What You Need To Know About Nofollow Links – A Guide

Last week in the office we debated the use of Nofollow links – when they should be used, should they be used at all, and what weight they hold with SEO. Like all things digital, industry advice on Nofollow links is constantly changing, and SEO has come a far way from the keyword stuffing and code manipulation popular back in the 00s. We’ve since spent some time collating the latest recommendations on why, where and when to use Nofollow links.

Firstly, What Are Nofollows?

Before we delve into the why, where and when, let’s discuss what Nofollow links are.

Nofollow links are hyperlinks with a HTML tag of rel=”nofollow”, which tells search engines, such as Google, to ignore the link. This means that the search engine will not use the link towards a website’s backlink profile.

Nofollow tags are used on links that are mainly for user navigation rather than for the benefit of SEO.

Why Use Nofollow Links?

Links hold ‘weight’ which determines a website’s ranking, meaning the better the outbound website that is linking to you, the bigger the SEO benefit for your website. For example, our client Derricks Music has recently been linked to from a very prestigious news website (which didn’t use a Nofollow), potentially helping bump their website rankings significantly.

Search engines consider the quality of links pointing to a website, meaning if your website links to an external site, you’re basically helping that website to rank higher.

Nofollow links give you advanced control over your outbound links, allowing you to link to low-quality websites without passing authority to them. This helps you to build brand awareness and position yourself as an expert in the field, without telling Google to associate your site with a linked page or website, for example if you want to give clarity on a discussion point source, or link to an advertiser.

Where and When to Use Nofollow Links

It’s important to remember not to use Nofollow links on any internal links on your website, as you want Google to crawl all of your website pages to give you the best chance of appearing in search engine results. 

Equally, you may not want to link to websites that are irrelevant to your industry, or to low-quality websites, however, there are certain instances where this can’t be avoided. This is where Nofollow links should be used – for sponsored content, user generated content, guest posts or when citing a source. This allows users to get the information that they require, without your site losing precious ranking by Google thinking that you are associated with such sites. Additionally, paid links must be marked as Nofollow to comply with Google’s guidelines.

A Caveat…

Does this mean you should use no follow links for all external links? Not necessarily. Link to high-quality external websites and sources where you can, but if you must link to a website that you don’t want Google to associate you with, then you can utilise a Nofollow link.

Earlier Advice

Remember at the top of this article we mentioned advice from the noughties? That wasn’t just us being nostalgic. Advice on Nofollow links has changed considerably in the last 10-20 years, with SEO best practices seeing some of the greatest changes. Previously, it was advised that any and all links to and from your website were good, and many immoral website admins endorsed blackhat SEO tactics – going against search engine guidelines to manipulate the search engine results pages to gain higher rankings. This may have worked for a time but eventually led to many websites being dismissed and even dropping in rankings, because of Google’s golden rule – create your website for users and customers, not search engines.

Website Content

At Ballyhoo, we can help you manage or create your content when we build your website. We advise on best practices for your content, to allow you to maintain and build top search engine rankings, to allow your site to find your target audience. Alternatively, if you’re not sure if you’re using Nofollow links correctly, our consultancy service is perfect for you, allowing us to help analyse your website and steer you in the right direction.

If you’re interested in working with an expert agency, contact us now to discuss your requirements.

Headshot of Rebecca young new team member

Rebecca

Rebecca helps to keep the team organised and supports all of our clients with day to day activities and content. She also runs all of Ballyhoo's internal marketing.