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What does Google really do with "nofollow" links?

by ManAbout
16 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I know that "nofollow" links show up in your Google Webmaster Tools, but the official word from Google is that they try to show ALL links, regardless of whether they follow them or not.

But, I am just wondering, does Google REALLY totally disregard the value of "nofollow" links? Really by doing so, Google is not getting a full picture of the value of the site.

Many, if not most forums these days have gone to "nofollow", as have a lot of blogs, Yahoo Answers etc. So, if all these sites are hoarding PR and made all their outgoing links "nofollow" even though they are of value, I would think that Google knows this and does factor in "nofollow" links. It is just conjecture at this point.

Any thoughts?
#google #links #nofollow
  • Profile picture of the author gabibeowulf
    Follow or nofollow .. I don't think it matters .. If your link is posted on blogs , yahoo answers , etc .. you will also receive traffic from the links posted especially when your comment is useful and your link is related to the theme of the blog / question .. etc

    At the end of the day it's all about the traffic .. not only backlinks that google loves or hates..
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    • Profile picture of the author googleplex
      There are a lot of myths surrounding this but I'm a big programmer and consider myself pretty good with SEO.

      Anyway I usually watch every single Google Talk videos, Google Developer Videos, ect...

      This topic was covered in detail in a lot of those Google talks and to sum it up here is how the nofollow of websites work.

      When Google finds a link with a rel="nofollow" attribute it will still follow the link to the other page but it will NOT pass on any PageRank to that page, simply put your not giving that page a valid linkback.

      We all know getting backlinks is a big thing but with the rel="nofollow" on the links it holds far less link juice for the other website.

      This is not to say its not good to still have links with this attribute since if you have a website or page that is not yet ranked in Google you can get a rel="nofollow" link in a comment or some sort on a high ranked website like a news site or some big name and what will happen is that the Google bots will find your content much quicker leading to this page/site getting indexed a lot faster.

      Sure it won't count as a valid or true backlink to your website but Google will still find the content a lot quicker and they will still index it if they have not previously indexed the content.
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      • Profile picture of the author hbsjcd3
        Originally Posted by googleplex View Post

        There are a lot of myths surrounding this but I'm a big programmer and consider myself pretty good with SEO.

        Anyway I usually watch every single Google Talk videos, Google Developer Videos, ect...

        This topic was covered in detail in a lot of those Google talks and to sum it up here is how the nofollow of websites work.

        When Google finds a link with a rel="nofollow" attribute it will still follow the link to the other page but it will NOT pass on any PageRank to that page, simply put your not giving that page a valid linkback.

        We all know getting backlinks is a big thing but with the rel="nofollow" on the links it holds far less link juice for the other website.

        This is not to say its not good to still have links with this attribute since if you have a website or page that is not yet ranked in Google you can get a rel="nofollow" link in a comment or some sort on a high ranked website like a news site or some big name and what will happen is that the Google bots will find your content much quicker leading to this page/site getting indexed a lot faster.

        Sure it won't count as a valid or true backlink to your website but Google will still find the content a lot quicker and they will still index it if they have not previously indexed the content.
        Agreed with this:

        Originally Posted by googleplex View Post

        When Google finds a link with a rel="nofollow" attribute it will still follow the link to the other page but it will NOT pass on any PageRank to that page, simply put your not giving that page a valid linkback.
        From what I have read and heard, Google will still count the No-follow as a backlink, it just won't weight the link juice as much as if it was "do-follow"

        Sort of the same way they weight high PR links from EDU or .gov sites and regular .com sites.

        A PR7 .com site will bring you a lot more link juice than a PR7 .edu or.gov sight.
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        • Profile picture of the author Jenie0109
          Originally Posted by hbsjcd3 View Post

          From what I have read and heard, Google will still count the No-follow as a backlink, it just won't weight the link juice as much as if it was "do-follow"

          Sort of the same way they weight high PR links from EDU or .gov sites and regular .com sites.

          A PR7 .com site will bring you a lot more link juice than a PR7 .edu or.gov sight.
          Now i understand the essense of do-follow and still the use of no-follow as well as the .edu and .gov to .com . I thought no-follow doesn't count but it does..
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          • Profile picture of the author hbsjcd3
            Originally Posted by Jenie0109 View Post

            Now i understand the essense of do-follow and still the use of no-follow as well as the .edu and .gov to .com . I thought no-follow doesn't count but it does..
            Yes, it counts.

            Just wanted to clarify the post that you referenced above, which I just realized is inaccurate..I must of made a typo.

            Where I wrote:

            "A PR7 .com site will bring you a lot more link juice than a PR7 .edu or.gov sight."

            Correct that, its the other way around:

            PR7 .EDU and .GOV sights are weighted a lot more than a PR7 .com or .org site by Google therefore EDU and GOV sites bring a lot more link juice since they are considered by Google, the ultimate authority sites.

            Hope I didn't mislead anyone.
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            • Profile picture of the author jtrag
              Originally Posted by hbsjcd3 View Post

              Yes, it counts.

              Just wanted to clarify the post that you referenced above, which I just realized is inaccurate..I must of made a typo.

              Where I wrote:

              "A PR7 .com site will bring you a lot more link juice than a PR7 .edu or.gov sight."

              Correct that, its the other way around:

              PR7 .EDU and .GOV sights are weighted a lot more than a PR7 .com or .org site by Google therefore EDU and GOV sites bring a lot more link juice since they are considered by Google, the ultimate authority sites.

              Hope I didn't mislead anyone.
              I totally agree with most of everything you said. You definitely want to get as many valid backlinks from related websites as you can. Your backlinks should also be titled with your keyword/keyphrase, or at least have your keyword/keyphrase in it.

              Hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author tableboy
      Originally Posted by gabibeowulf View Post

      Follow or nofollow .. I don't think it matters .. If your link is posted on blogs , yahoo answers , etc .. you will also receive traffic from the links posted especially when your comment is useful and your link is related to the theme of the blog / question .. etc

      At the end of the day it's all about the traffic .. not only backlinks that google loves or hates..
      Mate there is a difference between traffic from reference and organic traffic. If your website ranking high in any keyword than you can expect huge traffic from the search engines. Huge means really huge ...

      You will come to know if your website will rank high in any popular keyword.

      Best of Luck.
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      • Profile picture of the author hbsjcd3
        Originally Posted by tableboy View Post

        Mate there is a difference between traffic from reference and organic traffic. If your website ranking high in any keyword than you can expect huge traffic from the search engines. Huge means really huge ...

        You will come to know if your website will rank high in any popular keyword.

        Best of Luck.

        Agreed!

        reference traffic is so puny compared to the potential traffic from search engine referrals.

        Reference traffic is fine, but it very work intensive.
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    • Profile picture of the author parker3773
      Yes...I don't pay attention to nofollow. Humans are more who I am looking for. Not so much the bots. I have tons of those a day.
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  • Profile picture of the author Yoyas
    Sure, and if you only have dofollow backlinks Google will suspect something... You have to diverse it and have dofollow and nofollow as well as they have to come from high and low PR sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author googleplex
      Originally Posted by Yoyas View Post

      Sure, and if you only have dofollow backlinks Google will suspect something... You have to diverse it and have dofollow and nofollow as well as they have to come from high and low PR sites.
      I couldn't dis-agree with this statement more.

      You don't have to spend your time worrying about diversification, just go out and get relevant (Preferably Do-Follow) links from lots of websites and get as many people to link to you (Naturally) as possible and your website will see improvements in the SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Solidsnake
    Banned
    Google still index your site if you have an excellent content.... I don't see any problem with nofollow as long as my contact is good...
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  • Profile picture of the author flashgordon
    Sometimes I think of it this way. A DoFollow backlink is counted as 1 vote in favor of your site. A NoFollow backlink is counted as a vote, but only as 1/3 of a vote (or something). Obviously, the DoFollow links will give you more "votes" but a vote is a vote, so don't turn down any opportunity to get a vote.
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    • Profile picture of the author hbsjcd3
      Originally Posted by flashgordon View Post

      Sometimes I think of it this way. A DoFollow backlink is counted as 1 vote in favor of your site. A NoFollow backlink is counted as a vote, but only as 1/3 of a vote (or something). Obviously, the DoFollow links will give you more "votes" but a vote is a vote, so don't turn down any opportunity to get a vote.
      Right! Exactly the way I feel. The NoFollow are counted, Google just doesn't give them the weighting that gives Dofollow links
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  • Profile picture of the author Hafsoh
    I believe google counts nofollow links, it might not pass the link juices
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  • Profile picture of the author Red_Virus
    rel=nofollow tag is used to curb the spam, it is debatable and practically speaking it does offer some link juice and again it depends a lot on the authority of the site from which you are trying to get links from.
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