Reciprocal links and nofollow tag
-
What happens if I link to a site using the nofollow tag and they are linking back to me with a dofollow link?
Will it give me as much power and link juice as if it was a one way link (to me) or will Google discount the link because it's reciprocal?
-
Bad idea in my book. It sounds like you're trying to cheat Google instead of win it properly, that never works out in the long-term.
-
Thanks guys. What I've done is to create a top-10 list of bloggers in one blog category. I link to each blog with a nofollow link and in return get links to my post from most of the bloggers (most will return a dofollow link). This will give my site traffic + potentially link juice (at least what I was hoping for).
I realize this is somewhat black hat borderline since most of the bloggers don't realize I've added the nofollow tag.
Good or bad idea?
-
In addition to what AndieF said, there's the possibility it could be seen like this too: Why should google give you any value for a back link from a site to which you're not going to attest to its credibility (via a do follow link)?
-
You certainly would have the upper hand in theory in that situation, however nofollow is just a rule of thumb and Google's algorithm may be smart enough to figure out it's a reciprocal link.
Ask yourself if the reciprocal link is adding value to your (and their) customers? Is it in relevant content, or is it on a "Links" page? If the link is there purely for SEO, don't bother risking it - I'd say.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Multiple H1 tags in Squarespace
Hi. I'm using Squarespace, and I've noticed they assign the page title and site title h1 tag status. So if I add an on-page h1 tag, that's three in total. I've seen what Matt Cutts said about multiple h1 tags being acceptable (although that video was back in 2009 and a lot has changed since then). But I'm still a little concerned that this is perhaps not the best way of structuring for SEO. Could anyone offer me any advice? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | The_Word_Department0 -
Does this count as a link?
Somebody listed me on their site with this link code A Link Between Worlds Walkthrough It does this weird redirect tracking thing to my site. Would that count as a link back to me?
Technical SEO | | Atomicx0 -
Doubleclick and NoFollow
Hi, I'm trying to work out whether a group of links to my site are Follow or NoFollow. There is no rel=noFollow on the link but they do appear to go through Doubleclick (the link begins with this http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/), will this automatically cut-off any link juice? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | whis0 -
Do I need a link to my sitemap?
I have a very large sitemap. I submit it to both Google and Bing, but do I need a link to it? If someone went there it would probably lock their browser. Is there any danger of not having a link if I submit it to Google and Bing?
Technical SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Site Wide Links
I have a link on pr 3 home page website placed in the side bar. It is on a WordPress website that spans a couple hundred pages and the side bar is on every page. The majority of the pages are not ranked or have any pr. Can this affect me negatively?
Technical SEO | | raph39880 -
Developing a link profile.....
So we are a brand new site looking to establish a link profile of earned links vs. manipulative link building practices and have received some conflicting information. Our goal is to provide users and webmasters of relevant websites with useful content about the areas and topics we cover and let them decide to link to us. We have been advised by some parties that in order to develop a base set of links we should enter our website into directories. Now I understand entering it into some of the main directories such as BOTW and Yahoo etc, but please offer your thoughts on smaller less official directories. Thanks in advance. Scott
Technical SEO | | jackaveli0 -
How many strong tags is too many
Hi everyone, just a quick question, what are your views on the use of strong tags in content? how many is too many? What is you have strong tags around every keywords for a sentance etc?
Technical SEO | | pauledwards1 -
If two links from one page link to another, how can I get the second link's anchor text to count?
I am working on an e-commerce site and on the category pages each of the product listings link to the product page twice. The first is an image link and then the second is the product name. I want to get the anchor text of the second link to count. If I no-follow the image link will that help at all? If not is there a way to do this?
Technical SEO | | JordanJudson0