A nofollow link is a type of hyperlink that tells search engines not to pass any authority or ranking power from one site to another. The nofollow attribute, written as rel="nofollow", instructs search engines not to follow the link when crawling the web. This means that, while the link can still direct users to another page, it won’t contribute to the SEO ranking of the linked page.
Why Use Nofollow?
There are several reasons to use nofollow links:
- Paid Links: When a link is paid for, such as in sponsored content or advertisements, it’s important to use nofollow to avoid violating search engine guidelines. Search engines view paid links differently, and using nofollow helps ensure the link doesn’t unfairly boost the linked site’s rankings.
- User-Generated Content: Links found in user-generated content, like comments or forums, often use the nofollow attribute to prevent spamming. This helps ensure that websites aren’t penalized for low-quality or irrelevant links posted by users.
- Low-Quality or Untrusted Sites: If a site doesn’t want to endorse another page’s content or quality, using a nofollow link ensures they aren’t passing any ranking value to it.
How Nofollow Affects SEO
Nofollow links do not pass link juice, meaning they don’t contribute directly to improving the ranking of the linked page. However, they still have some indirect SEO benefits:
- Traffic: Nofollow links can still drive traffic to your site, as users can click on the link to visit the page.
- Visibility: Although search engines don’t follow these links for ranking purposes, having your link on high-traffic or authoritative sites (even with nofollow) can increase your site’s visibility.
Example Use Cases
- Paid sponsorships or advertisements: If you’re paid to promote a product, the link to the advertiser’s site should be nofollow.
- Blog comments and forums: Links posted by users in comments should be nofollow to avoid spam and low-quality link associations.