Been offered a no follow link on a blog post ?. Is it worth it ?

[PeteC12]

Hi All,

We are having a go at doing our own link building and just wanted some advice on a couple of questions

1. I've found some industry related blog sites which could be good but alot of them only offer a no follow link ?. Is this worth it ? And if ,so what is the advantage of having a no follow link ? as it won't directly help with our DA etc ?

2. I've also noticed some of these sites link to each other or recommend each other (i.e other blog sites) which may be some sort of link network ?.. I take it this is bad ? and could be penalized by google ?

thanks

pete

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Don't disregard links because they are nofollow. They can be valuable and important, especially if that link is relevant to your business and helps expand your visibility to your audience. There's a great article here about nofollow.

The best way to assess links are to ask the following questions:

• Does this link help my website?

• Does it send quality traffic?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

• Don't forget - don't be quick to discount nofollow links - nofollow's do provide value, so as long as they pass your sniff test, don't remove them simply because of this tag

A lot of this comes down to common sense, so if you trust the site, it's relevant, provides quality content, and don't feel weird or shady about it, then I say explore the option.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[PeteC12]

Many thanks Patrick,

I will take a look at those points

thanks

Pete

[TomBinga1125]

Another point to touch on is where will the link be located? If it's in your author profile on an article you wrote for them, then I always nofollow the link. If it's within the content and is a valuable resource for the readers then a dofollow link shouldn't be an issue.

Regardless, treat links as more than just for SEO value. I mean it gives people a chance to click and visit your website. That's the main goal right?! As long as it's linking to a relevant page/article on your website then you shouldn't worry as much.

[HashtagHustler]

It's hard to expand on this topic after what was just written, however I will reiterate pretty much every point that was stated above. Nofollow links are still links and the source of the link can have a large impact on your website. For example, Wikipedia links are Nofollow, but I think you would be hard pressed to find anybody who would say a Wikipedia link is not worth it. There is also argument on how much nofollow links actually affect SEO.

Although they technically don't add any link juice, Google can still see the categorization and labeling. If your website has 100 no follow links from Car Repair websites, to a page on your site about Car Repair, that will still help Google identify what your page/site is about.

Anyway, any link is worth it in my opinion, as long as it can benefit you in some way. I.e. exposure, positive SEO, conversions, etc. And the other website isn't utilizing any negative/blackhat tactics.

-Hope this helps!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Pete,

If you want to see what a site is doing the in the SERPs, head over to SEMrush, enter the URL and see what the organic traffic has been doing. This is a wonderful way to see if there are indications of the target site having acquired a penalty - in which case, stay well away. Their Alexa ranking might show you trends as well.

Assuming the site OK, as with any link, keep the anchor text very neutral. Don't try and add keywords or money-phrases in there. Just use your company / brand name, click here, URL, etc.

Another very useful tool to see what else is going on, and if you suspect a link farm, have a look at them with http://www.geoipfacts.com/

-Andy

[PeteC12]

Many thanks All,

Some very good points here. I will  take a look at all your suggestions and articles links and see if I can also see find a video out there on how to do it i.e what metrics to look out for etc etc .

We previously had a manual penalty (unnatural links) due to our naivety when we outsourced some link building work and they were using these blog network sites which got us hammered so we are naturally pretty worried on who and how we to get links from .

Many thanks

Pete

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Are you all sorted on that front now Pete? It can be daunting when you get a penalty and disavowing can take a long time to kick in.

-Andy

[PeteC12]

Yes thanks Andy, got the penalty finally removed at xmas but no real uplift since apart from what I can only assume is seasonal search variation.

Have kept away from link building over the last 6 months , just concentrated on citations and doing a lot of content, housekeeping and generally tidying the site up. Will see whether my efforts have been in vain or not, when the new Panda gets rolled out anytime now.

I may look at some freelance link building in the near future if we dont get very far trying it ourselves but it's something I am very wary of , especially considering the mess the last chap caused.

thanks

Pete

[Andy.Drinkwater]

...but it's something I am very wary of , especially considering the mess the last chap caused

I do feel your pain and links that are not natural to Google and are not earned, can cause you issues.

As a little tip, look at your site - if you were visiting your site for the first time, would you consider it link-worthy? Do you carry good linkable assets that others will feel they want to link to because they are useful? If not, then concentrate on this first. You can also use BuzzSumo to have a look at what the winners in your market are sharing and reach-out to those individuals who share it. You are also able to see if it has lead to any back-links.

Make / write something better than the other guy and then get busy with your outreach.

-Andy

[PeteC12]

Cool, Many thanks Andy

I will check out Buzzsumo to

thanks again

Pete