If you are looking to build an SEO strategy that will last long, you cannot overlook nofollow links.
In straight and simple words, no follow links are the best way to make your SEO efforts count. Whether you undertake case studies or choose to experience the situation yourself, you will get the same answer.
You can go on debating and discussing forever whether or not nofollow links are going to have a direct impact on your site’s ranking. But in reality, it doesn’t matter much.
What matters is the fact that when you earn no follow links on major platforms, you get referral traffic, brand exposure and other off-site signals, which will eventually help you better your rankings.
Anybody who has been in the industry for a long time will understand and reiterate that one should never decide on whether or not to pursue a link based on whether or not it is nofollowed.
Yes, using nofollow links has SEO benefits. But most of the benefits you get are indirect. And that is probably the reason why people outrightscrap the idea of using nofolllow links. One thing you need to keep in mind is that high-profile nofollow links are associated with great exposure.
And that is why when you use them, you earn exposure for yourself too, which ensures that your visibility in search results is higher. What else it does? It improves the reach of your brand and sends direct referral traffic to your site.
Saying that nofollow links can directly improve your rankings would not be that wise. And such a statement will sound too strong considering the fact that search engines have the right to ignore nofollow tags.
Google says that it doesn’t attach importance to nofollow links, ‘generally.’ This generally brings some hope to people willing to use nofollow links for SEO purposes. So, it may be inferred here that by ‘generally,’ Google meant it does follow nofollow links occasionally.
What you need to keep in mind, though, is that Google doesn’t reward efforts put in just for enhancing the SEO value of content. That means, if you are going to incorporate links in your content based on whether or not they are nofollowed, you will be going to lose Google’s sympathy.
Your link building strategy should emphasize getting exposure with the help of organic SEO signals. If you are leveraging nofollow links, make sure you do it in the appropriate way.
How to maximize the SEO value of nofollow links-
If you are thinking of earning nofollow links keeping SEO in mind, then anchor text should not be a matter of interest to you.
The most important thing you want your nofollow link to accomplish for you is earning extra followed links from trusted influencers. So, spotlight on an audience of influencers.
Whenever you put a nofollow link on some authoritative platform, you must try to promote your brand by mentioning it.
However, you shouldn’t name-drop unnecessarily.
If you are failing to pursue nofollow links then your SEO performance may get hurt. But the biggest harm is caused when you have underestimated the importance of nofollowed social media.
Using big platforms to republish your content is a trick that often results in nofollowed links. However, if the audience for these platforms is impressive, there is no harm putting in this effort.
Your obsession for referral traffic can take you a long way.
How to gain nofollow links that earn traffic?
Always focus on earning links that increase your traffic in a cumulative way. Put differently, you shouldn’t chase links that offer a huge traffic one day and an insignificant traffic size the other day. Your focus should be more on links that offer a continuous flow of traffic, even if small.
Quora, Pinterest, SlideShare, Interviews, Resource lists, YouTube, Podcasts etc. are some of the kinds of links that might help you accomplish this.
If you thought nofollow links are of no use for the purpose of SEO then you couldn’t be more wrong. If you have read Google’s guidelines thoroughly, you won’t take time to understand that the links you place yourself don’t matter much when it comes to rankings; it is the indirect effect that makes all the difference.
