The no-follow link is used to give directions to search engines in order to exclude hyperlinks influencing the ranking of search engines index. It helps in reducing the spam in the search engines results.

This concept was designed by Google in 2005 in order to remove the spam that can possibly get through to the search results while searching with keywords in the search engines. This do not block the web content but avoid the data to be indexed by search engines.

A links intended page rank will not be affected nor would its content be blocked by hyperlinks that include the rel=?nofollow? attribute. Though the no follow attribute was designed and copyrighted by Google, its value is being used by several others including, Bing, Yahoo, and Windows Live Search.

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.

The no follow link protects web owners from unwanted content on their site. Many web owners will begin a blog to encourage new content to be displayed on their page and enlarge the overall page rank of the site. The sites page rank can be dropped dramatically if offensive are left on the site so the no follow link allows the bloggers to leave links but protects the webpage owners from taking hits to their page rankings as of them.

Google began using no follow links as a machine readable disclosure for paid links. This prevents them from gaining integrity in the results of search engines. Web owners are currently arguing whether this is beneficial or detrimental. The jury is still out because many sites are paying for links to be traded on their page in attempts to escalate their ranks. In the opinion of the SEO the no follow link posses many contradictory elements and should therefore be left up to individual web owners to decide whether or not to implement its use.

Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing expert who provides world class Search Engine Optimization to website owners. For more information visit: http://www.seorankings.co.za

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