A No Follow Link
A no follow link is an HTML attribute that is usually giving commands to search engines that the hyperlink is not to influence the ranking of the search engines index. A no follow link is designed to decrease the effectiveness of search engine spam and improve the overall quality of the search engines results.
This concept was designed by Google in 2005 in order to remove the spam that can possibly get through to the search results while searching with keywords in the search engines. This do not block the web content but avoid the data to be indexed by search engines.
A links intended page rank will not be affected nor would its content be blocked by hyperlinks that include the rel=?nofollow? attribute. Though the no follow attribute was designed and copyrighted by Google, its value is being used by several others including, Bing, Yahoo, and Windows Live Search.
Rather than not follow the link in a literal since, search engines are supposed to not catalog the link in their databases. The page will remain operable and still load without material being blocked. This is just away to prevent the indexing of spam that appears as a result to the search. Google suggest that the no follow link be enacted in a literal sense where the link will not be followed at all. However, in reports conducted for the SEO different information was discovered. Here it was determined that the links did work but was not indexed to the page it linked to. For Yahoo this means that link will be followed but not taken into consideration in its ranking considerations. MSN Search has yet another variation where the no follow link is neither counted nor followed. The definition of the no follow link will differ from site to site.
Most weblog software programs will submit links as no follow by design without giving the opportunity to modify. Others allow modifications by trustworthy users. There is yet a third form of programs that permits writers to enter it exactly as they please and have the results sorted by human editors These editors then remove or discard any useless links.
Using the no follow link, the unwanted contents can be avoided in the web. Most of the web owners have blogs or forum posting in order to increase the site ranking. Rankings can go down rapidly by an unpleasant or harmful post. The no follow link allows these posts but safeguards the webpage owner but excluding these posts to affect the ranking.
Google began using no follow links as a machine readable disclosure for paid links. This prevents them from gaining integrity in the results of search engines. Web owners are currently arguing whether this is beneficial or detrimental. The jury is still out because many sites are paying for links to be traded on their page in attempts to escalate their ranks. In the opinion of the SEO the no follow link posses many contradictory elements and should therefore be left up to individual web owners to decide whether or not to implement its use.
Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing expert who provides world class SEO Services to website owners. For more information visit: http://www.seorankings.co.za
