First, What’s a No Follow Link?
A no-follow link is a hyperlink that looks like this:
<a href = “https://fanaticallydigital.com/” rel= ”nofollow” >
See the no-follow tag? This tag tells search engines to ignore the link.
A Brief Refresher on Search Engine Crawlers
Search engines use hyperlinks like these to create a map of the web.
They’ll read the content of web pages and use hyperlinks to jump from page to page and website to website.
The more links that a page has pointing to it, the more valuable the page is assumed to be and, therefore, the more potential that page has to rank.
No-follow tags tell search engines not to include the link in their web map.
Why Do Websites Use No-Follow Links?
You’ll most often find no-follow links in social media posts, comment sections, and forums.
Back in the early days of Google, savvy folks realized you could spam blogs and forums by linking to their own websites in the comments.
This would artificially inflate the number of links pointing to their own website, making it seem more valuable.
To combat this, Google introduced the no-follow tag in 2005, and other search engines quickly followed suit.
Nowadays, search engines have become smarter and can detect spammy behavior regardless of no-follow tags.
But you’ll still find them across the web, like on social media, certain blog posts and news sites like Forbes and Huffington Post.
No Follow Links & SEO
There’s a fair amount of debate in the SEO world over the value of no-follow links.
And Google doesn’t help clarify the issue, saying “In general, we don’t follow them.”
When it comes down to it, a no-follow tag is merely a suggestion that search engines ignore the link.
Do No-Follow Links Help SEO?
In short, yes. No-follow links have the potential to help your SEO.
Let’s take a look at a few case studies that correlate no-follow links with improvements in organic rankings and traffic.
Case Study 1
An agency called Teknicks ran a case study in which they increased a client backlink portfolio over 16 months, 89% of which were no-follow links.
The client saw a 288% increase in organic traffic.
Now, this is not a perfect study (SEO studies never are). It doesn’t control for other factors, such as the impact of on-page content changes or the 11% of new links that were do-follow.
However, the gradual increase in keyword rankings and traffic suggests that no-follow links could absolutely have contributed to their success.
Case Study 2
Another case study conducted by SEOJet does a better job of demonstrating a more direct relationship between no-follow links and improved rankings.
After being stuck on the third page for “backlink software,” SEOJet placed a no-follow sidebar link on an SEO blog.
Although it was only a single backlink, the results were immediate. They jumped to the first page within a week.
Why would this be?
Google May Still Follow Them
Again, a no-follow link is merely a request that search engines ignore the link.
This second case study suggests that Google does follow certain backlinks, especially if the content is relevant.
Referrals Matter Too!
When discussing backlinks and SEO, we often forget about the value of referrals.
Links placed in relevant locations can bring in referral traffic, people who navigate to your site from the hyperlink.
These are real human beings who check out your website and could potentially share it with others. This is a valuable benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked.
So, Do No Follow Links Help SEO?
In summary, no-follow links do have the potential to help your SEO by increasing organic traffic and referral traffic.
However, the impact of no-follow links is often indirect and can be difficult to measure.
In addition, Google’s algorithms are constantly changing and evolving, making it challenging to determine the exact impact of no-follow links on SEO.
Ultimately, while no-follow links may not necessarily directly contribute to your website’s rankings on search engine results pages, they can still play a role in driving traffic to your website and increasing its overall visibility.
So, the next time you come across a no-follow link, don’t dismiss its potential value.