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Hi Rob, The general rule of thumb is don't worry (too much) about no-follow links, although there are times to also ignore this as well. Key factors that will be making a difference, are the content and the do-follow links. You can't just look at the back-links as the reason why you aren't ranking well. Without seeing them, I would be tempted to just not worry about the no-followed links, and concentrate on: Making sure the do-follow links are of good quality and don't fall into the spammy category, and Look at your content and how good it is - does it match up to the competition? It never hurts to do some competition analysis to see how your competitors are beating you. -Andy

It would look unnatural, and you have a point about what may count in the future

Thanks for the update.  Glad you got it figured out.

Hello Chris, Thank you for replying to my question. It is a difficult one, I think as a company we will have to go with a safer long term strategy and see how it pans out. Maybe a PR stunt, instead of exact match backlinks. Kind regards Rob