brought to you by TextLinkAds.com
7
May 07
by Neil Patel Research with 70 Comments

Generally we say that nofollow links don’t count, but Ben
Fisher
actually found that they do help with ranking based on a small experiment he ran. He did an interesting study where he wrote on the SpiderMan
3 game
and then commented on other related blogs that linked back to his SpiderMan 3 post. The unique thing about the link was that it contained the anchor text "piderMan 3" and contained a nofollow, but within a short period of time his site ranked on the first page of Google for piderMan 3 Xbox and other terms.

Piderman_3_xbox_google_search_11785

If you look at the image above it shows that there are 224 results for "piderMan 3 Xbox". This means that it should be fairly easy to rank for the term, but the actual blog post that ranks for the term doesn’t have the word piderMan anywhere within the content. The only reason I think it ranks is because the nofollow link contained the anchor text "piderMan".

I am not sure if the way Google looks at nofollows is currently messed up on their end or if they actually do count them, but based on this experiment it seems that they can help with rankings. What do you think?

Bookmark and Share

70 comments - add your's now

#1
Wahlau.NET (07/03/07 at 4:59 am)

wow..this is a good find

#2
James (07/11/07 at 5:39 am)
#3
seoworkers (07/12/07 at 6:34 am)

Title: SEO Workers – Search Engine Optimization Consulting Services

Description: SEO company dedicated to furnishing the means necessary to make your web site easily indexed by
search engines, and thus available to the largest possible audience and customer base.

#4
seo (07/16/07 at 5:58 am)

I too commented in different blogs about that issue even before that experiment. but still there is no clear evidence there are some flaws in that experiment too.

seo blog
http://seoz.wordpress.com

#5
SEO WATCH (07/22/07 at 1:53 am)

yeahâ those NOFollow tags!
wonder what happen if we all start using nofollow on our websites?

Have a good one.

#6
Jane (07/30/07 at 10:41 pm)

I think it is a complete crap shoot.

#7
Lola (08/05/07 at 12:44 pm)

I think nofollow links are not giving any PR to the site, but the anchor text is still counted. So, basically Google uses nofollow links to “know” what the site is about, but not for rating it. Therefore, i guess no site can gain PR having only nofollow links, but it’s quite possible to raise it’s positions under some keywords that are not too popular, because where the keywords are popular the high PR sites will be on top.

#8
BabyFirstYear (08/05/07 at 11:29 pm)

I don’t know this information before. I have notice the comment follow site now. But, how about Page rank?is google will consider link from comment for page rank decision?

#9
Marketing Man (08/09/07 at 11:26 am)

Great article, it started quite a debate.

It is a shame spamming brought about ‘No Follow’, but I guess we have to live with it.

Personally I am sure there is still some weight to No Follow links with regards to anchor text, not sure if there is anything else in terms of Page Rank etc’.

#10
Ashish K Arora (08/12/07 at 4:28 am)

Interesting info… Is there any way we can check if a site/blog alows nofollow links?

Thanks

#11
Tia (08/13/07 at 9:11 am)

Is there anyway I can post with a link where it isn’t going to be removed as spam?
No follow links are not being indexed =(

#12
jazz and piano videos (08/27/07 at 11:45 am)

I think nofollow is just a filter not to pass Page Rank or Trust Rank. But google and the other engines “follow” the links.

#13
Search Engine Optimization (10/05/07 at 8:06 am)

I think I would rather follow the no-follow ;)

Title: Search Engine Optimization

#14
m1t0s1s (10/17/07 at 5:12 pm)

Does wordpress’ rss feed have trackback links without nofollow? In earlier wordpress versions the rss feed didn’t contain nofollow on the links, when the normal html version did.

#15
piles (11/11/07 at 11:42 pm)

PR will come, no need to rush it If you write good copy you’ll have nothing to worry about.

#16
Acne (11/29/07 at 1:51 am)

I have had this suspicion for a while now, that non-follow links actually count. Good post, it cleared a lot up for me. My experience was with multiple keywords, i had unintentionally created links all non-follow. To my suprise, i was ranking for those keywords within 3 weeks.

Andy

#17
cruzibn (11/30/07 at 2:36 am)

Wonderful and informative web site.I used information from that site its great.

#18
Your Natural Remedies (12/01/07 at 2:35 pm)

I don’t get the whole thing.

#19
Joy (12/05/07 at 10:43 am)

I haven’t encountered no follow link tags yet..^^..lucky me!

#20
PeterMark (05/12/10 at 3:36 am)

hi,

nice blog .I hear about only dofollow links are Google count but after reading your article I realize that nofollow links are also count.In the SEO Services it is most important for Social Bookmarking and Directory Submission.

+

Add your comment now

(will not be published)