Do nofollow links help with SEO?

 Let’s briefly recap what Google says about the way they handle nofollowed links:

Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links.

That all seems clear enough until you read the sentence that precedes it:

In general, we don’t follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links.

In general, I think this statement is vaguer than it needs to be and implies that they follow nofollowed links in some instances.

What those cases may be, nobody knows.

Some believe that all nofollowed links still transfer some PageRank. Some think that Google transfers PageRank to some, but not all nofollowed links. Others believe that people are reading too much into wording that hasn’t changed for the best part of seven years.

Earlier this year, we studied 44,589 SERPs to see if there was any correlation between Google rankings and various backlink attributes—one of which was the number of followed backlinks.

Here’s what we found:

The correlation for the number of “dofollow” backlinks is a little bit weaker than that of the total number of backlinks.

Here’s what Tim said about this:

This could be an indication that Google values some nofollowed links from strong pages more than followed links from weak pages. #whoknows 

Tim Soulo, CMO Ahrefs

Take this finding with a large pinch of salt. The primary aim of this study was not to analyze the impact of nofollowed vs. followed links and as such, we didn’t make any effort to isolate this factor.

But even if we assume that nofollowed links have no direct impact on SEO, they can still have an indirect impact because:

1. They help diversify your link profile

Natural backlink profiles are diverse.

Some links are followed, and others are nofollowed. That fact is unavoidable because some people will inevitably link to you via nofollowed links… no matter how much you might wish this wasn’t the case.

Furthermore, most of the backlinks you get from following places are nofollowed:

• Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
• Forums (Reddit, Quora, etc.)
• Press releases
• Guestbooks (hello, 1998!)
• Wikipedia (hint: anyone can edit a Wikipedia page)
• Pingbacks
• Directories

Long story short, if a website only has followed backlinks or a conspicuously high percentage of followed backlinks, then that’s a tell-tale sign something fishy is going on.

To check the proportion of followed vs. nofollowed links for any website or webpage, use the Overview report in Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Site Explorer > enter any domain, URL, or subfolder > Overview

It looks like 85% of the referring domains (linking websites) to the Ahrefs blog are followed.

Is this good or bad? Honestly, as long as there’s some diversity here, that’s a good sign.

What you don’t want to see is 100% “dofollow” or anything close because that’s a definite sign of manipulation. From experience, I’d say anywhere from 60–90% is normal—but that range isn’t definitive. If you suspect foul play, delve deeper.

2. They drive traffic, and traffic drives followed links

Links aren’t only useful for SEO purposes. They drive referral traffic too.

That’s why we’re so active on Quora.

If you haven’t heard of Quora before, it’s a Q&A website where anyone can answer the questions people post. Within those answers, Quora allows links to relevant resources.

Here’s a recent answer posted by our Marketing Manager, Rebekah Bek, where she links to the Ahrefs blog:

Unfortunately, as all outbound links on Quora are nofollowed, that link has no direct SEO effect.

But here’s the interesting part:

If we check the Backlinks report in Ahrefs Site Explorer for ahrefs.com and filter for only “dofollow” links, here’s one of the many backlinks we see:

Now let’s take a closer look at the referring page (the page the followed link comes from):

The only reason we got this followed link is because the author of this article stumbled upon Rebekah’s Quora answer. In other words, the nofollowed link indirectly led to a followed link.

So remember this: for someone to link to you, three things have to happen in this order:

1. They see your content
2. They enjoy your content
3. They recommend it to others (via links on their site)

Because nofollow links can help with that first step, they’re often a catalyst for followed links.

3. They can protect against Google penalties

Sometimes there are legitimate reasons to pay for links.

If a website gets tons of traffic, buying a sponsored post on that site may make total sense. And if you’re paying good money for a feature, then you’ll probably want to include a backlink so that the readers can easily find your website.

The problem? Google states that followed paid links are against their Webmaster Guidelines.

That said, the SEO community is generally divided into two camps:

1. Those who believe Google can accurately identify paid links algorithmically.
2. Those who believe Google can’t accurately identify paid links algorithmically.

Which camp is correct is a debate for another day.

For now, let’s assume that camp #2 is correct and that Google struggles to identify any and all paid links. That means you’re safe to buy and sell links to your heart’s content, right? Not so fast.

Google has a tool which allows anyone to report a website for buying or selling links.

Google’s tool for reporting paid links.

Translation: it may not be Google that you should fear—but rather your competitors.

Think about it: If a competitor sees you ranking well for their target keyword, and they use a tool like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to delve into your backlinks, only to discover followed links like this:

Then why wouldn’t they report you?

If doing so results in Google’s webspam team taking a look at your website, discovering the paid links, and issuing a manual penalty, then that’s one less competitor for them to compete with in the SERPs.

This article is from: https://ahrefs.com/blog/nofollow-links/