A No Follow Link
Invention Development Advice - Internet Marketing
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.
by JustinHarrison


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.

The idea of the no follow link was developed by Google in 2005 to eradicate spam that may appear in a search when using keywords in search engines. No follow links were not developed to block the access to web content but rather to avoid the content from being indexed by search engines.

Hyperlinks that include the rel=?no follow? attribute will not influence the links target page rank. Although this was a Google design and is copyright owned by Google lots of search engines have began using the attribute value as well such as, Yahoo, Windows Live Search, and Bing.

The search engines are not following the link; they are supposed to only not index the link in their search engine databases. The link is still able to be clicked and the page will load, no content will be blocked it is just meant to reduce the indexing and spam that comes across in search results. Google for example, states that the no follow link is taken literally and the link will not be followed at all but in information done for SEO purposes it shows some conflict to this. It shows that Google does follow the link but doesn?t index it to the linked page. Yahoo will follow the link but doesn?t include it in any of its ranking calculations, while MSN Search treats the no follow link as not counting it or following it. Every search engine will have their own difference as to what they believe the no follow link should mean.

The majority of weblog software programs will automatically submit links with the no follow attribute and not give some options to change. There are a few programs that will allow alterations from trusted users and others will allow them to be submitted as the writer wishes and then use human editors to remove any unwanted 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 has began using the no follow links as a machine readable revelation for paid links and therefore keeping them from gaining any credibility in the search engines results. The web owners are still debating over whether or hurting them as many pages are paying for links to be traded on their site in hopes of raising their page rank. The no follow link has been contradicted many times over where SEO is concerned and it depends on the web owner as to if they allow them on the site or not.

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