One of my readers, Caleb, asked about the benefits and differences of nofollow and dofollow links for Internet marketing.
Overal, dofollow is obviously the best type of backlink because it passes link juice from one site to another and counts the anchor text for keyword relevance, but, do not discount the nofollow completely!
The original meaning of the nofollow attribute as created by Google means:
- Not follow through to that page to crawl its content
- Not count the link in calculating Page Rank.
- Not count the anchor text in determining what keywords the page being linked to is relevant for.
Now, this b
asically means that the nofollow tag in backlinks will not pass any link juice to your website or blog, will not help to index your site, nor will the content of the page you are linking to be crawled, as a result of being found on that page where the nofollow link is, nor will any relevancy be given to your website for the keywords used in the anchor.
Do all the search engines treat nofollow the same way?
Google emphatically states, as the creator of the nofollow tag that, the nofollow attribute complies will all the characteristics stated above. No crawl of content, no link juice passed, no keyword relevancy and no index as a result of that backlink. Google simply does not follow the link at all!
Yahoo says, that "If we find a link we make it available to our algorithms to find new content, whether it has a ‘no follow’ attribute or not. However, if the ‘no follow’ attribute is present, it means that no attribution is given to the target from the source of the link."
This means Yahoo will crawl and will index the content, but will not pass link juice.
MSN Live stated they are on board with all the parameters of the nofollow attribute as stated above.
Ask.com, completely ignores the nofollow
Is what they say truth or fiction? Well, if you do some research around the blogosphere, (with the exception of Ask) you will find conflicting results, as some have tested and found results that contradict these statements by Yahoo and Google. In fact, many believe that Google sometimes does follow the nofollow links, and that Yahoo ignores the nofollow all together. Is this true, possibly, but it in reality it doesn't matter! Do I care? No! Will I spend my valuable time doing this research? No! Because I'd rather spend it building links.
In essence you want to have both types of links because:
1. Only getting do-follow links will look un-natural and could cause alarms to go off. When building links you want to look as natural as possible and get a variety of links from all types of sources.
2. Getting a high Page Rank nofollow link is better than no link at all.
3. All types of links can bring traffic, not the best buying kind, but good for subscibers, as from compelling comments on related blogs. Just as Caroline Middlebrook, she built a lot of her 4,000 + subscribers with a sound blog comment strategy.
4. If you focus all your time on researching where to get do-follow, you lose the valuable time to just build links, all kinds, all types.
5. Yahoo, though they say will not pass link juice or keyword relevance, still crawls and indexes websites from a nofollow link. And, ASK ignores it completely.
6. The SE's can possibly lie, what a shocker 
7. Many nofollow links are delivered with Google Alerts all the time, this is not earth shattering, but it tells me that Google is aware of those links. With some authority sites, like the socials, I can add a link and literally 1 hour later I get a Google Alert.
I have lots of nofollow links, some natural and some manual. But I never spend more than 5 minutes getting those manually. For example, a site offers me to build a mini site with my content and I can link back to my sites and the links are nofollow, I will pass because the time investment to build a mini site full of content is way more energy than I wish to spend for nofollow links. But, with Squidoo and Hub pages for example, the links are do-follow so the time is definitely worth it.
For article marketing, nofollow links have benefits as well, as some article sites are nofollow, but they are high PR, and other webmasters go there to get content to republish on their sites and this leads to getting more dofollow links from that article going viral.
So the lesson here people is just get links 
Very clear cut picture about both do follow and no follow
Thanks mate
Hi JR
Thanks for the post. This is an interesting subject for me because I received a PR 4 on a blog, before I knew anything about off page SEO, and most of my links were no-follow. In fact the majority of them came from Miss Middlebrook. I used to read and comment on her blog every time she posted which is what brought me to you and the other four horesmen of the apocalypse Griz, Vic, and Court. There was some chatter about these guys being so mean to Caroline so I decided to find out who these terrible people were. I’m sure glad I did because I have had a masters education from you guys.
Any way, most of my links were no follow from her, about 100, because I got on the most commented list, and I ended up with a PR4. I did write about 20 posts on my particular blog during the time but I really wonder if Google gave me some relevancy numbers because of her blog.
I just thought I would pass that along.
Thank you for all the information you provide.
Andy@How To Regrow Hairs last blog post..Zero Carb Foods and Glycemic Index
@Andy
LOL, the four horsemen… Actually Griz gave Caroline a good plug back when she first started.
Google still counts No Follow links……….they include them in the External Link count at Google Webmaster Tools –AND– they are crawling the anchor text in those links. As far as I can tell, the ONLY attribute that is truly “no follow” is PAGE RANK.
@Malta
You are totally right, and who really knows, but if they are listed, then why not get some just in case
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OK so no follow links ARE indexed, just not passing juice, correct? This is what I’ve heard more often then not.
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@Dennis Edell,
That is what Yahoo says, Google says no index and no juice, but who really knows, as Malta said, the no follow links show up G web Tools and you never really know.
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(224 comments)
@JR, Yea like I said, I’ve heard (way) more often then not, that Google too indexes with no juice.
@Dennis Edell,
Yes, and I would not be surprised if they pass juice as well, no algo is perfct
What a great article it is.. I always thought that only do follow links are beneficial.. With this article, I think we should get all types of links as it looks natural.. Thanx for excellent stuff..
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Thanks JR
this post cleared all my doubts regarding nofollow and dofollow, but i have one thing to say getting a relevant site to leave a dofollow link is becoming scarce day by day
@balbir,
True, but you have to find like minded people who know what they are doing and want those quality links like you do
I agree using both types can be helpful and profitable in the long run. Gotta use all strategies available.
Superior
“So the lesson here people is just get links” great closure there and a wise wise lesson…. too many people just keep on fretting on how to do things “perfect” and then hardly get any work done!
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@Mirjam,
LOL, you are so right, and whining about losing traffic when linking out, they just don’t get it, that without the links, there is not much traffic to lose!
@Mirjam,
I just tested loged out as admin, and I think that you see a blank sidebar because there is no text in it till you scroll to the top, because the comments are running so low down the page, is that the case?
@JR, I mean to say, that as soon as my comment reaches the sidebar, instead of the cursos going back to the left, the text that I am typing disappears underneath the sidebar so I can´t see what I am typing for a word or two (thank god for those boring hours and hours of typing classes back when I was a kid LOL) (btw, using mac, firefox 3.0.7). It goes out of the comment box so to say, hope that clears it up
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@Mirjam, It happens to me too.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Seeking April Comment Contest Sponsors!
@Mirjam,
Oh I get what you are saying it’s the threaded comment and it happens only when replying, because it is not wrapping the text around comment input box, I will check on the threaded comments plugin, thanks for letting me know.
@JR, you´re welcome
Mirjams last blog post..O W M 50% Off Untill 1st of April!
@Mirjam,
Okay I fixed it, try it again and see if it’s better please, thanks
@JR, ok ok, I was just about to go to bed but anyways, testing it out for you and by the way it looks ehm, it hasn´t been completely fixed but a lot better than before, now it is only 1 or 2 letters missing instead of words
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@Mirjam,
Thank you!
Good to know that nofollow counts!
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(1 comments)
Even google webmaster tools shows nofollow links as indexed links. I always use linkdiagnosys to find out where my links come from and I see a lot of links from nofollow sites.
I think you need a balance between nofollow and dofollow.
One blog that is No Follow is Hubspot.com…….recently a site owner saw one of my posts there, and asked me to join his new web portal site, which includes an “About Me” page with Do Follow links. When you post comments at a high-traffic No Follow site, chances are you will get invites from Do Follow web sites.
Very valuable and helpful article. Appreciate the honest attempt at breaking down the difference. For myself, I just build links. No follow, whatever. Traffic counts for a lot, and authority can be established with both kinds
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This is great to know and slightly reassuring aswell, at the end of the day a link is a link, that little bit more exposure and I think you’ve summarized that very well here. this is a fantastic article, I’ve stumbles and digged it for you, hope that helps
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This is an awesome article, I hope my readers can come over here and read this. I never looked up how no follow links could be of an importance. Appreciate you schooling me on that. Peace!
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I have been pondering this for years. I think the search engines do what ever they want any way. So I do agree that a variety of link should be implemented to look as natural as you can.
Thanks,
Jimi P.
I generally dofollow comments that are actually supports the thesis of the post and no follow spammers on my blog.
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I would think that all the spam would flow toward the do follow links, if the search engines truly ignore no follow. That would eventually mean that the more relevant links are the no follow ones. Thus, the search engines at some point will have to start looking at the no follow ones, or the things they index will be spammy.
Yep, nofollow will still get you indexed. Just try bookmarking a new site on Jumptags. A nofollow PR6 link on their front page (if only temporary) will work.
NoFollow also seems to pass some keyword authority too, more than likely at a reduced rate. Screw PR, I’ll take that instead.
Brian@Niche Marketings last blog post..New Internet Marketing iPhone Game
NoFollow also seems to pass some keyword authority too, more than likely at a reduced rate. Screw PR, I’ll take that instead.
You can get a dofollow link from RSS Directories too.
Froslo – Free Dofollow RSS Directory.
Do follow is a term given to web page or sites / blog which provides (outbound) links to the comments.
You are completely right. why spend so much time researching for do follows and no follows?? what if the situation changes? these guys are always bringing one form of rule or the other afterall they don’t entirely disclose their algorithms for ranking
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I always create links from Nofollow and Dofollow Links.
It does not matter the situation.
A link is a link and whatever the search engines tell to the online community, I just don’t listen all the time. Never believe what the online community say because you will be just another person without your own thinking.
Yes it will be good to be open and listen what they have to say about Dofollow and Nofollow Links, but your best weapon is test everything they say and get your own conclusions.
I think Nofollow do a great job on the link building strategy period.
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DoFollow blog is useful and thanks
I agree with the author. I guess the easiest way to tell what’s happening in your website is to check Google Webmasters tools. I have tons of no-follow links but they are indeed reported by Google so this indicates that Google does care. In addition, I don’t agree with the fact that anchor text is ignored by Google when it’s no-follow. Indeed, it does count a lot!
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You are right both types of links are very useful to drive traffic for the site.For high PR and good ranking of site do follow links are very essential.
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You are absolute right. Too many do-follows may lead Google to penalizing our websites. Moderation is always a good rule to follow, especially when it comes to link building. It should be done naturally and good amounts of links from both kinds will definitely help us get to the top rankings eventually.
-Scott
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@JR,
My apologies to “affiliate funnel system bonus” if I’m wrong, but I believe you just got hit with some of the new *smart spam* JR.
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@Dennis Edell,
You think? I wondered as well, should I hit the SPAM button?
I just did!
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@JR, Woohoo!
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New blog post: No Follow vs. Do Follow Links – And Why You Need Both http://tinyurl.com/dblz52
No Follow vs. Do Follow Links – And Why You Need Both http://bit.ly/RiMts
Today's oldie but goodie: No Follow vs. Do Follow Links – And Why You Need Both @imstrategies Great blogger! #… http://su.pr/7sHDGV
No Follow vs. Do Follow Links – And Why You Need Both @imstrategies I learn so much from JR all the time – R… http://su.pr/7sHDGV