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Are NoFollow Links a Complete WASTE of Time?

by HanifQ
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys, I know this is a hot point of debate...

Except that amongst most SEO Professionals (the ones that actively track domains and test backlinking strategies), it seems that the majority agree that 'NoFollow' links do infact help with increasing rankings across all the major search engines, including Google.

Infact, according to some case studies, it seems that sites WITHOUT ANY 'nofollow' links in their backlink profile, coupled with hundreds to thousands of 'dofollow' links were actually penalized quite heavily by the Penguin update last year...mainly because it may indicate unnatural and manipulative linking tactics to have hundreds to thousands of only dofollow backlinks to your site.

Again, as with any type of SEO analysis, there are always exceptions to the rule. But generally speaking, 'unnatural' linking has something to do with a ration of dofollow/nofollow...

So I'm ONLY calling on those of you who have actually tested and tried various linking tactics on your site...

If you have data and you have a network of sites under your belt, please share you opinion on this thread.

My humble opinion >> nofollow links in a low/moderate proportion help to round out your overall linking profile and at least partially help you avoid 'unnatural' linking signals...as for whether they help you increase rankings, I have seen quite a lot of evidence from top SEOs of it working for low competition keywords.
#complete #links #no follow #nofollow #time #waste
  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    Having a mix of do-follow and no-follow is what makes a natural link profile.

    I definitely would not go out of my way to build no-follow links though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
    Yep, Lost months of my life testing this.

    The conclusion.

    The debate, was never worth having.

    As there was a huge oversight in the whole equation.
    If I'm placing a link, there's the third and probably more important factor to include.

    SALES

    So if No-Follow is passing flow to my site, that's great.
    But I found myself in a much happier place when it passes traffic to my sites, and money in my pocket.
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  • Profile picture of the author squadron
    I still see web site ranking really well for competitive search terms with only no-follow links. I suspect Google's technology is still trying to catch up with their patents.
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  • Profile picture of the author wlasikiewicz
    They may not give you an actual backlink that search engine spiders can index but they are clickable from that website and can still generate traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaisonjohn
    It only helps you drive traffic for your website does not help you to gain ranking for the keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author smodha
    It seems to me that there are several questions in this post so let me break it down:

    Some of the best links on the Internet are nofollow (YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr etc) because the traffic they generate is immense.

    In terms of the value they provide - they are still links and therefore important. If you're comparing nofollow vs dofollow then dofollow carries more strength and wins every time.

    If you're wondering about "Link Diversity" and looking "natural" then I think you're chasing your tail. I haven't seen a single shred of evidence to state that Google will punish extremes of nofollow and/or dofollow. In my opinion, it's something that they can't police because how can you control link ratios on a site that goes viral? The simple answer is you can't.

    PS - I think you need another 2 options on your poll "What Do NoFollow Links Help With?". I would go for "Nofollow links are still backlinks" and "The best traffic sources on the Internet are nofollow".
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  • Profile picture of the author InitialEffort
    When you’re building links, it is necessary to build links from both do-follow and no-follow. The main importance is gaining organic or natural links to your site. Do-follow links pass the link juice to your site while no-follow links can provide you traffic and can make your link building look natural to Google. There no exact ratio but it it’s recommend that you should not be trying to acquire every link to your website as a do-follow and make sure that the sites you’re acquiring links from are of good quality.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Pure GRADE A BALONEY nonsense in this thread and in practically every does nofollow links work threads so nothing new.

      YES they are a TOTAL waste of time and for the very simple reason that if you are building links you will end up with some followed links turning nofollow anyway. BOOK IT. So why in the world go out building them or buying them?

      Even if the whole nonsense of looking natural (Um Right like your blog comments, forum profiles and gazillion directory links are going to look soooo natural because they are nofollowed :rolleyes: - sheesh such utter silliness)

      Its POINTLESS to go out and spend time building them.

      Since a couple of service providers in this thread are pushing this nonsense

      NEVER EVER BUY a service that offers you nofollowed links. This practice started a few years back because service providers were too lazy to sort through their link packages and wanted to pad their link numbers. The software they often use doesn't do a good job of weeding out nofollowed so they came up with some false selling point for nofollowed links.

      Its all nonsense. 80% of this board relies on Blog commenting, web 2.0s, bookmarks, Profile links,forums and various platform links . Most webmaster's on these sites will end up deleting them or making them nofollow.

      So even a percentage of your followed links will turn out being nofollowed. theres absolutely no reason to buy the junk that you should go after them or buy them unless you are looking for non seo traffic.

      If they even were "more natural looking" :rolleyes: nofollow end up coming any which way as you build followed ones.
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  • Profile picture of the author josephseeley
    I think I'd always take a Wikipedia link if it was offered me. Or even if I had to spend a few hours making a post worthy of it. I've had some good results follow shortly on the heels of those ...
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    It is VERY important that your website noth has dofollow and nofollow backlinks. Google loves such sites!
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      the majority agree that 'NoFollow' links do infact help with increasing rankings across all the major search engines, including Google
      This is false. You may have visited some Imer blogs that push that nonsense but the SEO industry as a whole would disagree.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
    Lemme reference my Mattapedia


    So
    Irrelevant in terms of Search Ranking.
    Relevant in terms of Traffic.

    But to be honest. Having this discussion every 6 months, is getting tiring to say the least.

    Again everyone misses the whole point of your being here reading this. Your here to make money. Not count backlinks.

    So whichever link gives you best opportunity to get more Traffic/Sales/Conversions whatever. Is the best choice of link to chase after
    . Period
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