Do No Follow Links help you rank higher in Search Results?

Do No Follow Links help you rank higher in Search Results?

SEO is used to optimize a website for Google’s search algorithm.

One way to do this is by building links to your website on other websites. These links act as “votes” that tell Google your website is popular and should be ranked highly in search results.

Broadly, Google recognizes two types of backlinks: do follow backlinks and no follow backlinks.

Do follow backlinks are those links that pass on link juice, or link equity, to your website. These links tell Google that the linking website trusts your website and considers it to be a relevant source of information.

No follow links, on the other hand, are those links that don’t pass on link juice. These links are useful for getting traffic to your website, but they don’t have much value in terms of directly ranking your website.

Why then are we talking about no follow links when they do not help rank your website? In this article, we will discuss the value of no follow links and how they can be used to benefit your website.

What are no follow links?                                                         

what-are-no-follow-links-for-rank-higher-in-search-resultsGoogle uses backlinks to determine the popularity, relevance, and trustworthiness of a website.

While do follow links are hyperlinks that pass on link juice, or link authority, from one website to another, no follow links were originally introduced by Google in 2005 as a way to combat comment spam. Comment spam is when someone leaves a comment on a blog post with a link to their website.

These links are usually low quality and not relevant to the discussion, but they can still help to improve the spammer’s website ranking. By adding the no follow attribute to these links, Google ensured that they would not pass on any link juice, and comment spam would no longer be an effective SEO tactic.

Today, the no follow attribute is used for a variety of reasons. It can be used to combat spam, but it can also be used to indicate that a link is sponsored or paid for. It can also be used to avoid passing link juice to low-quality or irrelevant websites.

What is the purpose of no follow links?

what-is-the-purpose-of-no-follow-links-for-rank-higher-in-search-resultsNo follow links were used to combat spam and to avoid passing link juice to low-quality or irrelevant websites. Now, Google has gradually evolved their treatment of no follow links. While they still use the no follow attribute to combat spam, they are now also used by crawlers as hints.

They serve to indicate that a link is not as important as an un-no followed link. This change in Google’s algorithm means that even though a no followed link may not boost your website’s SEO directly, it can still indirectly have an impact.

How can no follow links help my website?

While they might not have the same SEO power as do follow links, no follow links can still help your website in a few ways:

  • No follow links can help your website indirectly through link building. By getting other websites to link to you – even if those links are no followed – you’re increasing the chances that users will find your website. And the more users that visit your website, the better your chances of ranking well in search engines.
  • No follow links can also help to improve your website’s click-through rate (CTR). CTR is used to determine how relevant and useful your website is. The higher your CTR, the better your chances of ranking well in search results.
  • In general, it’s always a good idea to try and get as many high-quality links as possible. But if you can’t get high-quality links, don’t worry – any links, even no follow links, can still be helpful.
  • No follow links are not meant to work on Google’s search engine, instead, they are targeted at humans. No follow links, even if not directly assigning a vote of confidence, are still a trust metric that webmasters take into consideration.
  • Even in terms of brand awareness and traffic, no follow links are still valuable. If you’re getting a link from a high-quality website, even if it’s marked as no follow, it can still help with your brand and traffic.
  • They can help build relationships with other website owners, which can eventually lead to do follow links. No follow links also help increase the visibility of your website, which can lead to more traffic.

Conclusion

In conclusion, getting high-quality links is always the best strategy. But if you can’t get high-quality links, any links, even no follow links, can still be helpful. When link building, always keep in mind what your goal is. So, whether you want to increase your visibility in Google’s search results or you want to build relationships with other webmasters, an SEO agency in Kolkata will be able to help you with getting an abundance of no follow links, especially if you’re based in India.

Author Profile

Manuela Willbold
Manuela WillboldOnline Media & PR Strategist
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Education, Business & Lifestyle Blogs in the United Kingdom & Germany | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and Course Instructor at the SeekaHost University.