{"id":1565,"date":"2019-09-19T13:19:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T13:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kreativemachinez.com\/v1\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2023-05-29T11:25:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T11:25:36","slug":"google-will-now-treat-nofollow-link-attribute-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kreativemachinez.com\/blog\/google-will-now-treat-nofollow-link-attribute-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Will Now Treat NoFollow Link Attribute Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"

This could perhaps be the biggest update from Google for the SEO community since its mobile-first index<\/strong><\/a> announcement. The search engine has now changed how it treats noFollow link attribute. And this could finally put a stop to the never-ending debate between experts if noFollow backlinks do have some indirect benefits or are they just useless.<\/p>\n

How it was?<\/h2>\n

NoFollow is an attribute or value that instructs search spiders to not follow\/crawl the hyperlink. Meaning, the website that\u2019s linked with the noFollow value, there\u2019s no flow of SEO equity from the linker to the linkee; the linked website does not see any influence in its ranking.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, DoFollow attribute instructs search spiders to crawl the hyperlink and pass on the linker\u2019s link equity to the outbound link.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re working with a good digital marketing company in USA<\/strong>, you would have noticed that they prioritize doFollow backlinks. (And now you know why!)<\/p>\n

How it is now?<\/h2>\n

Google recently published a post on its Webmaster Central Blog. In the post, it announced, “when noFollow was introduced, Google would not count any link marked this way as a signal to use within our search algorithms. This has now changed”.<\/p>\n

It explains, “(noFollow attribute would be) treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. We\u2019ll use these hints — along with other signals — as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems” (Source<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

This means, once considered not important, Google will treat noFollow attribute as a hint. It would treat it as a hint as to understand which links are to be considered for ranking and which ones to be excluded.<\/p>\n

The two new attributes<\/h2>\n

Along with the announcement of how it\u2019s going to treat noFollow attribute differently hereon, Google also announced two new attributes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • rel=”sponsored” \u2013 This is to be used when you\u2019re hyperlinking other sites as a part of your sponsorship, advertisement, and other compensation agreements. (Example: affiliate links)<\/li>\n
  • rel=”ugc” \u2013 UCG or User Generate Content attribute is to be applied to help bots identify the links that are included within the user generated content. (Example: comments)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    What does it mean for webmasters?<\/h2>\n

    Well, for the starters, it means nothing. If you have been following the white-hat practices and have a \u201cnatural\u201d link building strategy, there isn\u2019t any you should do.<\/p>\n

    These changes are made to help Google better process and analyze links on the web. So, there shouldn\u2019t be any source of concern for the webmasters\u2026 at least for now. NoFollow will become a hint for crawling and indexing purposes from March 1, 2020. So, if these changes do impact ranking, we would only know about it after some time has passed away.<\/p>\n

    For now, stick to what the top SEO companies in San Jose<\/strong><\/a> would tell you…<\/p>\n

    Plug doFollow value for every link you trust and get value from; noFollow all the links that are shady and you wouldn\u2019t trust. Use \u2018sponsored\u2019 attribute for links that are compensating you in any way. Use \u2018ugc\u2019 attribute to ensure Google bots treat links in the user generate content the right way.<\/p>\n

    Even with all the changes, it\u2019s still quite simple! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

    Direction<\/strong>:-\u00a0https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/mtD7dckkWVBSHiT7A<\/a><\/p>\n