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Linking: To Follow or No Follow?

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djbaxter

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Linking: To Follow or No Follow?
By Lynn Terry, ClickNewz
January 27, 2014

There are different opinions on this topic. Some say affiliate links and other types of outgoing links (in guest posts, etc) should contain the no follow attribute.

I personally don't use it myself.

Whether or not it actually "works" has stirred up a lot of controversy, and interesting "test results" have been shared. I've kept an eye on it, and I'm a bit wary about the whole scheme. First, it's a Google link attribute. Much like PageRank, it is not adopted by other search engines. Second, the attribute has been used in the past to "sculpt PageRank" (spammy? black hat? a potential indicator?).

Then there's the fact that Google does actually follow the link, so the term "no follow" is misleading. What the attribute is meant to do is not pass PageRank (or "votes") from the one page to the other - but all search engines still "follow" the link. PageRank being questionable itself, and even more so at this point in the game.

All that said, my rule of thumb is:

If I am only doing this for SEO and not because it makes sense for my readers or my business, I probably shouldn't do it at all.

Later on in this article:

You have two choices: You can get sucked into the SEO rabbit hole and become a professional student (which equals an awful lot of "chasing your tail").

Or you can JUST RUN YOUR BUSINESS.

That's not to say that I don't optimize my content and enjoy great search traffic, because I do. But I've gotten to the point of not using the term "SEO" at all anymore.

I call my method Keyword Targeting instead, and it encompasses SO much more than just "Google." Fortunately Google seems to favor the way I run my business: organic, natural, real marketing.

Read the full article - it's worth the time
 
In my point of view, Google has changed everything. Even dofollow of nofollow.

[1] We should disavow the links without being responsible, but someone wants to link. Isn't that stupid ?

[2] Next : everytime we link to another, we share a bit of our PageRank.

[3] And : Google never has declared, they will not follow a link with nofollow, it's only not sharing our Pagerank. If so, and if our link is relevant, Google can honour that link. A sort of Pagerank in reverse. :)

With these 3 arguments : I use the "nofollow" for all outgoing links.

Pagerank is a tool invented by the Google-founders. If Google not want's to play with this tool anymore, well, leave it in their playstation. PR is now only an internally tool. For us : take the relevancy.
 
Like Lynn Terry, I don't use nofollow at all. If I think a link is unworthy, it doesn't appear on my site at all.

The original intent of nofollow was to discourage spammers. Google perverted the concept to its own ends. They can do whatever they want with it but that doesn't mean they should expect me or any other webmaster to do their work for them.
 
If I think a link is unworthy, it doesn't appear on my site at all.
don't think in terms of "unworthy".

In the year 2010 a website could have been 1000% OK, in 2016 Google may find it not valuable anymore. One cannot keep an eye on all links, good or bad.

To defend yourself - imho - it's better to close this "Google toy" by using the nofollow tag. It's not the first time Google has changed it's policy, notice the keyword issue after hummingbird. :)
 
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