Suppose that you want to improve your website’s performance on search engine results pages (SERPs). In that case, search engine optimization is a life-saving process to enhance your website quality and quantity of website traffic. Whenever we talk about SEO, the first things coming to mind are keywords, content, backlinks, NoFollow and DoFollow links, etc. These words have equal importance to being effective and efficient in SEO. In this post, we will talk about everything you have to know about NoFollow links. This post will be helpful for people who are new to SEO and cannot understand the difference between NoFollow and DoFollow links.
What Is a NoFollow Link?
NoFollow links were introduced by Google in 2005 to overcome comment spam. These links are a hyperlink that contains a rel= “nofollow” attribute. This attribute tells search engines to ignore these links. In other words, it tells search engines not to follow the link destination.
NoFollow vs DoFollow
To understand what is going on with NoFollow links, we need to understand the difference between NoFollow and DoFollow links. According to many website users, these two types of links look exactly the same. Thus, it is impossible to understand the difference between these links for an average website user. However, there is a huge difference between them in search engine optimization. Dofollow links help you improve your search engine rankings directly. On the other side, NoFollow links don’t affect your rankings directly. Let’s look at them in more detail. We have an example below. The first one is a standard link and the second one is a NoFollow link.
- <a href=”https://www.example.com”>Example</a>
- <a href=”https://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Example</a>
If you see the rel= “nofollow” attribute in the link, it is a NoFollow; otherwise, it is followed. In order saying, any link that has the rel= “nofollow” tag is a NoFollow link. That’s it!
Benefits of NoFollow Links
You should achieve a balance between NoFollow and DoFollow links. According to some studies, it looks suspicious when a website has only DoFollow links. At this point, even if a NoFollow link doesn’t have a direct impact on your search engine rankings, it can have an indirect impact on it. That’s why you should implement these types of links to improve your website rankings indirectly. Because of this, any website should have both NoFollow and DoFollow links at the same time. Here are some reasons to use the NoFollow links:
- Paid links can be a perfect way to increase your website traffic. However, according to Google, paid links are against Google Webmaster Guidelines. It means that if you use paid links, there will always be a risk of being penalized by search engines. On the other side, NoFollow links can protect you against Google penalties.
- If you have a comment feature on your website that allows users to say what they want, you can use these links to get on well with Google because of the lack of moderation on your own site.
- NoFollow links can provide more DoFollow links to your website because they increase your website exposure. Thus, when the number of people who hear of your website increases, you will be able to obtain more dofollow links organically.
Even More Benefits
- NoFollow links are a perfect traffic source, and you can make a difference for people who visit your site and share the pages on their social media accounts. Note that more traffic on your website leads to better rankings, more engagement, and more people you can reach.
- NoFollow links also improve your domain authority. These links help you improve your domain authority because they drive traffic to your website and increase your site’s credibility.
- NoFollow links build brand awareness. It is one of the most critical factors in growing your business online.
These are a few places where you can see NoFollow links used. It is a perfect way to protect your website against spammy link comments. Besides, you will have different types of link profiles at the end of the day.
How to Check A NoFollow Link
There are multiple methods to check if a link is NoFollow. Here are some techniques:
Check the HTML Code
It is the easiest way to check the link manually. There are two options you can prefer.
First Method
- In Chrome, find the link you want to check.
- Right-click and click the ‘Inspect’ option, or you can press “Ctrl+Shift+I.”
- Look into the HTML source of the web page.
- If there is a rel= “nofollow” tag, the link is a NoFollow. However, if you don’t see the rel= “nofollow” tag, that link is DoFollow.
Second Method
- In Chrome, find the link you want to check.
- Right-click and click the ‘View Page Source’ option.
- Press control/command and F.
- Type the ‘nofollow’ word.
- If there is, the link is a NoFollow. However, if you don’t see it, that link is DoFollow.
Backlink Analysis Tools
To analyze inbound links, you can prefer to use a backlink analysis tool, such as SE Ranking, Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc. All you need to do is enter a specific URL and sit back and watch.
Nofollow Links in Short
We’ve talked about the impact of NoFollow links on search engine rankings and your SEO strategy in this post. These links are links to your own website with the rel= “nofollow” tag. Even if SEO professionals don’t share their exact views, these links can indirectly impact your search engine rankings. You can prevent spam comments and unwanted links through these links to protect your site’s SEO success.
These harmful comments and unwanted links affect your SEO results and rankings negatively. However, NoFollow links help you provide your website awareness and drive traffic to your website. You can also normalize your link profile, thanks to these links. That’s why, if you use the links wisely, you can attract more organic links to your site and improve your website’s SEO.