Are NoFollow Links a Waste of time?

[Ytellsocial]

I share links to my blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. However, my links on social media sites are NoFollow Links. Do No Follow links help my Search Ranking or is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media?

Ytellsocial

[Ytellsocial]

John Cross - thanks for providing with wonderful information and the slide share link.

[ClaytonJ]

Neal

Sharing links on social media is becoming more important to ranking as time progresses. So my view is the better you get at social now the more influence it will have on rankings now and down the track. EGOL has nailed its importance but I think social will only get more powerful on search/ranking influence.

Google is looking at ways to amplify social as it maybe the most pure (incorruptible) measurement tool for rankings. Earlier this year google & twitter announced they were re-connecting and google would have full access to the "firehose" or all tweets. Though yet we have not seen any significant changes in causation between ranking and tweets  google will be working on something given the open funnel they now have into twitter.

Positive social shares validate a website and inform google your website is relevant, current and being talked about.

Moz published the slideshare below, which maybe helpful.

http://www.slideshare.net/jennifersablelopez/social-medias-influence-on-search-going-beyond-rankings

So I recommend think less about the technical side of nofollow links and more about the positive aspects of social media ie driving traffic to your website, creating links by sharing and then owning the space as the of power social to SEO is amped up.

[Ytellsocial]

Patrick Delehanty - Thanks for sharing great content with me to help me understand that no follow isn't bad.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

First, nofollow links are not a waste of time, if they pass the following questions:

• Does this link help my website?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

...then that is a link I would consider obtaining.

Second, I would take a look at this resource from Moz. Going through this will help you in the following ways:

• What your user looks / act like
• What kind of content they like
• How they digest that content
• Where you should share that content
• How often you should be writing
• Where you should look to link build based on your audience

Here's another great resource on personas to help you. What it comes down to is knowing the type of content your audience wants/needs, and where to find them to get it to them. Once you get that figured out, the rest is just finding a way to keep up!

Hope this helps you! Good luck!

[Ytellsocial]

thanks for providing great insight to me EGOL

[EGOL]

**.... is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media? **

This is the real crux of the question.

If people see your postings on social media and click through to your website then that is a sign that you have something worth sharing.  But, it also could be a sign that you are dropping clickbaity shares.  You can check Google Analytics or Clicky or whatever you are using to monitor your incoming traffic.

If your shares are productive then you have to value your time compared to the amount of traffic and possible revenue or visibility that you are receiving from social sources.   I don't share my content on social media because I am not a social media participant with a large number of people who interact with me.  It is not a productive use of my time.  It is more important for me to write content with that time.

However, all of the pages of my site have buttons that make it easy for my visitors to share in obvious ways and many visitors do that.  I get traffic every day from social but occasionally I get enormous traffic from it.  The best thing is that my visitors are doing the sharing for me.

Cultivating a tribe of people who like your website is the most effective way to take advantage of social media.  For this to happen you must have strong sharable assets on your website.

Another thing that you can do to facilitate social sharing is to be sure that you are showing your best, most highly sharable content with all of your visitors.  Obvious links to your most popular content, your most often shared content, what's hot today content can trigger content consumption and sharing.

Learn what content is winning for you and then play your strengths.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

You are very welcome

-Andy

[Ytellsocial]

Andy Drinkwater - thank you for the response

[Andy.Drinkwater]

They aren't a total waste, but they don't pass any page rank.

As for them being on social media sites, this is considered to be an emerging way to pass additional signals to Google around popularity, etc, so they could be useful in some way.

If you are looking for links that do something for you, then you need to get a bit more creative in where you try and share your content and how you perform your outreach. Target sites within your niche, make contact, introduce yourself and your article to them and explain why it might be of interest to their readers.

-Andy