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A NoFollow Link is a way publishers (bloggers like you and I) can tell search engines robots not to follow a link. This means you won’t give ‘votes’, or pass pagerank and anchor text, to sponsored or paid links.
But why would you not want to give good Google juice to the very companies that pay you for your services? Companies get very real benefits from running sponsored posts, even with the NoFollow applied to their links. Using NoFollow links keeps companies from buying links from bloggers, and it keeps Google from loosing trust in you.
When should I use a NoFollow Link?
- Blog post: Simply put, a NoFollow Link should be used on each and every paid link on your site, whether it is in a blog post or on your side bar. There is no exception to this rule. This prevents paid links from influencing search results and negatively impacting users, and it also keeps you in good standing with Google.
- Comments: It’s good practice to set your comments to NoFollow as well, protecting you from inadvertently passing page rank to untrusted content, including that from comment spammers. If you want to give Google love to specific, trustworthy commenters and contributors, you can manually remove the NoFollow Link from their post.
- Embeds: Use NoFollow links on embeds, videographics, or other informational graphics from websites you do not fully support 100%. A good example of this is Flickr or YouTube. You may be asked (or even required) to use an image or video pertains to a sponsored or paid link, but you may not support 100% of the information Flickr & YouTube has to offer.
How Do I NoFollow A Link?
It is quite simple to mark a link as NoFollow.
When you look at the text or HTML tab on your website, here is what a no follow link should look like:
<a href=”http://www.abccompany.com/” rel=”nofollow”>ABC Company</a>
Adding the rel=”nofollow” to the link is all you have to do, and Google will ignore the link when it crawls your site.
If a company, large or small, requests your services and requires a do-following link, my advice is: don’t do it. Companies like these are the very reason Google created this policy, and they don’t care if they damage your reputation with Google or not.
Keep Reading
Looking for more information about blogging and making money? Here are a few posts you’ll find helpful:
- FTC Guidelines For Sponsored Blog Content And Social Shares Made Simple
- How To Get Paid To Manage Other People’s Social Media
- 4 Steps To Writing An Awesome Sponsored Post
- Low Light Photography Tips for the Holidays - Nov 30, 2015
- Getting To Know Your DSLR Camera - Oct 22, 2015
- When Should I Use A NoFollow Link? - Oct 27, 2014
- FTC Guidelines For Sponsored Blog Content And Social Shares Made Simple - Oct 13, 2014
- How To Schedule Posts With Hootsuite - Sep 17, 2014
- 5 Tips to Speed Up Blog Page Load Time - May 8, 2014
- 8 Knock Em Dead Content Marketing Tips for Your Blog - Mar 20, 2014
Great topic! This one can be pretty tricky. I’ve been specializing in SEO for 4+ years and am still unclear about all the best practices for nofollow links. Many commenters above made good points. At a minimum, using them for paid sponsorships is a good tactic, though!
I agree with Sierra, I will need to read more into this as well. I’m still not really sure after reading this post why it is necessary. However, thanks for bring it to my awareness.
Found this article very helpful – thank you! I have the same question as Diane from An Extraordinary Day?
I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic.
the use of no follow links
fair seo read. More information should be given on the difference between follow and do not follow in regards to the search engine serps.
This helps clarify things.
I’m not sure about this. I will have to look into it more as I have never heard of it.
I’ve been using no follow links recently by using a plugin. I didn’t realize about comments and sidebars!
Thanks for this! Sponsors seem to differ on this one. I normally ask. But I use a WordPress plugin to do it.
I didn’t know about no follow links until recently. I, too, have been wondering if they should be used on link parties.
It is hard to do since I find a lot of advertisers want follows. How can you make a living when you have to turn most advertisers away?
I’ve been using the “no-follow” link for sometime. BUT… I’ve wondered if we should be adding that to our link backs from blog parties. I haven’t been able to find the answer to that. Any ideas?