NoFollow vs DoFollow - Redux

1. 67

   lrohnerposted 15 years ago

   Just when I thought I had this down pat...
   
   I understand the importance of backlinks to a page/post/hub. I've done some backlinking to my hubs, but I'm very sure not enough. In trying to find out the right types of places that other hubbers are backlinking to, I've been using SEO XRay from SeoBook to analyze specific hubbers' hubs. (No, I won't reveal any names or info!)
   
   SEO XRay shows all of the backlinks to my hubs that I've put out there (except the most recent ones). When I went to these other Hubbers' hubs and XRayed them, only two of them had any backlinks show up at all. I assume they backlinked to sites that give NoFollow links? I was under the impression that those links don't really gain you anything.
   
   What am I missing here?

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      Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Maybe they are not interested in getting backlinks for their hubs?
      
      Maybe they spend more time writing than getting backlinks?

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         lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         No. These folks talk quite frequently about the time they spend getting backlinks, and they understand the importance of them if you want to rank and therefore get traffic which will make $$$.

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            Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            Maybe these folks are talking about getting backlinks to the websites owned by them and not towards their hubs?

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               lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

               At least five of them talk specifically about getting backlinks to their hubs. One of the five has a ton of backlinks that I can see. Another has some. The others? Well, I can't see any.

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                  Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                  hmm, then did you try checking backlinks to their hubs through yahoo.com? in the search bar type: link:(url of their hubs, preferably without an http).

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                     lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                     Yep. SEO XRay basically does the same thing. The link: command in Google shows no inbound links. The link: command in Yahoo shows internal links but no external links.
                     
                     I guess my question really boils down to this. I know these folks have built up backlinks, but evidently they are NoFollow. Are NoFollow backlinks worth the time to bother going after?

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                     1. 72

                        Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                        Yes, they are worth it, but only certain nofollows, not all.
                        http://hubpages.com/hub/Nofollow-Links
                        
                        BTW, I don't know why, but yahoo includes nofollow links when I check backlinks to one of my sites.

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                           lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                           Well, from my perspective, if you have to get 1,000 NoFollows to equal the value of 50 DoFollows, I'm only heading for the DoFollows!

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                              Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                              lol, sure, whichever way you like, I was just trying to make this nofollow thing clear in that hub, otherwise I also always go for the dofollows.

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2. 59

   Voltyposted 15 years ago

   Hubpages gives backlinks on it's own through your profile, all the related hubs, and tag categories. Not all hubs need them unless you're trying for something really competitive

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      lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Volty, those are Internal links. You need both internal and external to rank well.

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         Voltyposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         No, you don't
         
         All depends on the competition

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      Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Point taken, but don't you think external backlinks have their own importance when it comes to search engine rankings?

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         lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         UH - Yes. That's the whole point of my question!

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   Fiction Tellerposted 15 years ago

   Backlinks to sites with nofollow links can gain you direct traffic.  If they're relevant sites and relevant traffic, and the traffic is significant, this may be worth it on its own merits, whether or not it directly affects ranking. 
   
   I'm not a big fan of blitz-type backlinking, except for certain articles in very competitive categories that have been up for months and aren't getting enough traffic/revenue.  My instincts say that in the next couple of years, Google will go, "hey, EzineArticles, Xomba, HubPages, and all those article sites are all linking to each other...let's make those backlinks worth less by treating them all as 'internal'" and change the algorithm.

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   1. 67

      lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I somewhat agree, FT. That's why I don't blitz backlink. I have several hubs that are years old with good PR, and I only link my to my relevant hubs from them. For my other topics, I'm creating new, relevant, quality blogs. I think sites like Digg are here to stay, though. What Google really wants to know is what pages are popular, and Digg will certainly help to let you know that.

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         Ultimate Hubberposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Now we know that you are an alter ego

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            lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            LOL! Good Lord, I meant BLOGS! I just WISH I had found HP years ago!

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   livewithrichardposted 15 years ago

   You know Irohner, there is no clear answer to your question. I've written a few hubs on how to get backlinks, most refer to individual websites but can also aply to hubs and individual articles. I can tell you that I no longer backlink my individual hubs.  I concentrate on getting good keywords and longtail keywords.  I'm finding that other people are building my backlinks for me and it's a good indication that I'm writing what people are searching for.
   
   Placing links to your hubs on Dofollow or Nofollow sites will generate direct traffic, once this traffic gets to your site and they like what they read, they will build the links for you.

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   1. 67

      lrohnerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Good advice as always, LWR. I go that route with my blogs, but find it much more difficult for hubs. I mean, I have blogs that I've tended for a few years that have hundreds and hundreds of organic backlinks. But I just haven't figured out the secret forumula, I guess, on how to do that from a single article. Sigh...

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5. 47

   johnr54posted 15 years ago

   If you want to know all the links to a page, including nofollow, try using the Yahoo site explorer.
   
   As to the topic of needing links, one of the beauties of Hubpages is that, depending on the topic, you can get dozens on links from internal pages, which is enough to get good traffic for a lot of search terms, but for the really competitive stuff you'll need some external help. 
   
   Google's OK with internal links, but you need to have the Page Rank on your site to make them worth anything.  Hubpages and Ezines both do a good job of internal linking and that's a big part of their success.
   
   I'd say half of my top 10 traffic hubs pull that traffic with no help from external links.  I do, however, try to link my related hubs together to get a little more boost from Hubpages for both the SERPs and internal click throughs.  And when the Hub needs a little boost I'll shoot some links at it, but more often than not I just let it go.

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