Do No follow links from social media platforms transfer authority or value when they link to third party websites?

[caroline1977]

With social media playing a bigger role in SEO (since the Panda, Penguin updates etc) and how search engines rank sites now, does anybody know why Twitter for instance has 'no follow' when I check my client's websites under 'inbound links' on Open Site Explorer?

[DanHill]

Twitter implements nofollow tags since without them it would be a spammers paradise - that's why you're seeing the nofollow on Open Site Explorer because your link has that tag on it.

[caroline1977]

Thanks Dan, I also want to know if it passes value to your site if you have an inbound link from Twitter to your website? It shows up on OSE as having a high domain authority. Is there any evidence to show that this effects the domain authority of your website positively?

[Matt-Williamson]

Hi Caroline, links that are no followed don't directly pass any value in the form of link juice which has a direct impact on SEO and search rankings. However they are still very valuable as they can be linked to by countless people (on their own websites and guest posts meaning potentially followed links) that become aware of your links through social exposure on twitter and similar.

I did a bit of digging as I knew there was a decent Q and A on this here you go - http://www.seomoz.org/q/value-of-twitter-links