The Whole DoFollow vs NoFollow Debate

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Ok, let's look at what Google says regarding the whole DoFollow vs NoFollow issue:

How does Google handle nofollowed links?

We don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.

Reference: About rel="nofollow"

"Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways."

Google announced in early 2005 that hyperlinks with rel="nofollow" attribute[4] would not influence the link target's PageRank. In addition, the Yahoo and Bing search engines also respect this attribute.[5][6]

How the attribute is being interpreted differs between the search engines. While some take it literally and do not follow the link to the page being linked to[citation needed], others still "follow" the link to find new web pages for indexing. In the latter case rel="nofollow" actually tells a search engine "Don't score this link" rather than "Don't follow this link." This differs from the meaning of nofollow as used within a robots meta tag, which does tell a search engine: "Do not follow any of the hyperlinks in the body of this document.".

Interpretation by the individual search engines
While all engines that support the attribute exclude links that use the attribute from their ranking calculation, the details about the exact interpretation of the attribute vary from search engine to search engine.[7][8]

• Google states that their engine takes "nofollow" literally and does not "follow" the link at all. However, experiments conducted by SEOs show conflicting results. These studies reveal that Google does follow the link, but does not index the linked-to page, unless it was in Google's index already for other reasons (such as other, non-nofollow links that point to the page).[8][9]
• Yahoo! "follows it", but excludes it from their ranking calculation.
• Bing respects "nofollow" as regards not counting the link in their ranking, but it is not proven whether or not Bing follows the link.
• Ask.com ignores the attribute altogether.

Reference: nofollow - Wikipedia (there is a chart under the last bit showing comparisons)

Look at the chart. It shows that if the linked page is already indexed a nofollow link is still beneficial.

Whether you believe the chart in the Wikipedia article or not, commenting on pages that use nofollow has other benefits:

• You build a relationship with the website owner by reading and commenting on their material
• If you make really good contributions then they just might contact you for a guess post, featured article or some other joint venture.
• Other people reading the comments on the page may follow your link regardless of whether it is nofollow or not.
• Other people reading your comments can also turn into partners as described above for the website owner.
• All of the above are benefits for contributing to forums too.

So quit worrying about whether a page has nofollow links or not. Contritbute good quality stuff to the community there for the other benefits.

[kbeus21]

Very right. Personally I would not guest post on a do follow blog since you have to share the link juice with everyone that comments. That is just me of course. I do have one no follow and one do follow blog and though the do follow blog gets much more traffic the majority of traffic seems to be spammers. Anyway good post and insight into the no follow do follow debate.

[JennyRipley]

I think the follow links is also important,they can help you gaining more traffic.

[thefandango]

I don't understand the point you are making? Any link can be clicked on, the fact is is followed or nofollow is irrelevant.

Originally Posted by JennyRipley

I think the follow links is also important,they can help you gaining more traffic.

[ameto]

As far as increasing traffic is concerned, type of link (no-follow or do-follow) does not matter. However, for ranking purpose you need quality backlinks (do follow link)

[aceseo]

calling nofollow links nofollow was a terrible decision

it's obviously going to mislead people as nofollow links are followed by search bots

all that happens is that google don't give any pagerank juice to the page being linked to with a nofollow link

last time I heard bing/yahoo treat nofollow links like any other link

you should not avoid nofollow links completely - that will cause your site to have an abnormal backlinks pattern - and you don't want your site blocked by google do you?

[Mike Anthony]

Great thread. Followed it from another thread. Although for SEO purposes Nofollow has less importance there is nothing that beats participating on a vibrant site. The people you meet the connections you make are often ten times more important to whatever you are doing online than your PR juice.

[Sammysart]

Originally Posted by thefandango

I don't understand the point you are making? Any link can be clicked on, the fact is is followed or nofollow is irrelevant.

Very well said. I always thought that a link you can click is a dofollow. I went so far that I almost sold a link list full of blog pages that were actually nofollow but had the comments with links enabled.

I really don't think people should give a damn about nofollow and dofollow links. PR doesn't define the traffic, the number of clickable links do!

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by Sammysart

I really don't think people should give a damn about nofollow and dofollow links. PR doesn't define the traffic, the number of clickable links do!

PR can HELP define where you rank in the search engines and anchor text from authority sites help as well. Its not true at all that nofollow dofollow doesn't matter at all. Higher results in Google and other search engines WILL get you more traffic.

[sfod_d223]

Didn't find too much value for the traffic that was served from do-follow commenters. None of my stats counters even moved. Let alone visit a variety of the offers available to my readers. Probably good for the site that is fresh out the box.

[Sammysart]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

PR can HELP define where you rank in the search engines and anchor text from authority sites help as well. Its not true at all that nofollow dofollow doesn't matter at all. Higher results in Google and other search engines WILL get you more traffic.

OK, you're right. SERPs are determined by the no. of incoming links, in addition to all the other stuff. But very few authority sites have nofollow disabled, but links over there still help increasing the traffic.

[Zos0r]

spam delicious enough and you'll rank...for awhile. They're nofollow...

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by Sammysart

OK, you're right. SERPs are determined by the no. of incoming links, in addition to all the other stuff. But very few authority sites have nofollow disabled, but links over there still help increasing the traffic.

Very Few? I can point you to hundreds of high PR sites that are dofollow. Its pretty easy once you know how to look.

[ROGERKLOTZ]

Good post shedding some light on this issue. A nofollow link may not be beneficial to your PR or SERP, HOWEVER, a nofollow link still drives traffic and visibility. That being said, a nofollow link is not as "useless" as people usually make it out to be.

[sweetfranky]

Originally Posted by ROGERKLOTZ

Good post shedding some light on this issue. A nofollow link may not be beneficial to your PR or SERP, HOWEVER, a nofollow link still drives traffic and visibility. That being said, a nofollow link is not as "useless" as people usually make it out to be.

I agree, I get some great traffic from nofollow links in my industry.

[istongtotong]

If you want to target Google search engine and other search engine try do-follow link while no-follow is not recognize by Google but its useful to other search engines.

[lyechin2002]

Very impressive info, thank for the sharing, but how about Yahoo and Bing count the backlink if the link from do follow?

[seospecialist]

I think that This Dofollow and Nofollow debate creates for Google, so if Google replied that it must be 100% right.

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Originally Posted by lyechin2002

Very impressive info, thank for the sharing, but how about Yahoo and Bing count the backlink if the link from do follow?

That information is in the second part of the original post and the link associated with it.

[marina]

There is one saying that the backlinks mixed with follow and nofollow tags are better than those with only dofollow tags, is it right?