Confused about No Follow Links and What They Mean

Jump to Last Post 1-10 of 10 discussions (17 posts)
  1. profile image0
    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    So I have this new website and I checked my CPanel stats today and was amazed at the number of links showing from Squidoo lenses.

    So I popped over to take a look. When I examined the links they are all listed as "no follow."

    I thought "no follow" meant that the search engines wouldn't recognize the link. Does the fact that they are showing up in my AWSTATS mean that some search engines are recognizing them?

    Does this mean anything at all? I don't usually worry about this stuff, but it's lots of links. Apparently everytime I post a page this Squid includes a link to it.

    1. Pcunix profile image92
      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Does AWSTATS indicate that Google has indeed arrived from that link?  Can you confirm that with Analytics or do you have access to the raw log so you can see it for yourself?

      Also, did you look at the page source to confirm they really are no follow?

  2. Ultimate Hubber profile image71
    Ultimate Hubberposted 13 years ago

    Awstats don't show backlinks recognized by search engines.

    BTW, some successful bloggers consider nofollow links beneficial for search engine rankings.

  3. lrohner profile image69
    lrohnerposted 13 years ago

    How does Google handle nofollowed links?

    In general, we don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.


    http://www.google.com/support/webmaster … swer=96569

    I never understood these completely myself and had heard that there was "some" benefit. Still confused about that bit, actually...

    1. Pcunix profile image92
      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The benefit is YOU linking with nofollow when you need to link to something that Google might interpret to your discredit.

  4. profile image0
    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    Yes, I looked at the page source (it's one of the few things like this that I know how to do) and the link was clearly no follow.

    Now I'm trying to figure out what to look at with my raw logs. It probably doesn't matter. I'm just curious.

  5. WryLilt profile image89
    WryLiltposted 13 years ago

    My two cents worth (although everyone here undoubtedly knows more on this subject than me!):

    From what I've read, Google puts little or no value in nofollow links. However search engines like Yahoo and Altavista and Ask do place benefit in these links.

    1. englightenedsoul profile image59
      englightenedsoulposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Wry - I don't know about ask and altavista but Yahoo does not give credit to nofollow links in terms of SEO and ranking.  It just crawls nofollow links.

      And Nelle I think Awstats is counting both dofollow and nofollow links.  You should double check with yahoo site explorer as it also counts both dofollow and nofollow links!

      Also, nofollow links don't have any benefit except for traffic if any.  You should not worry about them!!

  6. profile image0
    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    Then are these links in some ways descrediting my site? Seems unfair if so.

    1. skyfire profile image78
      skyfireposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      No discrediting at all. AWstats, Webtemp are server logs so they calculate more backlinks than google or any SE. This includes nofollow links,bots and other feeds sources which are not included in any web analytics. Nofollow links do help to catch attention of SE as they use it for indexing but don't pass PR or any other value.

    2. Pcunix profile image92
      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      No.

      You are not understanding this.

      nofollow links simply don't help or hurt. They effectively don't exist as far as Google cares.

      You are not being discredited in anyway by the Squidoo links.

  7. thisisoli profile image73
    thisisoliposted 13 years ago

    Hey,

    No follow links are not crawled by Google. They do not provide any direct SEO benefit.

    But.

    They do pass traffic, and that traffic may give you some organic links.

    Most backlink counters use Yahoo site explorer, which is woefully inaccurate.  I dont know if AWstats uses this or not, you would be better off looking at Google Webmaster tools and seeing what they count smile

  8. lakeerieartists profile image63
    lakeerieartistsposted 13 years ago

    I just saw this thread, but Nelle, you can get traffic from those links, but no real effect on Google.

  9. profile image0
    Nelle Hoxieposted 13 years ago

    okay, I shall stop worrying. This Squid is backlinking to my entire site with no follows. And I'm not the only site she's doing this to. Why? Perhaps this is a Squidoo thing. Perhaps they are using the links for keywords, I don't know. I shall move on.

    Thanks everyone.

    1. ThomasE profile image68
      ThomasEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      One of the capsules they have on squiddoo is an rss feed, so you can post links automatically on the topic. The idea is it keeps your lens' "fresh" as it were, the same as a news capsule.

      Either way, it is doing you no harm, and maybe a small amount of good because it possibly means google finds your posts more quickly.

    2. livewithrichard profile image72
      livewithrichardposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The links you are referring to are not backlinks and provide no value to the squid.  People often link to higher page rank sites through their blogrolls often in an attempt to catch the eye of the webmaster who might see traffic being driven h/her way and link back, thus providing the backlink.

  10. thisisoli profile image73
    thisisoliposted 13 years ago

    Think of it as free traffic Nelle smile

 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)