If you’re here, you’ve probably heard of ‘follow’ and ‘nofollow’ links but have no idea what the difference is. These links are key to how a search engine interprets and ranks a webpage. Understanding the difference between the two can help you to determine how your website’s SEO and online presence is performing. But what exactly are they, and why do they matter?
What are follow links?
Follow links, or do-follow links, are the standard type of hyperlink found on most websites. These links are essentially a green light for search engine bots to follow the link and crawl the destination page. When a search engine crawls your site and finds a follow link, it essentially follows that link to the connected page, passing on some of the original page’s ‘link juice’ or SEO value to the linked page.
For example, if your website gets a follow link from a highly authoritative news outlet or established industry blog, search engines see this as a vote of confidence. The authority and credibility of the linking site are then partially transferred to your site, boosting your webpage’s ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This can in turn improve your site’s visibility and drive more organic traffic.
What are nofollow links?
Nofollow links, on the other hand, are hyperlinks that contain a special attribute to their HTML code. This tells search engines, “Hey, don’t follow this link.” As a result, nofollow links don’t pass on the same SEO value or link juice to the landing page.
Here’s how this looks in HTML:
<a href=”http://example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Example Website</a>
These types of links were introduced by Google in 2005 to try to combat spammy content practices like blog comment spam and paid links that were trying to game the system. By using the nofollow attribute, sites could link to other sources without endorsing them or impacting their search ranking as heavily.
What are the key differences between follow and nofollow links?
The biggest difference is the SEO value. Nofollow links won’t have the same SEO impact as follow links, however, it’s worth noting that all brand mentions are valuable!
Crawling is different for both types of links as well. Search engines will follow and index the destination page of follow links. But for nofollow links, search engines usually won’t.
While follow links are more valuable for SEO purposes, nofollow links still have their place. They can drive traffic to your site, provide visibility, and build your brand’s presence online.
Additionally, a natural link profile—meaning the collection of all the links pointing to your site—should include a mix of both follow and nofollow links. An all-follow link profile can look suspicious and unnatural to search engines, potentially raising red flags and risking penalties.
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