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Do follow or nofollow links

When we discussed the structure of an html link, we discussed two main components that a link is composed of:

  • The href attribute
  • The content of the link

In this section, we will discuss a new attribute, the rel attribute.

What is the rel attribute?

The primary purpose of rel attribute is to define the relationship between the current page and the page it is linking to.

It is mostly a mechanism to let the SEO experts define how they want their existing ranking juice to be distributed and avoid potential penalties that Google may impose.

For Google (who originally introduced this concept) and many other search engines, the rel attribute is used to fight spam.

rel attribute example

html <a href="https://www.smartseohosting.com/seo-guides/" rel="nofollow">Seo Guides</a>

What are valid rel attribute values and their effects?

  • nofollow: This attribute tells the search engine crawlers not to follow the link.
  • follow: This attribute tells the search engine crawlers to follow the link. This is the default value and applies when there is no rel attribute.
  • noopener: This attribute tells the search engine crawlers that the link is not a part of the same domain.
  • noreferrer: This attribute tells the search engine crawlers that the link is not a part of the same domain.
  • noopener noreferrer: This attribute tells the search engine crawlers that the link is not a part of the same domain and that the link should not be included in the referrer.

An organic backlink formation should have a healthy dose of both the follow and nofollow backlinks. That is in addition to backlinks that have the exact desired keyword or more generic terms.

Back in 2021, Google announced a change in how they handle `nofollow' links. Nowadays, Google mostly sees the nofollow more as a suggestion than a block. It seems that by forcing webmasters to use nofollow, Google has deprived itself of the ability to use backlinks to rank search results, and as we all know, without backlinks, Google won't be able to do its job; properly."