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Nofollow is a tag added to links that nullifies their value for search engine rankings.�Search engines treat links as “editorial vote,” so a link from webpage A is treated as a vote for the quality or at least noteworthiness for webpage B.�I say noteworthiness because links to negative pages (like scams, controversial postings) are still votes for relevancy over other pages even though they don’t necessarily infer quality (this is used incorrectly in almost all SEO blogs - see my post here for more info). In summary, links do not equal a quality editorial vote, they equal a noteworthy editorial vote.

Here is what I don’t like about its implementation: if you make everything else equal, should a site where the owner goes around and comments everywhere, outrank the other site just because of these links? What value does a link in a comment have?

Well, this depends on what your comment philosophy is.

When did it start?

Google first announced the nofollow tag in their blog in January 2005

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html

Why it started:

To discourage comment spam from positively affecting the search engine rankings of offending websites.

What it has become:

A way to link to stuff without giving it a noteworthy vote, which is especially useful in “free for all” link-type setups or anywhere where non-edited links may appear, like sites that show referrers or track backs, or have un-moderated comments on their blogs.

A major tool in Google’s war against paid links in an attempt to keep search relevancy high and to maximize profits for Adsense (this is one of the number one reasons why many website owners despise the tag.) Google has threatened to prevent sites from passing on page rank if they are caught selling links or linking to bad neighborhoods and says that any websites that want to sell links for advertising value should add the rel=nofollow tag to those links.

Google has also used the nofollow to threaten sites that sell links, demanding that unless they put nofollow on all sold links, they are at risk for having Google take away their ability to pass page rank.

Current situation of nofollow:

Almost all the popular blogging platforms, including Wordpress and Moveable Type have built in nofollow to their default installations for comment, meaning most links in the comment on modern blogs (and other social sites) are automatically no followed.

Note: while comment spam has not decreased, advanced plug-ins and services have effectively eliminated it from most sites (including all of mine, which use to equal more than 100 spam comments a day!! Now I get one, if that).

Why some people like it:

It gives less SEO benefit to spammers using comment spam like forum spam, Wikipedia spam, and most other types of link spam. They don’t feel that comments and other links have any inherent relevancy value for search rankings.

Why some people hate it:

It hasn’t reduced the amount of comment or link spam; as long as some blogs / forums / website don’t use nofollow there is still enough benefit from

It reduces the rankings of blog readers who comment A LOT. They believe that website owners who make astute comments in other people’s blog should receive “link juice” or a benefit for their contribution to that sites content in the form of links that pass page rank.

The problem with counting link comments for Search Engine Rankings:

The problem is links in comments don’t relate to the relevancy of a particular site for particular keywords. Given two sites of equal value, content and links, with one having 100 times more comment links - I mean should one site out rank the other just because they comment in blogs more often?

What does the fact that the website owner comments on a lot of blogs have anything to do with the editorial quality of his or her website? It doesn’t! In a perfect world for the search engine user - only links that were sure indicators of noteworthiness would count for search engine rankings; of course we don’t live in that world and although Google is getting better all the time at only counting valuable links, they still give major advantages to websites that spend a substantial amount gaining links, even ones that technically shouldn’t pass relevancy, but still do.

The problem with not counting link comments for Search Engine Rankings:

Website owners want to encourage users and other audiences to comment and participate in their blog. They feel these website owners should be rewarded for their efforts. In fact, they feel that all forum participants and user generated content in general should be rewarded at the very least in terms of tangible links.

What I think:

I love having the nofollow tool available to me, because allows me to

Link to people / companies without promoting them on the search engines.

Eliminate the SEO benefit for artificial link farming methods like comment spam or mass commenting (making it easier for me to outdo less sophisticated SEO firms and keep my clients ranked above them)

Technorati Tags: no follow

One Response to “What is the Nofollow tag? History, Rankings, Advice”

1. What Is PR Scuplting And Does It Work? - Search Marketing & SEO Blog from Cincinnati, Ohio Says:
   March 7th, 2008 at 6:55 am

   [...] we all know the nofollow attribute was created as a blog comment spam condom. It was since progressed into a paid link condom and most recently into a tool that webmaster could, should (lol) use to [...]

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