I think you are well aware about the term rel=”nofollow” tag. Almost all the bloggers have interacted and used this term. As we all know, this tag instructs the Search Engines not to follow a link and give no value. This tag does not pass any PageRank opportunity and Google link juice, but do you know what is the use of this tag and why this tag created?
Actually this tag was created to stop spamming, especially in online comments. Bloggers and other webmasters were facing problems with comment spamming. The spammers were getting the backlinks and bloggers were not seeing any improvement in their Search Engine Optimization and Pageranks. To cure this problem rel=”nofollow” tag created, but today bloggers and website owners are using this tag in those links which they don’t want to get followed by Search Engines like Google.
“NoFollow” tag provides a way to webmasters to instruct Search Engines not to follow a specific page or a specific link.
How Google Sees the “NoFollow” Tag?
Those links in which “NoFollow” tag has been applied won’t be followed by Google. Even Google does not transfer your PageRank and any other link juice towards these links. Using “NoFollow” tag doesn’t mean that Google will not index that page. It simply instructs the Google not to follow that specific link in which this tag has been applied. Well this is the case of Google. Other Search Engines handle “NoFollow” tag in other meanings.
Where Google recommends adding “NoFollow” tag?
- Google recommends using “NoFollow” tag in the links which are not trust worthy. Linking to such risky web pages may downgrade your PageRank and reputation on Google. If you have no way instead of adding that link then I will recommend you to add “NoFollow” tag in that link. See below and example to learn how to add “NoFollow” tag in any link –<a href = “http://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Example</a>
- To get success in link building some guys hire bloggers or other website owners to get the dofollow backlinks. Building links in this manner considered as a violation according to Google. Because sometimes these links include some inappropriate content or insecure content. In order to prevent paid links from influencing search results Google advises to embed “NoFollow” tag in those links.
These are some common concepts of “NoFollow” tag in Blogging. If I missed any point or I’m wrong at any point, let me know in comments.
This article is written by Rudraksh Pathak. He is maintaining his technology blog Tekdig.net. Currently he is pursuing B.tech in Computer Science. He is a passionate blogger and loves to write about technology. If you wish to write for HBB, kindly check this.
That’s good explanation on how to use “nofollow” when we are linking to other websites. You are right, we always be careful, do not have excessive outbound links, and where appropriate do use nofollow.
Well yes, it’s good to use the nofollow tag in the link which are not trust worthy and which can downgrade the page rank. Thanks Rudraksh for this wonderful and informative post, you explained it very clearly.
ThANKS Nizam for your feedback.
Well there are situations when I don’t mind getting nofollow links if the website that sends to me has a traffic potential for my website target.
I am one of the users that uses that rel tag attribute and I think it will help also other bloggers to use Yoast SEO which will enable them to specify a post or a page that should be nofollowed.
Thanks for sharing this.
This is very clear and detail information about “nofollow” links. I also figured out that many bloggers and sites started putting Nofollow attribute, it’s more like the chances of getting easily dofollow links are reducing.
Any suggestion would be appreciated?
I love Dofollow links. I hate Nofollow but loved to read the concept of Nofollow.
Glad you hate NoFollow attribute. ha ha ha
No Follow will protect the page from getting penalized linking to a spammy site, It should used wisely
You are right Gautham
Good explanation, you should have also included how other search engines treat a nofollow.
Sorry for its absence. I will include it in my next post.
Nice Explanation on NoFollow Tag.
I am always agree to add NoFollow that for all External Links. It will help to stop passing Link Juice.
Thanks mate.
Thank you Amit for your feedback.
This is well known things about Nofollow but its good to see you writing.
Hi Rudraksh,
Yes – The no follow tag when it comes to Google is very important – not only in your robots.txt file but in the links you don’t want to affect your page or website – this is an Important aspect of SEO and linking to other websites and not have their rankings influence yours.
You are right Anton
that’s a good and clear explanation. Nice article Rudraksh.
Thanks Wang
Really nice explanation buddy,i think i now have a much more clear idea about the nofollow tag.
Thank you so much Abhishek
Hey Rudraksh,
Thats very informative info about Nofollow.
Many new bloggers and SEO persons think that Google will not crawl nofollow links, thats wrong!
Using nofollow for affiliate links is recommended.
Here is an addon to check nofollow links without opening source code.
http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/
I Agree No Follow is very useful for pages strictly for information or a site you are working on and is not a in a condition to be indexed by google so on these sites you can use no follow 🙂
You are absolutely right Saad
As you mentioned in your blog post “”Building link”” is violation according to Google then which other way we should follow to create quality links for our site/blog.
Building links by creating sponsored post is violation. Do guest post. Its the most lovable way to get backlink legally.
What if we mentioned “Sponsored post” in the article. will it affect ! and while crediting we should link to the homepage or the accurate page we took the content ?
Sometimes no-follow tags are need to be use for the external links. Nice post by you, it will clear the concept of no-follow tag in case of the newbie bloggers.
Very informative post on “nofollow.” keep up the good work.
that’s a good and clear explanation. Nice article Rudraksh.
Thank you very much Priyanka.