How important is link scultpting? Apparently the LA Times thinks so. Notice all the red marks on their internal links? These have the rel="nofollow" attribute.
What is the nofollow attribute? It was originally a plan from Google and the other engines to stop comment spam. Simply use the attribute in your blogs comments and the links are rendered worthless. Technically you place the attribute in your link html as so: a href="http://www.url.com/" rel="nofollow">anchor text </a
It was not too long before us SEO's figured out that this was a quick and dirty way to do what Leslie Rohde taught me years ago in his book Dynamic Linking. This technique was extremely complicated for most as it employed javascript links that were not able to be followed by Google.
Now with the nofollow attribute the same can be accomplished without the hassel of javascript. To see if a site is running nofollow on its links simply install the firefox plugin called Search Status.
great post, thats for the tip for the firefox plug
Posted by: grande dunes | December 30, 2008 at 09:18 PM
I'm not sure if I understand the relevance of this theory. Does this mean that if I put a link on, say, this site... and it has a "nofollow" attribute, then I won't get a backlink to my site...
How does this benefit me?
Thanks.
John Carle
ReMax Real Estate (Edmonton)
www.knock-knock.ca
Posted by: John Carle | January 3, 2009 at 02:02 PM
John-
the link in most blogs are nofollow. That was the point of Yahoo and Google creating it. To stop inane and even spam comments in blogs by hand or automated commenting.
That is why I council clients to still comment but to add something of value to the conversation.
Let's face it most blog commenters add retarded thoughts all in the name of stealing a link. They are missing tremendous opportunities.
To respectfully add another voice can gain traffic to your site. Especially when adding something of value. Contrary opinion often can cause curious George's to come on over to your site to check out an original thinker.
I have given comments on other sites that were so extensive that the blogger asked if they could just post it as an original post.
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | January 3, 2009 at 02:14 PM
Guys, this debate has gone on in SEO forums for a long time, with a million different views. After reading, watching my Google analytics, and other link programs, I believe all links actually do count. Do-follow links are probably just given more weight than no-follow links. If you check your analytics page you'll see that no-follow links, such as your post right here, do show up and count. I have posted here before and always the link shows up in my external links for Google analytics. Any thoughts?
Posted by: Todd Covington | January 7, 2009 at 09:35 PM
Google Webmaster which I believe you are refering shows links. It is telling you the link is there. However, it does not mean anything at all that it is counted. It is merely doing the job it is supposed to do which is tell you how many links are listed.
As far as Google reporting anything of use on what links are counted I am very skeptical and as such take it with a grain of salt.
Posted by: Coach Tim SEO | January 7, 2009 at 09:45 PM
When you look at a tool like Google Analytics, it might be showing you this site because someone came to your site through this link, but I believe the no follow means that it does not give your site credit for the incoming link. For example, if you had 500 links pointing to your site, and 200 had the no follow, then Google would only credit you with the 300 links, not all 500.
Posted by: Tom | January 19, 2009 at 04:38 PM
That is rather amazing that the LA times is doing that level of link sculpting. You would think that they would want to pass along at least a little link love to their advertising section :)
Posted by: James Bridges | January 20, 2009 at 05:45 PM