Whether you are looking to improve the ranking of a new page on Google or you are looking to boost the ranking of an existing page, you need to use the right Link Building SEO techniques. These strategies are the backbone of any effective SEO strategy.
Nofollow is a link attribute that tells Google to not give its vote to the referencing page
Originally introduced in 2005, the nofollow attribute is an HTML tag that prevents a search engine from endorsing a web page. This is especially useful for sites with spammy or paid links. However, Google does not enforce the use of these attributes. Nevertheless, the nofollow tag is still important to consider when creating a link. In fact, some research has shown that the nofollow tag has multiple levels of correlation with rankings.
The nofollow attribute was initially developed to combat comment spam. It was also used for controlling internal links. But in recent years, Google has changed its view of the nofollow attribute. Today, it is considered a hint rather than a directive. It is not recommended to use the nofollow attribute when a page is editorially approved. Rather, use it to limit the amount of Pagerank passed to a page. In addition, nofollow can be used for user-generated content.
The nofollow attribute helps Google learn the context of a page. It allows Googlebot to understand a page without having to crawl it, and it may include nofollowed links in its ranking calculations. This means that a nofollowed link won’t pass Pagerank to another site, but will help diversify the backlink profile of a site.
It can be used on both internal and external links. It helps search engines understand the subject of the web page, and it can also be used as a filter to stop the passing of PageRank to spammy sites. It is important to know that Google does not penalize sites for having relevant content, but it does not trust links from free link farms. It may take manual action against a site that does not use the nofollow attribute.
As of late, it has become more difficult to understand the meaning of the nofollow attribute. It is now accepted as a hint, and it is referred to as UGC, or User Generated Content. If a user-generated content hyperlink is part of a blog post or article, it should be made clear that the author is a paid advertising provider. For this reason, it is important to use the nofollow attribute when linking to a page that is user-generated, unless the site owner isn’t sure that the user-generated content is a link to a relevant page.
Earlier, the nofollow attribute was widely used for links to websites that are untrustworthy or are paid for. This was mainly because of the increasing prevalence of blog comment spam. Unfortunately, this method led to a proliferation of spammy sites, which pushed good sites out of the search results.
Google now prefers to use new attribute values, such as sponsored and UGC. The “sponsored” attribute is used for paid links, while the “user-generated” attribute is used for user-generated content. The nofollow attribute is no longer the only tool that is used to help fight comment spam, and it is no longer a command that Googlebot uses to identify the links on a website.
