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Does Anchor Text Matter For No-Follow Links?

by Stefan Shields
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm fairly new to IM and have spent the past few months mainly learning things I need to know for the future including SEO.

I understand that you need to vary your anchor text and not just have a few keywords or Google will penalize you but do they still take into account the anchor text in no-follow links or am I safe to just use whatever when I am creating a no-follow link?
#anchor #links #matter #nofollow #text
  • Profile picture of the author OptiLocal
    No-follow links don't help you at all (except that make your link diversity look more natural rather than having only dofollow links).

    From Google's Webmaster forum:
    "It has been clearly stated by Googlers that nofollow links do not transfer page rank and do not affect the SERPs, but it is also clear that Google does in fact follow nofollow links. They can be found in your webmaster tools account. Some Webmasters theorize that they hold some weight.
    In either case, when one wears the white hat, they do what they do to help people, not to fool the machine. Leaving comments or links should only be done if they are meaningful to humans. Even if the robot won't follow your link, humans may."

    So in my opinion, the anchor text in nofollow links should not be misleading, think of the people, not the search engines
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by OptiLocal View Post

      No-follow links don't help you at all (except that make your link diversity look more natural rather than having only dofollow links).
      ROTFLMAO!!!!! You mean make you look like a natural spammer?!?!?!?!?!

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author seoace
    Originally Posted by Stefan Shields View Post

    I understand that you need to vary your anchor text and not just have a few keywords or Google will penalize you but do they still take into account the anchor text in no-follow links or am I safe to just use whatever when I am creating a no-follow link?
    It's best to vary your anchor text as well for your nofollow links too. Main reason is because we don't know whether Google factors in anchor text variation for nofollow links in their algorithm.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stefan Shields
      Originally Posted by seoace View Post

      It's best to vary your anchor text as well for your nofollow links too. Main reason is because we don't know whether Google factors in anchor text variation for nofollow links in their algorithm.
      Thanks, that was basically the question, whether or not they look at variation in no-follow links too.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lokahi
    There's no way every blogger out there would link to you using the same keyword phrase(s). So, if you are doing your own backlinking campaign, vary it up. Doesn't matter if it's a no follow or do follow link. Change the anchor text periodically.
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  • Profile picture of the author clarkfaint
    Definitely change up your anchor text, no matter the type of link. It's about link diversity sure but also the appearance of "naturalness".
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  • Profile picture of the author HeadStartSEO
    To find what's considered natural anchor text distribution in your niche, pick your 3 biggest competitors/industry leaders and look at their anchor text in Open Site Explorer.

    Copy that (change the brand / LSI terms).
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  • Profile picture of the author sanusense
    Nofollow anchor text doesn't help you in getting rank,so don't waste your time making nofollow anchor texts...even Matt Cutts said that they do not give any linking value to them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Henney
      Originally Posted by sanusense View Post

      even Matt Cutts said that they do not give any linking value to them.
      He is saying many things you know ;p

      But in this matter I really would use nofollow only for matter of diversiting
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    • Profile picture of the author Stefan Shields
      Originally Posted by sanusense View Post

      Nofollow anchor text doesn't help you in getting rank,so don't waste your time making nofollow anchor texts...even Matt Cutts said that they do not give any linking value to them.
      I only create no-follow links when I'm on forums/blogs that I visit in my free time because no-follow links must be better than no links right?

      But where you say don't waste time making no-follow links, I thought Google didn't look kindly upon people when they have unnatural do-follow links all over the place and nothing else.
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  • Profile picture of the author Annie15
    Using variety of anchor text is a good way of linking back to your site and also having no follow links make your back links look natural.
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  • Profile picture of the author Simon Walker
    No they dont but unless their percentage to overall backlinks is less - 10% (hypothetically)
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  • Profile picture of the author FranksToys
    Ya its important to vary the anchor text regardless of the nofollow or dofollow attribute.

    The goal is to have a natural profile even if you are building links manually.
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