{"id":2725,"date":"2019-06-07T06:02:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T06:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/?p=2725"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:07:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:07:54","slug":"understanding-the-true-value-of-nofollow-links-on-your-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/understanding-the-true-value-of-nofollow-links-on-your-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the True Value of Nofollow Links on Your SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"last-updated-date\">Recently updated: February 11th, 2025<\/p>\n<p>While using a tool to do the SEO for my website, I received an error alert related to the no follow the link I had used. The tool highlighted the internal links that have nofollow attributes and warned me that using such attributes means that I don\u2019t trust the link and hence, it will make Google suspicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This got me\nwondering how many people must be confused about nofollow links and its effect\non their SEO. The fact is nofollow links DO NOT affect a site\u2019s SEO, be it the\ngiant Google, Bing or any other search engine. In fact, the warning I received\nis a major problem if you tend to use merely tools for your search engine\noptimization. You will receive false positives, creating doubt in your mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_1 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/understanding-the-true-value-of-nofollow-links-on-your-seo\/#Difference_between_Nofollow_and_Dofollow_Links\" >Difference between Nofollow and Dofollow Links<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/understanding-the-true-value-of-nofollow-links-on-your-seo\/#Nofollow_Links_and_SEO\" >Nofollow Links and SEO<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/understanding-the-true-value-of-nofollow-links-on-your-seo\/#Where_Are_Nofollow_Links_Used\" >Where Are Nofollow Links Used<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/understanding-the-true-value-of-nofollow-links-on-your-seo\/#Final_Words\" >Final Words<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Difference_between_Nofollow_and_Dofollow_Links\"><\/span><strong>Difference between Nofollow and Dofollow Links<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When blogging\nstarted flourishing, spammers would use the comments section to post ads to\nwebsites of poor quality. To fight this spam menace, rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d attribute\nwas developed. It prevents search engine spiders from following those links. This\nunique attribute prevented spammers from watering down the trustworthiness and\nreliability of the host website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As blogs became the\nin-thing, search engines too started experiencing the same issue as blogs. Paid\nlinks started playing a dominating role in page rankings and hence, search\nengines started asking website and blog admins to use nofollow links to\nminimize the effect of paid links on page rankings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, it is possible to identify whether a page has nofollow or dofollow links. You can right-click a link and choose \u201cInspect Element\u201d. Check the &lt;a&gt; tag to see if it contains the nofollow attribute (rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"396\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/image001.png\" alt=\"No follow msg\" class=\"wp-image-2726\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/image001.png 650w, https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/image001-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Considering\nthat search engines have permitted nofollow internal links, there is no reason\nto worry about their legitimacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Nofollow_Links_and_SEO\"><\/span><strong>Nofollow Links and SEO<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In\ncase you are avoiding nofollow links because of the negative impact on your\nSEO, here are some compelling reasons to convince you how these links actually\nhave an SEO value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Get Traffic to Your Website:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nmain purpose of link building is to ensure your target audience find your\nwebsite, browse it and then take the necessary action. When this happens, you\ncan convert them into engaged visitors and from there into paying customers. If\nyou keep this in mind, you should not really care at about rel attribute. As\nlong as a person clicks the link and visits your website, it serves the\npurpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember,\nlinks can boost your website ranking and when you have a nofollow link, you can\neasily link it to dofollow link, especially if the original nofollow link is\npresent on a site that receives a lot of footfalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\nis the purpose of SEO? To build traffic and if a nofollow link can help\nincrease traffic to your website, it definitely has SEO value and you shouldn\u2019t\nworry about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Creating Link Juice Flow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Link\njuice is a common term in SEO and refers to the value offered by one webpage\nlinking to another. So, if your website has a lot of backlinks from\nauthoritative websites, you will enjoy high link juice compared to a site which\nhas fewer backlinks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nprincipal, if you have nofollow links, it means that there is no link juice\nfiltering from authoritative and trustworthy sites. Hence, search engines will\nnot look at nofollow attributes, thereby affecting your site\u2019s ranking. If only\nsearch engine algorithms were so simple!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nreality, the algorithms take into account nofollow links when calculating the\npage ranking, especially if the links are on authority and reputable websites.\nYou can benefit from the link juice by making sure that you generate ample\ntraffic and ensure the nofollow links lead to other sites that link to your\nsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Ensuring Google Views Your Site More\nFavorably<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If\nyou have just dofollow links to your website, Google will view it as a way to\ncircumvent the system. Hence, it will penalize you by dropping your ranking.\nSo, it is a good idea to have a mix of dofollow and nofollow backlinks. The\nsearch engine spiders will believe that you are doing to enjoy SEO benefits and\nwill not penalize you by dropping your page ranking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When\nyou follow this method of SEO, the nofollow attributes work quietly to get you\nmore clicks and views and this, in turn, has a positive effect on your website\nranking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. Improving Your Website Authority<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The metrics, like Alexa Rank, to measure your website\u2019s potential do not have an impact on your website ranking, but listing services and directories find these metrics extremely important. They take into account the no follow links and other backlinks when trying to decide whether to do business with you or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So,\nif you have nofollow links, they help to boost your site\u2019s authority and this\nhelps to bring in more traffic and open up doors for new business\nopportunities. If your website has a high Alexa Rank, it works to your benefit\nas it is viewed favorably by advertisers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nis also prudent to remember that the more traffic you get, the more people will\nsee that your site is linked to authority sites. And, if your site and the\nauthority sites provide quality content they will continue visiting and even\nshare the URLs on social media. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"940\" height=\"788\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MSG_24.jpg\" alt=\"Understanding the True Value of Nofollow Links on Your SEO\" class=\"wp-image-2727\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MSG_24.jpg 940w, https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MSG_24-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MSG_24-768x644.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Where_Are_Nofollow_Links_Used\"><\/span><strong>Where Are Nofollow Links Used<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You\nmay wonder where nofollow attributes are used. Some of the places include the\nfollowing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a. <strong>Social Media<\/strong>: On social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, nofollow links are common. This is the main reason your profile does not get a boost on these sites if you have links in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>b. <strong>Comments<\/strong>: As stated earlier, comments are often used by spammers and hence, all comments on forums, blogs, and news articles have nofollow backlinks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>c. <strong>Crowd-sourced<\/strong> and Open Content: Crowd-sourced and open content, like you get on Reddit, Quora and YouTube, have nofollow links and even the links in user profiles on these sites are the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>d. <strong>Certain Publishers with No-so-Stringent Review System<\/strong>: Publishers, like Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, LinkedIn Pulse, and Forbes, use nofollow attributes when it comes to their sponsored posts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Final_Words\"><\/span><strong>Final Words<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While it can be thrilling to get a dofollow backlink from an extremely popular website, chances are low that it will happen. So, you shouldn\u2019t base your SEO strategy on it. Nofollow backlinks provide traffic and since it is a less-used technique, you should go for it. Remember, getting a nofollow backlink from a reputable site is more preferable than getting a dofollow link from a site with low domain authority. These links boost your site\u2019s visibility and ensure you get organic traffic &#8211; isn\u2019t that the purpose of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/seo-services.php\" title=\"\">SEO service<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/seo-packages.php\" title=\"\">SEO packages<\/a><\/strong> ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So,\nrather than getting worked up with your SEO tool for alerting you about the\nrel=\u201dnofollow\u201d attribute, invest in a good backlink monitoring tool that allows\nyou to see how traffic and link juice you are getting from backlinks, including\nthe ones categorized as nofollow links. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently updated: February 11th, 2025 While using a tool to do the SEO for my website, I received an error alert related to the no follow the link I had used. The tool highlighted the internal links that have nofollow attributes and warned me that using such attributes means that I don\u2019t trust the link [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[191,192,160,48,156,99,155],"class_list":["post-2725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seo","tag-do-follow","tag-no-follow","tag-seo-companies","tag-seo-company","tag-seo-company-india","tag-seo-services","tag-seo-services-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5862,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions\/5862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediasearchgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}