Cutts drops “nofollow links” off link graph

by Lazarus Rankish Hunt - 9/10/2013 6644 Views

Warns manual action on mass scale manipulative spam

Answering a question on Google Webmaster’s Youtube channel as to whether nofollow links could hurt a site in the process of generating some direct traffic, Google’s Anti-Web Spam Chief, Matt Cutts said that as long as there was no untoward activity on mass scale on no-follow pages that could be termed deceptive or manipulative, “most part of nofollow links are dropped out of the link graph as we are crawling the web and those links that are no follow aren’t going to affect you from the algorithmic point of view .”

He also warned spamers , “if you are leaving a comment on every blog in the world, even if the links are no follow …if you are doing so much that people know you and are annoyed by you and people spam report about you, we are taking some manual action…. If we see mass scale action which is deceptive or manipulative, we do reserve the right to take action.”

What is "nofollow"?

"Nofollow" is an attribute webmasters use to communicate to search engines "not to follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link."

The nofollow attribute was used on the page-level meta tag, which instructed search engines not to follow (i.e., crawl) any outgoing links on the page. For example:

Webmasters had a tough time redirecting robots from following individual links. For example, they had to redirect the link to a URL blocked in robots.txt.

Once the nofollow attribute value of the rel attribute was created it gave webmasters more granular control: instead of telling search engines and bots not to follow any links on the page, it lets you easily instruct robots not to crawl a specific link.

For example:

Here is the original You tube video in which Matt Cutts answers to “Can nofollow links hurt my site’s ranking?”:

Category :

SEO News

Tags :

nofollow links, seo news, manipulative spam

About Lazarus Rankish Hunt

Hi … I am Ranki, a Journo by profession now enjoying a free fall into the future of SEO. Writing is a flow of my being, an extension of the self that is unstoppable, even if it isn’t embraced, embalmed and mummified by recognition. I am here to enjoy the ride, since I have no fixed date with destiny. I Manage Media and Strategize Content at Submitinme. I fill up spaces on pages with the feeling that I am shouting from the roof tops for the Eared crowd to hear and find the latest break-outs in the field. There could be more or less of me, if you care to .... more info about the author