Are no-follow backlinks a Google rank factor?

As bloggers and website owners, we all know how important backlinks are for increasing organic traffic. There are two types of links, i.e. do-follow links and no-follow links.

The SEO community has always been two-sided when it comes to the importance of no-follow backlinks. Some would consider it valuable despite passing no link juice to the target website, while others would say it’s just worthless. Nevertheless, no-follow links are useful to boost the credibility of websites on platforms such as SEMrush and ahrefs. People yet consider their domain authority and domain strength things as rough indicator of backlink profile of a website.

But the big question is that do these no-follow backlinks help you boost Google rank as well? Because Google rank is an altogether different thing, they have their own benchmarks and algorithms to rank a page or website. The search engine considers links when determining how to rank web pages in their search results. This has led many webmasters and SEOs to believe that links are a Google ranking factor.

However, there is another type of link called a “nofollow” link. These links are not factored into Google’s ranking algorithm. So, what exactly are nofollow links and why would you want to use them?

In this article, we’ll answer those questions and more.

What are nofollow links?

Nofollow links are HTML attributes that tell search engines not to follow a link.

Nofollow links were introduced by Google in 2005 to discourage webmasters from engaging in link schemes. Link schemes are designed to artificially increase a webpage’s link popularity, which can lead to higher search engine rankings.

Since Google views link schemes as a form of manipulation, they devised the nofollow attribute as a way to combat them.

How do nofollow links work?

When a search engine comes across a nofollow link, they simply ignore it. That means the link will not contribute to the linked-to webpage’s search engine ranking.

However, that doesn’t mean nofollow links are completely worthless. Even though they don’t directly improve search engine rankings, they can still indirectly contribute to better rankings.

How? Well, nofollow links can still send traffic to your website. And, if that traffic leads to conversions (i.e. sales, newsletter signups, etc.), then your website’s overall performance will improve. Google does consider website performance when determining search engine rankings, so indirectly, nofollow links can still have an impact.

Another indirect benefit of nofollow links is that they can help improve your website’s link popularity. Link popularity is the number of links pointing to a webpage. It’s a metric that search engines use to determine how popular and authoritative a website is.

Even though nofollow links don’t directly contribute to link popularity, they can still indirectly impact it. That’s because when a webpage has a lot of nofollow links, itsend a signal to search engines that the site is popular. In turn, this can lead to better search engine rankings.

Why would you use nofollow links?

There are a few different reasons why you would want to use nofollow links on your website.

For one, they can help you avoid penalties from Google. Remember, Google views link schemes as manipulative and will penalize websites that engage in them.

If you’re worried about being penalized, then it’s best to avoid link schemes altogether. That means not participating in paid link schemes, link farms, or any other type of manipulative link-building tactic.

In addition, nofollow links can still help improve your website’s overall performance, even if they don’t directly impact search engine rankings. As we mentioned before, nofollow links can still send traffic to your website. And, if that traffic leads to conversions, then your website will see an overall performance boost.

Finally, nofollow links can help you build relationships with other website owners. When you link to someone else’s website, you’re essentially saying that you trust and recommend their content. This can help build relationships and open the door for future opportunities, such as guest blogging or link exchanges.

Bottom line

Nofollow links are HTML attributes that tell search engines not to follow a link. They were introduced by Google in 2005 to discourage webmasters from engaging in link schemes.

Even though nofollow links don’t directly improve search engine rankings, they can still indirectly contribute to better rankings. That’s because they can help improve your website’s overall performance and link popularity.

If you’re worried about being penalized by Google, then nofollow links can help you avoid that. They can also help you build relationships with other website owners.

So, if you’re looking to improve your website’s SEO, then don’t overlook the power of nofollow links.