Whenever you search about backlinking or other related terms, you may come across “NoFollow Backlinks”. It is one of the types of links that can be on a page, but there’s a huge confusion about them among the public. Many people aren’t aware of what NoFollow Backlinks are or what they are used for. But in this blog, you’ll learn everything about NoFollow Backlinks starting from scratch. So let’s get started.
What is SEO?
Not in detail, but SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It means optimizing your online presence for a better position in the search results. Many things come under SEO, such as engaging content, keyword research, and page speed, which are put in the on-page SEO list. On the other hand, there’s off-page SEO, which includes link-building and other factors.
Now, link building is a relatively new thing where you get authorized by Google based on how many and who are Linking your web pages to theirs.
Now let’s understand which links are known as NoFollow Links.
Which links are NoFollow links?
When a page carries a link which Google’s spider can’t follow while crawling, it is known as a NoFollow Backlink. But the thing is, why is the spider not able to follow the link? The answer is that such backlinks carry a keyword, i.e. rel= “NoFollow” in the HTML code.
It is an attribute which stops the search engine from following the link. Since the search engine doesn’t follow the link, the website redirected with that link will not get any link juice. In simple terms, NoFollow Backlinks are useless when getting an advantage from Backlinks for better PageRank.
Now, you must be thinking, are NoFollow Backlinks used to prohibit the flow of link juice to those whom you are linking on your page? Indeed, it is one of the uses of NoFollow Backlinks, but it is so immature that it shouldn’t be included in the count. At least, google didn’t invent it for that purpose. So, let’s explore the actual uses of NoFollow backlinks, which make sense.
What are the uses of NoFollow Backlinks?
Untrusted Content
The first and the most important use of NoFollow Backlinks is with untrusted content. But why? If you know some SEO stuff, you may know about EEAT, where A and T stand for authoritativeness and trustworthiness. These two things are very important for any online content as Google specifically looks at it to judge content online. So, backlinks, if not used with the NoFollow keyword, mean that you are authorizing the link as trusted. Moreover, since many people use unethical practices to gain link juice, such as creating fake backlinks, you may get into trouble if you accidentally favor link juice to such sites.
User-generated Content
Similarly, user-generated content like comments can also include links left by your users. Since the links come under the page, the spider will follow them, and if the links are found to be spam, then it will be problematic for you. Unethical people also use this method to gain link juice, so including the NoFollow keyword is important with user-generated content.
Paid Links
If there are any paid links on your page, you should keep them NoFollow for obvious reasons like not passing authority to them. Even if you know that the paid link can be trusted, you shouldn’t put them as DoFollow Backlinks, as if the one running such a paid campaign must be doing it with others. In this case, if everyone puts the links as DoFollow Backlinks, google may think of it as suspicious. Moreover, it can also lead to you getting into trouble.
How do you know which link is a NoFollow link?
There are various ways of knowing if links on a page are either DoFollow or NoFollow Backlinks. Here are some ways to analyze backlinks.
HTML Code
If you want to know about your backlinks, the best way is to go to your CMS admin page and look at the HTML code of the backlink. If a NoFollow tag is added to the HTML code, it means the backlink is a NoFollow Backlink. Otherwise, it’s a DoFollow backlink.
This is one of the simplest ways to know about your DoFollow and NoFollow backlinks, but it’s good only if there are not a lot of links to check. If you have to check a plethora of links, then you should use other methods given below.
Chrome extensions
Backlink analyser tools
So, if you have a lot of outbound links to check, you can use Chrome extensions like Mongools. Outbound links are those you have on your web pages pointing to other websites. These extensions will help you to analyze all your links at once. Moreover, the interface of these tools is also simple in most cases, so you can directly know the link’s type without looking at the HTML code.
If you need to know about the links pointing to your website, called inbound links, you can use backlink analyzer tools. These tools will let you know which links are pointing to your website and what the type of the link is. You can use LinkMiner and many other tools to do so.
Is it good to have NoFollow Backlinks?
After reading this, you may think that it’s not. But actually, the answer is yes. If you have a lot of links due for any reason, such as running a paid campaign and all links are DoFollow, it can be suspicious for Google, resulting in a ban. So, you should maintain a balance between your DoFollow and NoFollow backlinks. But you can’t do it randomly. It should be done carefully, so it would be great if you hire an SEO service provider. You can tie up with an SEO company in Delhi, like The Digital Serve, who will help you maintain your backlinks.
Wrapping Up
In the end, backlinks, either DoFollow or NoFollow, are very important for their specific purposes. You should make sure that you have a great strategy for them. Also, there are many other things to put effort into, like content, keyword research, etc, to get a higher rank in SERPs. That’s why you should find a good content writer in Delhi or anywhere else to provide engaging and keyword-optimized content.
