SEO Nofollow Link Case Study

[thebitbotdotcom]

I am performing and experiment to see what the truth of the matter is in terms of nofollow links passing relevancy.

I do not care about PR or trust rank.

This experiment is only about trying to rank with nofollow links.

I am trying to rank it for the keyword:

"The Nofollow Link Page"

using exclusively nofollow links.

We will settle this once and for all right here, right now.

[MikeFriedman]

I'm all for testing things, but this test is not going to conclusively prove anything.

Did you look at the sites on page one for that keyword?

You could probably rank somewhere on the first page with almost nothing but on-page factors.

I would suggest choosing something at least a little more competitive, so that if the site does rank, doubters aren't throwing the lack of competition in your face.

Something with more competition will give more conclusive evidence that NoFollow links can boost rankings.

[BenJackson]

A better way would be to use nofollow links with a nonsense word for anchor text linking to the page. If it never ranks for that nonsense word with no competition then we know there is no effect from the links.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

I'm all for testing things, but this test is not going to conclusively prove anything.

Did you look at the sites on page one for that keyword?

You could probably rank somewhere on the first page with almost nothing but on-page factors.

I would suggest choosing something at least a little more competitive, so that if the site does rank, doubters aren't throwing the lack of competition in your face.

Something with more competition will give more conclusive evidence that NoFollow links can boost rankings.

LOL!!! Maybe not. But we'll see. I like to test things for myself and not rely on other people's prophecies.

This is not a test about SOC. It's a yes or no question.

The significance when extrapolated will be VERY IMPORTANT...hence the vague keyword.

Additionally, you'll notice that there are NO on-page factors in effect specifically for that reason...not even a title tag.

Why make it harder than it needs to be for no reason?

[retsek]

I already did this test. Competitive keyword - 60k searches - Used Only No Follow but relevant blog comment links to rank it to #11. I've since starting using all kinds of links to get it to #1.

But the bottom line is:

-nofollow links DO pass serp value
-nofollow links DO get followed by Google

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by retsek

I already did this test. Competitive keyword - 60k searches - Used Only No Follow but relevant blog comment links to rank it to #11. I've since starting using all kinds of links to get it to #1.

But the bottom line is:

-nofollow links DO pass serp value
-nofollow links DO get followed by Google

That is INSANELY VALUABLE information!

That is exactly what I am expecting to see.

This is a piece of information that people refute alot these days.

Complete mis-information propagating across the web.

Thanks for your data. That IS encouraging.

[eubertmo]

Originally Posted by retsek

I already did this test. Competitive keyword - 60k searches - Used Only No Follow but relevant blog comment links to rank it to #11. I've since starting using all kinds of links to get it to #1.

But the bottom line is:

-nofollow links DO pass serp value
-nofollow links DO get followed by Google

I agree with this.
Been building back links before with majority as nofollow, but my keywords still manage to rank on page 1 of Google search.

[seobirk]

I'm also supporting the fact that No-follow work but I'm also convinced that they don't work well alone, neither do do-follow links.

It is still is about Link Diversity and Link Velocity. Everything is connected. No-follow links as said earlier are most likely to be "social", that means that website is being discussed, therefore a popular topic. If the website is being discussed more, it is most probably good topic, therefore more people should see it.

It should make perfect sense if you think about bloggers and news websites.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by seobirk

I'm also supporting the factor that No-follow work but I'm also convinced that they don't work well alone, neither do do-follow links.

It is still is about Link Diversity and Link Velocity. Everything is connected. No-follow links as said earlier are most likely to be "social", that means that website is being discussed, therefore a popular topic. If the website is being discussed more, it is most probably good topic, therefore more people should see it.

It should make perfect sense if you think about bloggers and news websites.

I think that is pretty much it in a nutshell.

Can't wait to see if this works exclusively with nofollow links.

[seobirk]

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

I think that is pretty much it in a nutshell.

Can't wait to see if this works exclusively with nofollow links.

You got a good thing going on here. Definitely keeping my eye on your updates.

Cheers!

[SilentSilence]

Glad I bumped into this post. Been wondering this myself for a while.

I'll stay tuned for the results!

[trustumar]

1. I agree with @ BenJackson select some nonsense very low competitive phrase.
2. This phrase must be Neither in title nor in body.

Your page will rank nowhere for this very low competitive keyword even you build 1 million nofollow links. Neither in google nor in bing.

[mrichards1984]

Nofollow links do work! And they work very well. Many of the big bookmarking sites are nofollow and you can get good rankings for a low competitive keyword from bookmarking alone!

[thebitbotdotcom]

Update: Despite all of the optimism...it ain't lookin' to good guys. It's been two weeks no and...

...the keyword "The Nofollow Link Page" in quotes should be bringing it up in search results...but it ain't...uh ohhhhhh...

I'm kicking it up a notch...maybe it's just a degree thing...

[sanjon]

Try to ping your links with pingler and massping..

Even if you have no follow links from High pr pages which have low outbound links, trust me you will reap rich benefits..

I always look for High quality pages with Low outbound links regardless of Do follow or no follow..
Besides , try to take your alexa a little bit down.. Trust me it will work..

[easyrider7]

From what I understand, the only difference between follow and nofollow links is that the nofollow ones don't pass on any page rank.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

LOL!!! Maybe not. But we'll see. I like to test things for myself and not rely on other people's prophecies.

This is not a test about SOC. It's a yes or no question.

The significance when extrapolated will be VERY IMPORTANT...hence the vague keyword.

Utter nonsense. Mike wasn't prophecying he was trying to show you the obvious - you test is scientifically flawed and will not say anything because of its flaw.

You can potentially rank on such weak keywords with none - ZERO backlinks because absolutely no one is going after it. Therefore when you put some nofollow links and it ranks you will be demonstrating not the power of nofollow links but of going after a term that no one wants to rank for. You won't be demonstrating anything about off page SEO.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by retsek

But the bottom line is:

-nofollow links DO pass serp value
-nofollow links DO get followed by Google

the bottom line is that you joined the merry gang that have made the same statement with no proof. Been many over the years I have been here and all of them run away when asked for any real proof.

[Anish]

Oh boy! This topic has been talked about in almost every SEO-related interview I've ever listened to. Just today I watched this video of Matt Cutts saying nofollow links don't boost rankings: Two questions about nofollow - YouTube

Anyway, whether it's a rumour Google spread in order to decrease spam, or it's true - I don't know. Hmm... let's see, what does Google want? Quality results that get backlinks naturally and in an unbiased manner. If you have ten thousand dofollow links and 0 nofollow links, what does that tell Google? It tells Google *you* are building dofollow links. Google knows this way you find dofollow links and put your link there to boost rankings. That's certainly not what Google wants.

Google wanted to reduce spam, and spreading rumours (if it is a rumour, that is) of nofollow has reduced it SIGNIFICANTLY. If Wikipedia, for example, was dofollow, literally EVERY single day hundreds (or more) internet marketers would attempt to put their link somewhere, as they are publicly editable. Job of the Wikipedia editors would've been so difficult. (Sure, many many still do, but just saying "links from wikipedia are nofollow" keeps MANY from trying to spam). And I'm just taking an example, by the way. If Google started the myth with an intent to improve the web with this little white lie, then they've succeeded.

But some things make me think Google may be serious about it - they don't want paid links and they suggest paid links for direct advertising should be nofollow'ed, else it's against Google TOS. When you look at it this way, Google sees nofollow tag as a boon, so it may be not be a myth. We can't know for sure.

You know what, I'll just do a case study to find out myself as well. I'll start building nofollow links to one of my Squidoo pages that's been ranking 7th or something from a month, so I'll use that for testing. Will report the results here as soon as I see any.

@OP, how many nofollow links did you build? It might take some time for Google to index them especially if the blogs you've commented on for links are low quality. Try going for high quality blogs and ping them when they're approved. Or I guess you can try nofollow article directories (like knol, for example) for testing, too.

Anish.

[Arav]

Quite impressive. Looking for your result.

[Tedel]

OK, let me see if I get this straight:

You tried to rank a web page with no-follow links only, and it did?

What's the point of using no-follow then?

[rafiseo]

Originally Posted by dunebuilder

in my point of view no follow link get good traffic most of no follow links belong from the social media site so that it will help to get traffic for website

What is he saying...!!

[RevSEO]

Can't wait to see the results. From my experiences, I could care less if a link is NoFollow or DoFollow unless of course we're talking about a high PR contextual link.

The main thing people need to understand is that NoFollow backlinks are natural in a normal backlink portfolio. Even the best of sites get NoFollow links, because of the way CMS/Forums/etc automatically add the nofollow attribute. Thus, if you have a 100% DoFollow backlink profile for a website, it looks completely unnatural.

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by RevSEO

Can't wait to see the results. From my experiences, I could care less if a link is NoFollow or DoFollow unless of course we're talking about a high PR contextual link.

The main thing people need to understand is that NoFollow backlinks are natural in a normal backlink portfolio. Even the best of sites get NoFollow links, because of the way CMS/Forums/etc automatically add the nofollow attribute. Thus, if you have a 100% DoFollow backlink profile for a website, it looks completely unnatural.

This is how I look at it. I don't quite understand why some people completely avoid NoFollow links. At the very least it helps your backlinks look natural. Having 100% DoFollow backlinks would seem a little strange, considering so many sites use the nofollow attribute by default.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Tedel

OK, let me see if I get this straight:

You tried to rank a web page with no-follow links only, and it did?

What's the point of using no-follow then?

Actually, I am seeing the exact opposite. They seem to be behaving like noindex tags. Yikes.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Anish

Oh boy! This topic has been talked about in almost every SEO-related interview I've ever listened to. Just today I watched this video of Matt Cutts saying nofollow links don't boost rankings: Two questions about nofollow - YouTube

Anyway, whether it's a rumour Google spread in order to decrease spam, or it's true - I don't know. Hmm... let's see, what does Google want? Quality results that get backlinks naturally and in an unbiased manner. If you have ten thousand dofollow links and 0 nofollow links, what does that tell Google? It tells Google *you* are building dofollow links. Google knows this way you find dofollow links and put your link there to boost rankings. That's certainly not what Google wants.

Google wanted to reduce spam, and spreading rumours (if it is a rumour, that is) of nofollow has reduced it SIGNIFICANTLY. If Wikipedia, for example, was dofollow, literally EVERY single day hundreds (or more) internet marketers would attempt to put their link somewhere, as they are publicly editable. Job of the Wikipedia editors would've been so difficult. (Sure, many many still do, but just saying "links from wikipedia are nofollow" keeps MANY from trying to spam). And I'm just taking an example, by the way. If Google started the myth with an intent to improve the web with this little white lie, then they've succeeded.

But some things make me think Google may be serious about it - they don't want paid links and they suggest paid links for direct advertising should be nofollow'ed, else it's against Google TOS. When you look at it this way, Google sees nofollow tag as a boon, so it may be not be a myth. We can't know for sure.

You know what, I'll just do a case study to find out myself as well. I'll start building nofollow links to one of my Squidoo pages that's been ranking 7th or something from a month, so I'll use that for testing. Will report the results here as soon as I see any.

@OP, how many nofollow links did you build? It might take some time for Google to index them especially if the blogs you've commented on for links are low quality. Try going for high quality blogs and ping them when they're approved. Or I guess you can try nofollow article directories (like knol, for example) for testing, too.

Anish.

The nofollow links were indexed almost immediately.

The page they linked to is not indexed. Google definitely knows about it, but it is not indexed.

[umrbd]

I have analyzed the nofollow links and I do believe that they help alot but with the spice of dofollow links. Nofollow links actually plays a vital role in the ranking but they don't pass the link juice so that means you can not increase your PR (who needs it?). When you also made some dofollow links the site appears to be more authentic in the eyes of Google and they rank it high

[mrehan]

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

The nofollow links were index almost immediately.

The page they linked to is not indexed. Google definitely knows about it, but it is not indexed.

I do that sometimes to backlinks/pages that google does not index. Link that backilink/page to another 100% sure page that will get indexed (Like some popular article directory). This way at least you will know that google knows about this backlink/page even if it is not indexing it.

[thebitbotdotcom]

LOL!!! It's official. Nofollow links are completely worthless (at least without the keywords ON the page - phase 2). I will try some onsite SEO to see if the combo has ANY EFFECT AT ALL.