Stop ignoring the impact that nofollow links can have.
This is an outdated mindset that we need to shift away from as an industry.
Nofollow ≠ worthless links.
We've all been there... a client or manager who won't 'count' nofollow links towards a KPI or goal. But this mindset needs to shift.
It's 2024, and we're many years past the point where followed links pass value and nofollow links don't.
At least not when it comes to links earned from the press with digital PR.
Press links aren't comparable to spammy guest posts, niche edits in random content or other low-level tactics. Earned editorial links are a whole different discussion themselves.
Why?
A few reasons...
We know from the recent Google documentation leak that links are placed into one of three indexing tiers and that high quality tier links likely ignore the nofollow attribute.
On the flip, that low quality tier links likely pass no PageRank (value).
A nofollow link on a press publication without a doubt passes more ‘value’ than a followed link on a low quality page,
But what type of sites could go into the high quality indexing tier? Knowing that Google is storing and using both click data and Chrome traffic data, this is likely sites that get traffic,
Those guest post farms with no traffic? Without a doubt the links are worthless.
I’ve said for many years that Google is ignoring nofollow when there’s signals suggesting it’s a high quality site.
We now know that Google is tagging ‘high-quality, newsy sites’ … connect the dots. Makes sense.
Google also changed nofollow from being a directive to a hint back in 2020.
We know so many press publications blanket nofollow links. So again, it makes sense that Google lost so much link graph data that there needed to be an evolution to follow links where signals suggest they’re trusted, authoritative and editorial links.
Wanna see the growth we achieved for a client in the travel space where 52% of the links earned were nofollow?
And we're still debating whether nofollow links have any value?
And this is without even talking about the other benefits of nofollow links:
- Referral traffic
- Brand awareness
- Building and demonstrating E-E-A-T
If we focus our efforts on earning relevant links from authoritative and influential publications, do we really need to still be so caught up on whether it's followed or nofollow?
When we have so much evidence that nofollow links can positively influence rankings when there are the signals to indicate it's an editorially earned link?
Digitaloft's Digital PR Director,
@amyirvine322, published an awesome post today on 'the power of nofollow.'
Do yourself a favour and go give it a read...
digitaloft.co.uk/the-impact-…
#digitalPR #SEO #linkbuilding