{"id":4843,"date":"2018-06-18T07:46:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T14:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:49:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T18:49:42","slug":"an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"An Analysis: Does Adding ‘Nofollow’ Links Benefit Contributor-Driven Content Sites?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that lots of big, contributer-oriented sites have gone the \u201cnofollow\u201d link route in recent times. The question that remains is whether this is an effective strategy, and whether it contributes to or detracts from SEO efforts at large. The industry seems to be in need of a data-driven examination of the concept, so we\u2019ve busted out some data analysis and crunched the numbers on before and after the nofollow links were added to several prominent websites. But first, a brief look at the issue to refresh your memory. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"stolen<\/a>External site links<\/a>, as a form of business currency, can be more valuable than gold. \u00a0Ask any entrepreneur or expert business owner who\u2019s ever attempted to ascend the mountain of Google rankings for valuable keywords, and they\u2019ll agree. \u00a0That\u2019s why, in the summer of 2017, the SEO industry lost their collective minds when news broke that Forbes, Inc Magazine, and others had switched their sites to \u201cnofollow\u201d external links. To the uninitiated it seems like a small, innocuous change. To seasoned SEO practitioners, it was the heist of the century. \u00a0Let me explain.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a well established economic fact that people don\u2019t work unless there is incentive. \u00a0Many sites, Forbes and Inc included, rely upon expert authors who work more or less for free in monetary terms and produce deep, nuanced material which is subsequently published by the magazine. In lieu of pay, these authors receive notoriety, extended reach, and backlinks. The links are arguably the most valuable of those three forms of quazi-currency, as they contribute to the monumental task of ranking highly for competitive keywords on the author\u2019s own website. <\/span><\/p>\n

And therein lies the source of much controversy. \u00a0The magazines kept the material authored by the contributors but ultimately robbed them of the reward by adding the rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d attribute to the author\u2019s links, which essentially tells Google\u2019s search crawlers to ignore the link and deprecate it\u2019s value and authority. \u00a0It\u2019s one thing to author an article for a publication knowing that their links will be coded as \u201cnofollow\u201d beforehand; it\u2019s quite another thing to do the work under the pretense of being rewarded with a valuable link from a high-authority site only to be stripped of your prize months or even years later. \u00a0So why would anybody do such a thing?<\/span><\/p>\n

There was heated debate on the matter within the expert SEO community, with some people in favor of using the rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d tag while others claiming it was bad for the web in general. After all, experts postulated, if everyone says that you can\u2019t trust their links (which is one use of the tag), then what will become of the internet? <\/span><\/p>\n

This circumstance made all of us here at CanIRank rather curious. As a company, we get a kick out of dropping data bombs in the middle of heated emotional debates on contemporary topics in SEO, so the obvious question emerged. Does using the nofollow tag on external links have any impact on organic traffic?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"changed<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there\u2019s no database listing sites that have switched to using the nofollow tag along with the date of change. But with a little sleuthing we did manage to track down a few well known publications that have made the switch. With the help of the <\/span>Wayback Machine<\/span><\/a>, we were able to pinpoint when the change was made. What follows is an analysis of these sites.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in the end we had to go back to a post from almost nine years ago to really understand what\u2019s happening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forbes<\/span><\/h2>\n

On August 29, 2017 Matthew Barby and Marie Haynes tweeted that Forbes and Inc had switched to using the nofollow tag on external links. <\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewbarby\/status\/902579227345739776?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Marie_Haynes\/status\/902615558578995200<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/MARIE_HAYNES\/status\/902614696892784641<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at the graph below, there\u2019s no significant difference in organic traffic from August 2017, when they changed their external linking policy, to September 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"forbes<\/a><\/p>\n

Inc<\/span><\/h2>\n

Like Forbes, Inc changed their linking policy in August 2017, applying the nofollow tag to external links. They lost 140,000 visitors the following month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"inc<\/a><\/p>\n

Entrepreneur<\/span><\/h2>\n

When Entrepreneur moved assigning the nofollow tag to external links in June 2017, they saw a substantial decrease in traffic of 15% the next month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"entrepreneur<\/a><\/p>\n

QuickBooks<\/span><\/h2>\n

When QuickBooks changed their external linking policy to using the nofollow tag in January 2017, they lost 10,000 visitors the following month. Considering that they were receiving 9.48 million per month, the impact was relatively insignificant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"quickbooks<\/a><\/p>\n

CIO<\/span><\/h2>\n

CIO suffered a 13% drop in traffic when they made the switch to adding the \u201cnofollow\u201d tag to external links in August 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CIO<\/a><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/span><\/h2>\n

Huffington Post switched to nofollow tags on external links in July 2016. Note that this was only for their blogger platform and not for posts contributed by staff writers. External links from staff writers are still tagged, as of this writing, as followed. <\/span><\/p>\n

But take a look at the traffic. The month after they changed their external linking policy, they lost 1 million visitors. That\u2019s five percent of their total monthly traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"huffington<\/a><\/p>\n

LifeHack<\/span><\/h2>\n

Way back in at the beginning of 2013, Lifehack.org changed their external linking policy to applying the nofollow tag to external links. One month later, their traffic dropped by 35,903 visitors or 24%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"lifehack<\/a><\/p>\n

How Nofollow External Links Affect SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n

In an old interview with Matt Cutts, he stated that \u201c<\/span>parts of our system encourage links to good sites<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0More recent studies by <\/span>Search Engine Journal<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>RebootOnline<\/span><\/a> and others confirm that including external links has a positive effect on SEO. So it should come as no surprise that many of the sites we reviewed suffered when they converted external links to nofollow. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nofollow Tags on External Links Don\u2019t Improve Page Rank<\/span><\/h3>\n

Once upon a time, a very brief one at that, you could use the nofollow tag to manipulate Page Rank. But those days are long gone. Back in 2009, Matt Cutts all but said that <\/span>using nofollow for PageRank sculpting doesn’t work<\/span><\/a> and that <\/span>\u201cwe do not expect this to change again.\u201d<\/span><\/i> So let\u2019s just put a nail in that coffin, alright?<\/span><\/p>\n

Google May View The Switch to \u201cnofollow\u201d External Links Less Favorably<\/span><\/h3>\n

According to Matt Cutts, \u201c<\/span>parts of our system encourage links to good sites<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/i>. That means your site may no longer benefit from that encouragement if you switch to using the nofollow tag on external links.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Some Sites Implement rel=”nofollow”<\/span><\/h2>\n

As we\u2019ve seen in the examples above, sites vary in their \u201cno-follow\u201d policy. Some apply the nofollow tag to all external links. Others only apply the nofollow tag to external links in the bio and then there are those that handle things on a case-by-case basis. In certain cases, the nofollow tag was applied retroactively to all outbound links.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Forbes, I suspect they made the change in response to a payola scandal. An investigation by The Outline found that <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>contributors to prominent publications have taken payments in exchange for positive coverage<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/i>, Forbes being one such site<\/span>.<\/span><\/i> Their solution to the problem was to ban contributors caught engaging in this behavior, changing external links to nofollow and in some cases removing the entire post.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Properly Use rel=”nofollow” <\/span><\/h2>\n

So if setting all external links to nofollow doesn\u2019t impact PageRank and therefore doesn\u2019t improve neither your position in the SERPs or increase traffic, then why bother?<\/span><\/p>\n

Google suggests three situations<\/span><\/a> where you may want to use the rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d tag:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Untrusted user generated content over which you have little or no control. Those are things like user profiles, unmoderated comments and anything where you don\u2019t have the resources to monitor the content being created. Using the rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d tag is an effective way of discouraging spammers!<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Paid links. Because \u201csearch engine guidelines require machine-readable disclosure of paid links\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Crawl prioritization. Search engine robots can\u2019t crawl places where they need to sign in or register. Using the rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d tag helps ensure the important pages on your site get crawled by Google.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Continue linking out to quality sites because according to Matt Cutts, <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/i>. Although that advice is almost nine years old and Mr. Cutts has moved on from Google, I suspect that guidance is still good today.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So what to do if you have a blog with contributing authors? Conventional wisdom and data analysis seems to suggest that you shouldn\u2019t switch your external links to nofollow. Instead, make sure you have a review process in place to vet those articles and see to it that your audience receives quality content.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So, all things considered, there\u2019s still an element of debate afoot about the merits of \u201cnofollow\u201d tagging contributor links, even when properly used. \u00a0What say you, gentle reader? Do you think it\u2019s a legitimate play by publishers to control quality and eliminate fraud, or do you think it\u2019s the heist of the century? We\u2019d love to hear your opinion in the comments, so fire away. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s no secret that lots of big, contributer-oriented sites have gone the \u201cnofollow\u201d link route in recent times. The question that remains is whether this is an effective strategy, and whether it contributes to or detracts from SEO efforts at large. The industry seems to be in need of a data-driven examination of the concept, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":4879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Analysis: Does Adding 'Nofollow' Links Benefit Contributor-Driven Content Sites? – CanIRank Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"External site links, as a form of business currency, can be more valuable than gold. \u00a0Ask any entrepreneur or expert business owner who\u2019s ever attempted to ascend the mountain of Google rankings for valuable keywords, and they\u2019ll agree.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do "Nofollow" Links Benefit Contributor-Driven Content Sites?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many contributor-oriented websites have gone "nofollow," so we have crunched the numbers to see if this is an effective strategy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CanIRank Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-18T14:46:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-25T18:49:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/an-analysis-fb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Do "Nofollow" Links Benefit Contributor-Driven Content Sites?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Many contributor-oriented websites have gone "nofollow," so we crunched the numbers to see if this is an effective strategy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/an-analysis-twitter.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@greenejc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@canirank\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"8 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"CanIRank Blog\",\"description\":\"SEO Tips for Small Businesses, Bloggers, and other Non-Spammers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/an-analysis.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"nofollow analysis\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/an-analysis-does-adding-nofollow-links-benefit-contributor-driven-content-sites\/\",\"name\":\"An Analysis: Does Adding 'Nofollow' Links Benefit Contributor-Driven Content Sites? 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