Links are valuable for SEO. However, not all links are equal. If you’re going to spend time in tracking down and forging links all over the net, it’s a good idea to know exactly what you’re getting for your efforts.

Some links are invisible

One of the nastiest things about links is that not every link will count for search engine optimisation. For example, businesses that managed Wikipedia citations are kicking themselves because Wikipedia has a ‘nofollow’ on its links.

Nofollows were created by none other than Google’s Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen in 2005. The attribute was created for Blogger.com as an anti-spam move. It was intended to allow site owners to denote which links were non-editorial on their pages. Since then, a lot of sites have placed nofollows across the board, to the huge frustration of everyone who’s linked to them.

Be aware of a page’s status

Nofollow links aren’t the only ones that will be invisible to the search engines. If the page is no longer on the index, the links it contains will be of no value for SEO.

Google’s index is constantly changing, and you have limited control over the indexability of other people’s pages. When looking for links, check to see how the other site usually features its links. If it has elements that will block search engines, like the use of Flash, or puts links on a page that’s deep within the site, a link is unlikely to get you much attention from Google.

The best way to defend yourself in this regard is to get links from sites that are aware of their own SEO, have a decent ranking, and generally aren’t likely to drop off the index any time soon. Protect your links by staying away from sites that break SEO rules.

How to discover nofollow links

It’s not always easy to spot the sites that nofollow their links. There are some well-known ones, like Wikipedia and Twitter. Other sites don’t advertise that they nofollow links, because this might affect their popularity. Plenty of blogs, for example, have a nofollow on the links in their comment pages. If they put up a warning of this at the top of their comments section, they might lose out.

Spotting nofollows requires either an extension on your browser or manually looking at code. Research around the net will give you the names of major sites that nofollow. You can talk to our experts at SEO Consult about finding nofollows when you’re trying to forge links.

Everyone wants the links that are going to bring in the greatest search engine rewards, but consider that for a moment. Everyone wants those links. That means that every one of your competitors has probably looked for that link as well, plus quite a number of people you’re not in direct competition with. This is why it’s important to keep in mind that no linking effort is really wasted. Every link you forge is another connection with the outside world of the net, and even if it doesn’t bring link juice, it could bring traffic.

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