People run backlink campaigns in order to put links on other websites that lead to their own website. This is done for an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefit most of the time. That is usually why people do it because it helps to rank people up the search engine results pages. However, if a link has a no-follow tag on it, then the link is not indexed by the Google readers.
Why are there no-follow tags? Is it a black-hat thing?
It is quite a legitimate procedure to put no-follow tags on links. In fact, WordPress comment sections are set to a default no-follow status. It is done to help stop spammers from putting spam on comment sections. It means that the spammer will get no SEO benefit and so is supposed to discourage people from spamming on WordPress blogs altogether.
Plus, did you know that affiliate advertising has no-follow links on it? This is because Google does not like an active link to be indexed if it is an advert. So, no-follow tags are more common than you think.
You do not get an SEO benefit
Let’s start off with this little fact and get it out of the way. A backlink provided an SEO benefit to the website that it points to if Google index the link. This means that the Google bot must have crawled and read the page and then put the link into its index. A no-follow tag means that even if the web page is crawled, the link will not be indexed in any way, and hence no SEO benefit.
You get direct traffic from these links
This is the biggest benefit from your link-building efforts, and it is a factor that is massively overlooked. In the olden days before Google revolutionized the Internet, people got their traffic through direct links. People still click on the links on websites to get places; affiliate advertising is based on that fact. So, your link building may not get you any SEO benefit, but it has the potential to bring traffic, and unlike SEO matters–the more you link build with your no-follow links then the more traffic you get.
It is possible to spam if that is your thing
Now we get down to the dirty side of no-follow links. It is true that if a link is not followed then you can spam away all you like and you will not have your website punished by Google. They have no reason to suspect you of spamming and no reason to punish you for it. It means that you can set up spam bots all you like and spam your links all over the Internet. It is not a nice thing to do, and it will make you quite a few enemies, but it is an option.
Immune from Google spamming rules
This is true because they are not indexing your backlinks. It however has started to puzzle some people as to why they do not punish people who do. After all, they can read the no-follow link, they just don’t index it. They can make a note of how one website has spammed links all over the web, so why don’t they punish no-follow spammers? It would appear that they don’t bother because it is a waste of their resources, but that is hardly an excuse.
Immune from Google updates regarding backlinks
When a Google update comes out such as the Penguin, Hummingbird, Panda, etc, that affects SEO and things such as backlinks, there are always lots of websites that fall from the search engine results pages to the very bottom or off of the results. You may have your own followed backlinks, but your no-follow backlinks are immune from any update. If a big update comes along and you are punished, you won’t have to change your no-follow links.
Your website still becomes popular
You are still getting traffic. Sure, you are not getting it from Google, which is a big and free sea of traffic. But, you are still pulling traffic from other websites and still have the potential to be popular. Popular websites will be written about and talked about on social media networks, which means that these no-follow links are still going to have an indirect SEO value.
Where you put your backlink does not matter to your SEO
If you put some backlinks on black-hat SEO websites then it affects the SEO of the website you link it to. But, that is not the case with no-follow backlinks, so you can put them anywhere.
Author Bio:
The guest post is written by Sonia Jackson from http://www.cool-essays.com. She writes essays on different topics and can give you useful advice.