What is rel=nofollow, and Should I Use It?
Posted on June 9th, 2009 by Gabriel HarperThe nofollow tag (as it’s commonly referred to), is an HTML attribute proposed by Matt Cutts of Google and Jason Shellen of Blogger.com in 2005. It is a recommendation on behalf of search engines to add a special identifier to links that shouldn’t be counted towards search results. For instance, unmoderated blog comments might be a candidate for nofollow attribute.
An example link using the nofollow attribute:
<a href="http://intavant.com/" rel="nofollow">
Whether to use the nofollow tag or not is a personal decision. Google recommends it, yet lots of people disagree with it. Adding the nofollow attribute to your outgoing blog comment links, paid links, and any other unmoderated links is going to help keep your nose clean with Google. However if you disagree with the recommendation, as I do, there is certainly no requirement to use the attribute.
Search engines such as Google push for website owners to add the nofollow tag to paid/sponsored links, in an effort to thwart search engine ranking manipulation. Several shortcomings of the approach, in addition to search engine leaders’ huge stake in online advertising, have not been received wholeheartedly by the Webmaster community.
Despite the response, Google in particular is of great concern to professional SEOs and webmasters with search engine rankings on the line. Advertisers equally need to decide if nofollow links are worth buying any more. The nature of the market sets up the honest website owners to be damaged the most. The Internet is still very much the “Wild West”, and without any kind of accountability online, people will simply find new ways to get around the tag. As the criteria for a quality link tightens up, webmasters get more sophisticated, and the line between SPAM and “real” websites continues to blur.
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July 10th, 2009 at 10:14 am
The last Matt Cutts video I saw basically says putting the “no follow” on a link wont help your pr for other links. So, if you don’t need the link there your better off just removing it.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:15 am
thanks a really good information. i had no knowledge about nofollow.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 pm
For the moment I have decided not to put the No Follow tag on my website and blog, and luckily enough Iam not getting any spamming, so for the moment I am quiet happy t=to leave it like thisd, In the future If i have any problems then i may reconsider , But for the moment I am quiet happy to let other webmasters receive backlionks from my sites
November 25th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Recently I made the decision to revert back to the no follow attribute for my blog comments, and I don’t regret doing so. I feel that those who feel their comments are worthwhile will still comment. The best part though is the spammer attacks have dropped significantly by reverting back to the no follow attribute. My decision to revert back to no follow was based on the fact that I also feel it’s a good decision from a business perspective. Any real business would not survive giving away free stuff for long, and it’s no different with giving away link juice via the do follow attribute for comments.