Are No Follow Links Really Worthless?

[JoeHughes]

This is one of the oldest SEO arguments out there.

I have actually run an experiment where I got my team to build 6 high PR (PR3 to PR6) blog comments per day to one of my test sites. I ran the test for four weeks and there were no discernible increases in my rankings.

However no follow links can even out your link profile a little but don't expect them to help you climb the SERP's.

[Tony W]

Regardless of whether or not they'll boost your rankings, they're still awesome for TRAFFIC which no one really talks about.

If you find a popular blog in your niche and leave a comment with your URL (of course write a non spammy comment), you'll be surprised how many visitors you get through that link.

You can arouse some curiosity in your comment that makes people want to click.

Or write something generic like, "Hey OP really interesting point.. .I've noticed that on http://www.yourdomain.com/page it mentions that... what are your thoughts?"

YES people will click through!

[mikefifield]

It's been a week now since I created the test page and links on thecirclingsky . com and so far the orphan page is still not even indexed. Pretty interesting, looks like zero effect from a site wide link on a pr4 blog if its nofollowed.

[marianajones]

Then i don't understand the use of promoting in no-follow sites?

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by marianajones

Then i don't understand the use of promoting in no-follow sites?

Link diversity & potential traffic coming from the link itself.

I won't turn down a nofollow link, but I don't specifically try and find them.

[ufc 143 results]

Just thought i would change my old approaches of not commenting and say hello. Been around for awhile and have loved your posts

[kangtj]

I read some article that even nofollow links are still carry some benefits, not sure about this

[wabrielleSierra]

Not at all. And google spider can use it.

[puneetkgarg]

A link is a link weather it is do follow or no follow.both are used to get back links.but no follow links are not followed by google so thats is why the use of no follow links is least popular than do follow links.We can use no follow links. you can not say it is worthless.

[PetGuru]

No, i understand do follow links have worth in ranking.but the technical difference between do follow or no follow is no follow links not help to increase page rank only help to increase ranking in google or others search engines....

[Francois du_Toit]

Interesting discussion with some strong views (and opinions ).

The difference between the two is very simple, the rel="nofollow" attribute does not pass PageRank. That's the only difference.

But, PageRank is only one of many factors that Google takes into account when ranking a site. (You can easily outrank a PR 3+ page for a keyword if you know what you're doing even if your own page shows PR 0).

Edit:

Btw, as a matter of interest... Technically speaking even a NoFollow link on a site will leak PageRank. It does not "pass" PageRank to the page it's linking to but it will leak PageRank in the same way as a "DoFollow" link. And, one more thing... PageRank naturally deteriorates over time so there is no way you can preserve the PageRank of a site indefinitely through PageRank sculpting.

[seoasia]

Originally Posted by BarryOnline

A link is not a link!

That is why I have many top rankings for competitive keywords. Because I know what valuable links are, and I can tell you that nofollow links are crap, fact!

Yeah thats true, Link itself has its own value. Nofollow Links brings visitor to you not the rank or search engine spiders.

[dnc104]

Not at all. They're not worthless as other seem because there are lots of blogs that are NoFollow but are indexed with. Other sites have high PageRank though they don't follow links.

[cardine]

nofollow links are very valuable. If your sites had absolutely 0 links besides links from Wikipedia (which are all nofollow), Google will crawl your site and you will rank for rather competitive terms. How do I know this? I have tested it.

Nofollow links from authority sites are probably more valuable than dofollow links from regular sites.

[stevenukas]

this is just with social bookmarking! No follow links add greater impact then do follow,and as mentioned above link is like a vote! Creating only do follow links might give a red flag

[dsbusiness23]

I just created a new thread about these SEO myths. You can find it here! No-follow links are more valuable then you think, and please don't make me watch that Matt Cutts video ever again lol

[Lyanna]

Wikipedia links may not pass on link juice but it's still wikipedia - one of the most used and authoritative websites that real people use and trust. So the Google algo may not "count" the link but real people click on them so how is that worthless?