A nofollow link is an attribute that can be added to a hyperlink to tell search engines not to follow that particular link. When search engines crawl a website, they use links to understand the relationships between pages and websites.
Adding a nofollow attribute to a link lets website owners tell search engines not to follow that particular link and not to pass any search engine ranking benefits to the target website.
How are Nofollow Links Used?
Nofollow links are used in a variety of ways, including:
- Comment Sections: Many websites allow users to leave comments on their pages. Because these comments can be a target for spammers and low-quality content, many websites use nofollow links in their comment sections to prevent spammers from getting the search engine ranking benefits from their links.
- Paid Links: Some websites may receive payment for including links to other websites on their pages. To prevent these paid links from passing search engine ranking benefits to the target website, website owners can use nofollow links.
- Untrusted Content: If a website owner links to untrusted or low-quality content, they may use nofollow links to prevent their website from being associated with that content.
Why are Nofollow Links Important for SEO?
- Prevents Spam: Nofollow links can prevent spam comments on your website by not passing any link juice to spammy websites. This can help prevent search engines from marking your website as spam.
- Maintains Credibility: By using nofollow links, you can maintain your website’s credibility by only linking to high-quality websites. This can help improve the user experience and make your website more trustworthy to users and search engines.
- Improves User Experience: Nofollow links can help improve the user experience on your website by preventing links to irrelevant or low-quality content. This can help keep users on your website longer and reduce bounce rates.
- Helps You Stay Compliant: If you receive payment for links or sponsor content, nofollow links are necessary. Google’s guidelines require that sponsored links be nofollow to ensure that search engine rankings are not manipulated.
- Balances Your Link Profile: Using a mix of do-follow and nofollow links, you can balance your link profile and avoid penalties from search engines for over-optimization.
Nofollow links are essential to SEO because they help prevent spam and low-quality content from manipulating search engine rankings. By adding a nofollow attribute to a hyperlink, website owners can prevent search engines from following that link and control the target website from receiving any search engine ranking benefits.