I remember 3 or 4 years ago getting into a heated forum discussion on the impact of nofollow links. Well, if you take a look around different marketing and SEO forums, the same discussion continues to take place.
There’s two sides, and both sides are adamant about what they believe.
One side believes everything that the Google scapegoat, Matt Cutts has said in previous videos, usually dating back to 2010-2012.
The other side believes in their own data and experience.
So what is right?
NoFollow Backlinks and Their Impact on Rankings
I’m in the camp that believes nofollow links can and DO have an impact both directly and indirectly.
Before we get into more specifics though, I want to point out that the other camp that bases their idea that nofollow links can NOT impact rankings, whatsoever, are taking this statement out of context:
Nofollow is method (introduced in 2005 and supported by multiple search engines) to annotate a link to tell search engines “I can’t or don’t want to vouch for this link.” In Google, nofollow links don’t pass PageRank and don’t pass anchortext. – Matt Cutts, 2009
You can see his entire blog post on the subject of PageRank sculpting and Nofollow links here.
Now in the interest of transparency, Matt Cutts has also said that nofollow links don’t increase rankings, but that point has been said much less than the fact that nofollow links don’t pass PageRank.
The focus is that nofollow links do NOT pass PageRank. Matt Cutts’s time with the web spam team is fine, but you must understand that it’s the web spam team’s job to introduce filters to an algorithm or multiple algorithms that benefit search quality.
What about the relevance factors? Trust factors? To assume that nofollow links play absolutely NO ROLE in rankings, is probably not a good idea. When Matt Cutts made his initial statement, he mentioned that only a very small fraction (3-4%) of all links are nofollow. Yet, in 2016, about 50% of links are nofollow.
What We Need To Understand About PageRank
In order to continue diving into this topic, we need to understand that PageRank is an algorithm, within an algorithm.
Also, PageRank has not been publicly updated for quite some time now, so we don’t really even know what the PageRank of a site is anymore.
Google has over 200 ranking factors, PageRank being one of them.
The problem with SEOs and this notion that PageRank is still a major factor, and that nofollow links will not help a website rank at all, is a notion that is based on dated information from a guy that hasn’t even been working at Google for about 2 years now.
Are we really naive enough to believe Google hasn’t made changes in the last 2 years? How about the last 7 years?
We have penguin, panda, hummingbird, and many others that haven’t been dubbed a name.
Google Is Learning More About Context Than Links
The PageRank algorithm is still a factor, but a dwindling one.
Remember when anchor text was a main issue in “link diversity”? Well, I guess some people still consider it to be hugely important but we’re in the age of information and machine learning and to think that Google is still using considerably primitive technology in search… well, it’s not happening.
Anchor text is now used more to identify spam, than it is as a ranking factor. Google understands what a link is about based on context and content of a page it is linking from, and to.
In fact, I mentioned a year ago in a post that the future of SEO is one that isn’t based on links at all, but co-citations and co-occurrence.
Authority, Trust, Reputation, Citations Differ From PageRank
One of the less talked about algorithms in Google is something called “TrustRank”. Some SEOs think this is a myth, or a leprechaun on a unicorn at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it’s not. It’s a patent registered by Google in 2005.
No, I don’t care about “Topical Trust Flow” as a majestic metric, that is not what TrustRank is and in no way can anyone come up with a reliable way to determine what TrustRank would be, since it is a private algorithm and we have no idea how much of a factor it is, and what is included.
What people need to know if they believe nofollow doesn’t help, is that Google has implemented things in the past that help understand reputation and authority of a site or even a person. Remember authorship? Sure maybe rich snippets of authorship are gone for the most part, but author rank was real.
Do we really believe that Google isn’t using something similar for websites and brands right now?
Google has said they don’t use social signals as a ranking factor. Despite what most people say, I think I agree that they don’t, and the case studies that show otherwise are confusing correlation and causation. However, we have to believe that Google is sophisticated enough to understand what a Twitter user tweets about, what their reputation is, what they like and don’t like, and whether a nofollow link they share is something that they want to account for.
A nofollow link does not pass pagerank, but couldn’t it pass trust? Couldn’t it still pass authority in a non-PR format? Couldn’t it still pass relevance?
With 200+ ranking factors, can we be naive enough to think that links that don’t pass PR, can’t pass something else that does impact rankings?
Alright.. I think the point is clear.
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NoFollow Links Ranking Sites in Local Search
I have a lot of experience in SEO. Both organic and local SEO, but local has always been my biggest focus. The vast majority of YOUR clients, are likely to be local businesses.
There’s a few differences between local search and organic search, and I assume if you’re reading this, you probably understand what those differences are, so I’m not going to write 5 more paragraphs explaining them.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you already know 2 main areas of focus with local.
- Location relevance
- Industry/Keyword relevance
I discussed this when I talked about ranking a site in 20+ cities for 60+ keywords.
Now with local, it’s very easy to see if nofollow links impact rankings or not. I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times, with my own eyes. This isn’t just theorizing here!
Local SEO is much different in the way that the results are focused. Google ties multiple things together. This is also a reason why citations have been a ranking factor in local search.
It’s about tying multiple business instances together.
Let’s use a scenario here… you have 2 businesses. One business has 10 followed links, lets just say they’re from different directories. The other business has 10 nofollow links, facebook, twitter, linkedin, and maybe nofollow comments on local news sites or location specific blogs.
While business #2 doesn’t get any PageRank passed onto them with the nofollow links, they do have relevance passed on. The first business may have PR passed, but we need to remember local SEO isn’t about strength of links, it’s about the relevance of links that tie a business to its’ location and industry.
In fact, you can actually use identification marketing techniques, with NO LINKS and still rank better than those that do have links.
For example:
NoFollow Doesn’t Just Impact Local Search
Local search is just the easiest to explain.
NoFollow links can still impact organic search, you just need to have something that ties things together.
Paul Savidge, which you may remember from a few guest posts in the past about conversion rate optimization, mentioned that Schema authorship tags could be the unique identifier that brings everything together.
I agree with him.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been a long time believer that just because a nofollow link doesn’t pass PageRank, it can impact rankings.
When I think about building links, whether or not the link is nofollow, doesn’t even cross my mind. My goal is to generate traffic. If a link has no potential of generating traffic, it is pretty much useless to me.
What are your thoughts on the nofollow vs. dofollow debate in SEO? Let me know!
I’ve stopped listening to what popular opinion was a while ago.
Better to base your actions on experience.
I also never cared about dofollow or no follow. Makes no difference to me.
LOL.. yeah, I agree completely. If I listened to what everyone said, I wouldn’t ever make any progress. Your own data and experience is by far the most important thing. Thanks for the comment Charity!
Good stuff man.
You do need dofollow if you’re going to link push though. Other than that I agree.
If you’re doing any PR sculpting or harvesting you always avoid nofollow. Maybe that’s where people get confused.
Good point and I agree. I also think you’re accurate in your thinking that it may be the reason why this has been confusing for people. You also still have people selling “PR7 dofollow links”, LOL, even though what used to be a PR7 could be a PR0 now that PR stopped getting updated publicly. Thanks for the comment SEO Dude!
Another good one Nate!
I have your first product and see you as an authority on SEO and Web design business marketing online, and that’s why I continue to follow you..
That being said, speaking of main stream SEO gurus and their teachings, what do you think about Becker and the group that charges a whooping $8,000 for SEO coaching, OMG. What do you think about those guys?
People act if whatever they say or teach is the holy grace of local SEO and general SEO. I do know a lot of what they do is based around PBNs to rank of course… And Becker teaches and pushes his software on Social SEO tactics, too.
I don’t have anything against them(Becker and OMG), and I am not asking you to bash them or anything, but I am just curious what you think about them and what they teach. It seems effective and they seem to have a lot of success… A lot of people see them as the biggest SEO authority right now and for last couple years. What do you think?
And yeah, obviously PBNs are blackhat and unethical and Google hates it, but one guy’s blog I was reading said despite 2014’s PBN indexing scare, PBNs are used more NOW in 2016 than ever. Maybe you can do a blog on your thoughts on PBNs. 🙂 Yes, they still work and work very well, but there is still a big risk! What do you think?
Lastly, last year you did an EXCELLENT FREE webinar on local SEO that was awesome! Is the stuff taught on that Webbie still relevant and do you still practice it today, as of March 2016? I only ask because SEO changes so much, but it has not really changed that much in the last 2 to 3 year, I think. But what says you?
Thanks,
Marc
Marc, you almost wrote a blog post in response to my blog post! haha. Thanks for your comment.. and to answer your questions…
I don’t have any thoughts on OMG or any of those guys. I never have been a big follower of any SEO authority. Of course, I research and look at articles, blogs, news, etc.
I guess my thoughts on the matter are this… If I follow what someone teaches, and what they teach doesn’t work for me or my clients, it isn’t them that have to answer for it, it’s me. That being said, I don’t care about the new gurus or teachings, I care about data and long term results. I don’t have anything bad to say, different strokes for different folks, I’m also not against blackhat methods at all, I just want results, and I want results at a good profit margin to continue having a sustainable business model.
Crazy they charge so much, crazier that there’s people that are buying it lol. More power to them.
As for the local SEO webinar, it’s still good. I’ll likely do another one sometime soon!
Thanks again for the comment Marc.
Hey Nate,
Sorry I get kind of long winded sometimes. I did almost write a book there. My bad, lol.
But yeah, I feel you on the SEO gurus. I was just wondering what you thought about those two well know SEO guru who claim to be the movers and shakers in SEO game… Yes, 8k to join is OMG is CRAZY! I agree. And they have a payment plan for that as well, lol. Not kidding… But it seems people view SEO knowledge as very extremely valuable these days and are willing to pay big bucks for it… And a lot of what OMG and Alex Becker teaches is PBNs and Social, and it works for them and their students I guess. Like you said, more power to them. I read everyone’s stuff on SEO because it is my favorite niche in IM
But you are right, doing your own testing works better than anything. I need to put up some sites mainly for testing purposes. I do have a few “PBN” domains and I want to test “relevancy”.. I have even heard some gurus say they rank local sites with just social signals and PBNs only and NO citations in local. I guess it is all about testing.
Look forward to your next 2016 SEO webinar when it comes! The last one was really good.
Thanks for your reply,
Marc
No worries Marc! As far as what the gurus say, I don’t believe any guru that says they’ve ranked a site with just social signals lol. I’m sure you can do it with no citations, I’ve done it with just on page optimization. I don’t have anything against PBN’s though, just not really necessary for most local results.
I have to say that OMG stays on my radar, don’t think I will ever get the course but look at “Tokyo SEO” in Google… They implement Social here in a manor I have never seen… they are ranking YouTube ( I know this one is rational ) but Twitter, Readability, an .XYZ site, a wordpress.org site not to mention K. G.’s primary site at #1 – its really kinda silly.
Kinda all the stuff any average to above average SEO Guy/Gal might say – “Oh that’s a waste of time” yeah… in your face LOL The only explanation I have ever come up with is a kick ton of “Juice” and parasites out he wazoo!
If you really look at some of KG’s rankings, you can see he’s also using a lot of co-occurrence to his advantage. I’m sure there’s also tons of parasites and PBN links. Just can’t imagine paying 8k for a course lol.
HEY! thanks for the credit! This is just one of those topics… The hardest aspect of the whole thing is getting some solid test data. Its so intangible, that anything tangible will mess with the results. My latest was a post that went social viral ( 600 shares ) 8 months after it was posted and crushed all the data I had! lol
When you start looking at Googles recent past “Failures” ( Google Authorship ) and tie them in with pre existing and some pretty recent patents, I look at it as how could this not be going on. But, in 2011 Matt Cutts said we [ Google ] do not follow nofollow links ( discussing Wikipedia specifically ) and the split was born!
Is anything Matt Cutts said back in the day still relevant? lol. Agree on Google Authorship, also with other things they’ve rolled out. It would be naive to think they aren’t using proprietary technology that was used for something else in the past.
@Paul Savidge and @Nate, I agree, guys. KG is definitely using a shit ton of PBN links to rank his SEO site in ST. Louis, Chicago, Miami and many other cities where is based in Florida. He admitted it…. Another OMG guy, Greg, also owns the number one spot for New York City SEO and different variations of that keyword. That guy said straight out: just keep building PBNs until you rank! He builds some social, too, but PBNs seem to be king.
Another thing, is if you put KG’s site in Majestic SEO, you will not see the shit load of PBNs he is pointing to it because they block the Majestic and a href bots… So I am sure they teach other cool ninja SEO tricks and hacks to rank sites and videos, but I agree guys, $8,000 is a little too much!
Marc, I know KG uses link pushing methods along with a high dose of co-occurrence so that would make sense why you don’t see them. His most successful stuff seems to not even be PBN related, using a bunch of web 2.0s for co-occurrence and maybe also as a part of a big link push/tiered method. Interesting stuff, that’s for sure. Not 8K interesting though lol.
What are the best practice to get dofollow links as im confused now. Because what i was thinking when we comment on blogs or forums it benefits our ranking.
Most of the comments on blog and forums are nofollow or dofollows. Is it a waste of time now commenting on top blogs.
Harsh please explain us. Very confused about it.
I understand that you could be confused, because there is a lot of conflicting information. My main rule is this: If a backlink will provide you traffic, get it. Doesn’t matter if it is nofollow or dofollow.
Top blogs that are relevant to your niche, can definitely still be valuable, even if it is only from a co-occurrence/co-citation stand point. Maybe it won’t pass PR, but who cares? If it provides traffic, and is relevant, then it is a good link.
Great Article
I usually apply a mixture of nofollow/do follow. I don’t guest post, but rather “traffic syphon”. As long as I do proper keyword research with low competition longtails, I’m going to outrank my competition. Period. I love nofollow. Some of my best traffic. And based on my tests, I have climbed in search results as well. Thanks 4 the article.
Gerald, thanks for the comment. Glad you shared! It amazes me how many people pass on great opportunities just because the link is nofollow.
Nice one Mate, I totally support you.. If you listen to people, you’d definitely be behind them.. Sometimes you could be better than them but won’t even know that due to curiosity to learn from people
I’m pretty sure that links (backlinks) on the Google perspective , are taken in consideration for the context
on one side
so if we are a data recovery company mentioned and linked in an article on an authoritative website that talks of technology where the article writes about recover data from broken hard drives, we’ll despite the nofollow, I believe that the link, in the Google ranking calculation, may count as if without nofollow
but on the other side, it’s hard to understand why certain websites are on top of the serps.
As example we are in the data recovery environment in Italy and now it went sticky to first position a website which the backlinks are mostly coming from websites and directories that have no value at all , third and fourth level domains.
We have , and they are real, more than 130 Google reviews with 4.7 out of 5, they have 5 reviews with 3.4… Google knows this… But we are dropping 0.25 positions every week.
They have backlinks from 30 domains and 500 are backlinks from the footer of a website which is of their self property. (Here there would be an entire discussion to open about)
I know we go slightly off topic but, the point is relevant to this post.
Do follow no follow ok.. But what and really makes the difference today?
Ok more than 200 ranking factors…
But which of them are the heaviest in your opinion?
Well done man.
You do require dofollow in case you will connect push however.
Other than that I concur.
In case you’re doing any PR chiseling or reaping you generally stay away from Nofollow. Possibly that is the place individuals get befuddled.