I’d like to explain to all webmasters why they should not use nofollow on their websites. This has become so widespread that it’s a problem. Right now I’m having trouble finding a blog that doesn’t use nofollow (I don’t look for blogs with dofollow to build backlinks, I’m just talking about the articles I find on StumbleUpon and Digg, most of them use nofollow tags.) It makes even less sense when blogs use nofollow in their main posts. The problem I have with this is that it’s changing the way search engines rank pages. Links are supposed to be an important deciding factor in rankings. Nofollow was created to fight spam, not to provide a monopoly for the already established sites. What’s happening right now is the established sites which have backlinks (before nofollow was announced) have a high pagerank and rank well. It’s now very difficult for newer sites (like TechGeeks-Online) to do well because even when they are linked to the links are nofollow. Nofollow has changed from a tag used to fight spam to a tag used to get rid of competition, Some forum administrators have admitted to this saying “We disallow links to competing sites.” Some blog administrators are also turning to this. (As an example I’ll share is from the site 1337noobs.com – I’m not sure if that was the domain but it’s something similar. When I used to administer a website about xbox live I went to that site and made a very nice comment. I posted my blog’s URL in the URL field of the domain. The comment was extremely helpful and it actually contributed to the article and pointed out some extra opinions. The next day I find about 10 very rude comments on my blog about how I’m retarded for trying to get a backlink. I tracked these comments to the blog’s administrator.) This just shows how rude people are about links. This got me thinking: why don’t they want links to other sites? Are they really scared of other website’s competition? I concluded that most webmasters are just afraid of their own rankings being affected from linking to other sites. Most webmasters just don’t understand how links affect their site (and their website’s pagerank). They don’t understand that they don’t lose pagerank if they link to another site. Yes, read that last sentence again. You do not lose pagerank for linking to other websites with dofollow links.
What’s happening with everyone using nofollow? The major search engines can’t accurately rank websites as they should anymore. The older websites are ranking highly and there’s not much smaller websites can do about it. As an example, Engadget published their review on the iPad – it had around 700 words. Then we published our more comprehensive, 3,000 word review on the iPad. The only problem? We can’t rank high enough in Google for anyone to see it. The fact that some sites are older and have more dofollow links gives them an extra advantage that the rest of us can’t get. I’m not in any way saying Engadget or other large websites are bad, but I’m trying to say that some of the smaller websites can never get their point across as easily. The nofollow tag is being used so widely now that pagerank voting has become very limited.
What can we do about this? The first thing webmasters should do is make sure their blog post’s links are dofollow. When you reference other sites in your posts that’s surely enough reason to link to them and vote some extra pagerank for them. if you like this post, post a summary on your blog and link to it to help us spread the word.We can slowly reverse the damage done by nofollow on search engine rankings.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you nailed it on the head. Certain cites place to much of their time in attempting to rid themselves of all competition, which in turn does not allow the little guy to get what he deserves.
This is interesting. I completely hear you on the main points, but I am wondering about the management of legitimate vs. SPAM links. And I am not thinking about the SEO aspect when there is legitimate contributions, related sites, etc. Its the real SPAM, Im thinking about. I suppose it just means that more emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring strong filters and/or moderation to prevent SPAM so that whats left would likely be relevant links in non-SPAM comments, etc.
Well…Eric Sherman's blog
I hate to tell this to the public but why not. I made a two paragraph comment with a link to my xbox live blog and he wouldn't approve it. He came back to my site and posted 10 rude, spammy comments. So I went back to his site and posted spammy comments there. It became a flame war over my good comment.
Yes, Nofollow should be used correctly. This should be used to block spammer but if everybody will used what will happen to the other sites ranking? It will be dug deep into the web and not fond by anyone. There are some blogs who are dofollow first but then when their rankings get higher, they become nofollow.
I agree ,i like the way you think. It is extremely hard to find blogs with dofallow.
Like you said nofallow was created to stop spammers and i think because little knowledge and seo myths, webmasters use nofallow because they scared. Truth is simple if your website is high quality there is no way it can be hurt. Same think is this .Any of you been thinking what would happen to lets say Pr 9 site when i start add to 100s of porn websites each day for a month……. i think nothing……reason ? anyone can do it any time.
So edit your site propley and don't worry .
Thanks for explaining nofollow. I've been looking for information on it since I heard advice on an SEO podcast to put nofollow tags around Tweetbutton and Digg Digg plugins. The argument was that bloggers shouldn't give Twitter free pagerank. How does that tie in here? Thanks.
Why shouldn't bloggers give Twitter or Digg pagerank? What good does that do to bloggers?
@Techie Right, it does bloggers no good. I am having trouble reading the tone of your two questions though- would you please rephrase without the question marks? Thanks.
In the article I'm just saying that linking out to other sites won't hurt your own site, so it is okay to link out and not put nofollow on those links.
Using the NoFollow attribute is unnatural for me. I have never recommend a company to my readers that I wouldn’t use myself. I think the only NoFollow attribute I use is in the comments and in the footer of this blog; and that is only because I don’t know much about the company who created this template.