can i be penalized by google for a nofollow link?

23 replies
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Hello,
I have a site that i created about a month ago and for the first two weeks it had been sitting about spot 15 i kept building links to it and now it is in position 600 and something I was just wondering if it is possible that i am being punished for having a nofollow link to an authority site (wikipedia) i also have the link the same color as the text on the page and i dont have it underlined. Essentially the only way to know it is a link is if you were to mouse directly over it. Can this cause me to be penalized?

Thanks
Frank
#google #link #nofollow #penalized
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    No! Linking to Wikipedia will not cause your website to be penalized.

    There is no reason you should consider your website to penalized, it's not de-indexed, it's not penalized.
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  • Profile picture of the author Quasha
    Penalized for no follow link? no way. You have faced google dance I guess and it is very normal. Just keep up the good work. And no follow link is also important for gathering traffic.
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    • Nope, definitely not. In fact it is not a bad idea to have a couple of no follow links to keep it all looking natural. Won't do you any harm at all
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      • Having a nofollow link on your site will not cause your site to be penalized at all. In fact, linking to an authority site is a good move.
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      • Profile picture of the author Charlie A
        Originally Posted by TBInternetMarketing View Post

        Nope, definitely not. In fact it is not a bad idea to have a couple of no follow links to keep it all looking natural. Won't do you any harm at all
        Exactly right. Mixing in some no follow links will make it look more natural and will be beneficial in the long run.
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by goldhome View Post

          There is no way that you get penalized for no-follow links. A link is a link whether it is a do follow or no follow. So you can be sure that it is not due to the IBLs.
          Originally Posted by Charlie A View Post

          Exactly right. Mixing in some no follow links will make it look more natural and will be beneficial in the long run.
          Originally Posted by Quasha View Post

          Penalized for no follow link? no way. You have faced google dance I guess and it is very normal. Just keep up the good work. And no follow link is also important for gathering traffic.
          Originally Posted by faysal969 View Post

          I am completely agreed with Quasha. Remember quality of backlinks is more important than quantity. Make backlinks with high PR, DoFollow sites which are in the same niche. Make few good quality links regularly. This will give you maximum benefit.
          Originally Posted by almedajohnson View Post

          Building nofollow link wont lead to any penalty. Google will just omit those links in PR juice.

          But yes having the same color text and page can lead you to penalty in case of fooling spiders so I advice you to make links visible
          Originally Posted by TBInternetMarketing View Post

          Nope, definitely not. In fact it is not a bad idea to have a couple of no follow links to keep it all looking natural. Won't do you any harm at all
          Originally Posted by uniqueseo View Post

          no way because this is not count as a backlink .. so nothing to worry
          Originally Posted by Hogward View Post

          Hi,

          Google wont penalize your site in SERPs. It wont allow link juice for that nofollow link thats it. So dont worry about dat. Just go on your work to build backlinks. According to mattcutts about nofollow, it will evaporate ur page rank where u specified nofollow to a link....
          LOL What the heck are you guys talking about.? :confused: Doesn't anyone read before posting replies?

          The OP did not ask about backlinks, he asked specifically about placing an outbound link on his webpage and what the repercussions might be.

          We are starting to see massive spamming on this forum by folks who obviously never read the threads, but instead post nonsense to get their signature links in. Shame on you!
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  • Profile picture of the author faysal969
    I am completely agreed with Quasha. Remember quality of backlinks is more important than quantity. Make backlinks with high PR, DoFollow sites which are in the same niche. Make few good quality links regularly. This will give you maximum benefit.
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  • Profile picture of the author almedajohnson
    Originally Posted by viper20 View Post

    Hello,
    I have a site that i created about a month ago and for the first two weeks it had been sitting about spot 15 i kept building links to it and now it is in position 600 and something I was just wondering if it is possible that i am being punished for having a nofollow link to an authority site (wikipedia) i also have the link the same color as the text on the page and i dont have it underlined. Essentially the only way to know it is a link is if you were to mouse directly over it. Can this cause me to be penalized?

    Thanks
    Frank
    Building nofollow link wont lead to any penalty. Google will just omit those links in PR juice.

    But yes having the same color text and page can lead you to penalty in case of fooling spiders so I advice you to make links visible
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  • Profile picture of the author Hogward
    Originally Posted by viper20 View Post

    Hello,
    I have a site that i created about a month ago and for the first two weeks it had been sitting about spot 15 i kept building links to it and now it is in position 600 and something I was just wondering if it is possible that i am being punished for having a nofollow link to an authority site (wikipedia) i also have the link the same color as the text on the page and i dont have it underlined. Essentially the only way to know it is a link is if you were to mouse directly over it. Can this cause me to be penalized?

    Thanks
    Frank
    Hi,

    Google wont penalize your site in SERPs. It wont allow link juice for that nofollow link thats it. So dont worry about dat. Just go on your work to build backlinks. According to mattcutts about nofollow, it will evaporate ur page rank where u specified nofollow to a link....
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  • Profile picture of the author faceblogger
    No you will not
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    no sig

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  • Profile picture of the author goldhome
    There is no way that you get penalized for no-follow links. A link is a link whether it is a do follow or no follow. So you can be sure that it is not due to the IBLs.
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  • Profile picture of the author joesmith1608
    No way,Building nofollow link wont lead to any penalty.Nofollow links are ignored by google.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by joesmith1608 View Post

      No way,Building nofollow link wont lead to any penalty.Nofollow links are ignored by google.
      Way!

      Google cares about their users. Google will hold you accountable to what type of content you place on your website, including where you link out to. A page loaded down with spam that links out to malicious, virus infected websites will certainly suffer from the lack of moderation, up to and including being de-indexed. Using the nofollow attribute on your OBLs doesn't completely immunize your website from scrutiny.
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  • Profile picture of the author JackRT
    ROFL... dburk, this happens so many times in so many forums, it's not even funny
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  • Profile picture of the author jonnyhardbaked
    nofollow links are what we call "natural links" so Google will not penalize your site. If you done the right thing in optimizing it, I think it has something to do with the Google dance.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jonnyhardbaked View Post

      nofollow links are what we call "natural links" so Google will not penalize your site. If you done the right thing in optimizing it, I think it has something to do with the Google dance.
      "Uhh...who do you mean we, pale-face?"

      Where in the world did you get this idea from? Natural links are not called "natural" based on the nofollow attribute, and most natural links are not links with the nofollow attribute.

      Here is a more conventional explanation of "natural" links.

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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Why anybody would want to mix nofollow up with others is crazy.
        Get off this natural kick. There's no such thing.

        In fact, the OP question makes sense if someone thought deep.
        Nofollow is to combat spam. Period. That's why it was created
        to not pass on PR to pages you DON'T TRUST! So, would not
        logic say that if google sees a nofollow, it's an UNTRUSTABLE link?
        What does that say about your site? You are linking to untrustable
        sites?

        And the flip side. If you get a nofollow link, then google sees that
        as looking like your site is SPAM! The originating site does not trust
        it!

        You get 50 nofollow links, 50 regular ones. You think that's natural?
        50 sites think you're spam, 50 sites think you're not.

        Sound silly?

        Of course. It's silly when people don't know what nofollow actually
        means. There's nothing natural about a nofollow link. In fact,
        just the opposite. Someone must make an effort to nofollow it.
        That's not natural, now is it?

        You people who are linking to other sites, other than paid ads, are
        sending your visitors away and helping your competitors. And that's
        natural? I'll take unnatural any day.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author seoguru13
    Google also loves dancing and it is an example of google dance. So dont worry and keep building some good backlinks and you can get back your rank once again.
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  • Profile picture of the author BudEjase
    I would not stress about the nofollow link that you made. It could be the google dance, I would take a look at other possibilities!

    Awesome Matt Cutts video dburk, thanks for the share!
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  • Profile picture of the author ProdigyMike
    Great video dburk, I was thinking along those lines. Keeping em' varied and non spammy.
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  • Profile picture of the author masterjani
    Both type of dofollow and nofollow is good for link diversification.
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  • Profile picture of the author viper20
    Originally Posted by viper20 View Post

    Hello,
    I have a site that i created about a month ago and for the first two weeks it had been sitting about spot 15 i kept building links to it and now it is in position 600 and something I was just wondering if it is possible that i am being punished for having a nofollow link to an authority site (wikipedia) i also have the link the same color as the text on the page and i dont have it underlined. Essentially the only way to know it is a link is if you were to mouse directly over it. Can this cause me to be penalized?

    Thanks
    Frank
    so even though i hid the link using decoration = none and didnt underline it (it just looks like normal text on the page same color and all) this wont do any harm?

    Thanks for all the responses
    Frank
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Miranda
    No, this is not true! It is my belief that Google does not penalize sites based on external links.
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