NoFollow link attribute is created purposely to block search engine like GoogleBot, Yahoo, and MSN following the links. By default, “nofollow” has been using in blog comments and trackbacks to control the comment spammers. WordPress has default anti-spamming plugin (Askimet) installed which is very effective in defeating spams. A “nofollow” attribute link is look like this
<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.limfy.com/2009/02/good-reason-to-add-nofollow-link-in-post/">Don't follow me please!</a>
Then, is it good to always add a “nofollow” link in posts?
Depends. It would be good to block search engine from following the links in the post especially when you are not trusting the content of others website. But, if you are adding “nofollow” links to someone’s website, it is showing your untrustworthy towards their website. So, make sure you know when to add that and to whom website.
So when is the right time to add “nofollow” link?
When you think you are linking to an affiliate page, Paid Links, buying links from other website, or providing links(selling advertisement) to other website. But not all paid links are violating the Google Paid Link Guidelines. If you know the links not violate the guidelines but you still suffer PageRank drop, make sure you let Google know your PageRank has drop because of that.
Will my website get penalize if I don’t add “nofollow” link?
This questions is very hard to answer as Google will penalize those website having a certain paid links violate their guidelines and those using other practices(cloaking, keyword stuffing, etc) on the page.
So, act wisely guys. Make sure you understand what is the pros and cons of adding “nofollow” attribute links that can improve ranking your website in long term.
Updated : Over Optimization of nofollow will be penalize by Google also. Make sure your blog is having too much of nofollow links and there is no harm to link to other blogs. Google will like it if you can link to others naturally.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alanna
http://www.craigslisthelper.info
Hi Allana. I’m glad that you enjoy reading my post. Thanks for visiting my blog
I have a blog and in every post I insert a linke to yahoo finance so people can click on it and check the current stock rate and other information on yahoo finance. If you visit my blog at http://www.bestswingtradingstocks.com
you will know what I am talking about. Now my question is should I no-follow yahoo link on every post?
Appreciate your response.
Thanks
Aleem Khan
hi Aleem.
Yes, you can add no-follow links to every yahoo links that you have. No-follow links is useful when you are not recognize the owner and not 100% confirm that the website is providing good quality contents. As you link to anonymous websites that are marked as “spam” or low quality by search engine, you link quality will probably affected too.