website is a do follow or no follow.
your site gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanks a lot once again, Regards, all Indian govt jobs, notifications, results, jobs,
Google constantly talks about 'relevant content'. Probably now some of the most important sites in terms of directing relevant content links (wiki and the like) are no-follow. Strikes me that Google algos are likely to still place some weight on no-follow. When we work for clients, we have a strict SEP policy of building good content and links from sites with good content. This involves a mix of follow and no-follow. However, I'd say it's probably weighted more to no-follow links. Doesn't seem to have done any of our clients any harm...
Very good post managed to explain quite a lot
Most of my backlinks indicated in my Google Webmaster Tools metrics are 'no follow'. I have to assume the presence of these links in GWT means they are factored into the Google ranking algorithm. My websites with such 'no follow' backlinks have page rank as well as visibility in Google search results.
I've been researching a lot of information on the topic and your article has helped me a bunch. These comments have been helpful as well. Great Blog :)
Well, yes dofollow is for page rank and nofollow is also best for getting good traffic.
I happened to get a little source link from a fairly obscure Wikipedia article (someone else cited my site - I didn't put it there), and that page immediately ranked higher in Google and became a sitelink in the search result for my site. From that it seems pretty clear to me that nofollow links can still carry a lot of weight in Google.
Thanks but I have one doubt. What's the difference between Text and Text?
Thanks for the clarification.
It is a very good article. I have to agreed with Sam. But dofollow maybe better in link juice, the best if you get both dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
Hi Sam,
Very good article about do follow and no follow links. I have been researching about this topic for a while now and the discussions here give me better understanding about the two.
Well, may this year be fruitful for all of us! Thanks for sharing.
John
I totally agree with Sam, a backlink is a backlink is a backlink. I will happily take them anyway I can get them. My last blog which was built just a month or two ago linkapedia is number one in Google and was done so by using a combination of do follow and nofollow backlinks. The traffic by being in the number one spot on Google has really started to pickup. I have had really good luck getting ranked in first and second place following this simple strategy in very short time with this and a few other blogs.
It's hard to hard to believe that no follow links are important. But I guess this is the thing with ranking factors, you just don't know anything for sure.
Due to the latest updates, now there is a need for nofollow links as well as dofollow. Indeed, if you want to get traffic, chances are that you will get more of these from nofollow links.
I think No follow links fro images are not good practice. Because google webmaster shows no follow tags for images. Please tell me is this right to do image no follow?
I generally do both, though it's getting very hard to find blogs that are do follow as you say. Even if you do find them that doesn't mean they will still be do follow tomorrow. I think Google needs to (and probably does) take into account how hard it is getting. I bet no follow links do indeed pass some link juice, albeit not as much as do follow. So many differing opinions however, one can really never know.
View all 143 comments (Currently displaying latest 50)