Do Follow and No Follow External Link ?
Hi there,
I have a general question regarding external linking (in 2024)...if I suggest SERPS "follow" an external link (dofollow), I understand a certain percentage of value is passed over to the linked website. If I were to update the link relevancy to "nofollow", would I regain this value, or would some value be permanently lost?
My reason for asking...
I am considering removing the "nofollow" relevancy on one of my external links for testing purposes (SEO). Just curious if some SEOs would consider this risky.
Any opinion on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
It depends in my opinion, if you link to a high authority site it's also brings trust and value. If you disavow this link, it will not be followed, so you can't "tell" spiders that you want the best user experience. And yes, you lose some link juice.
I'm really interested in your test.
Hi @jaap,
Thanks for the reply. I currently link out to a national organization/association(which we are a member of) which is set to "nofollow". I guess either way, it would still be user-friendly. It's on a major service page, so I'm not sure if I'm up for testing out removing the relevancy. If I do, I'll let you know. Thanks
Yes, replacing dofollow external links with nofollow external links will make the website regain the lost link juice.
Hi @binayjha,
Appreciate the reply. So you would consider this safe to test and revert if necessary?
Thank you
Yes @jonduv, It is safe.
Hi @binayjha,
Okay, good deal. Thanks for the reply. Appreciate it.
Do-follow links pass SEO value and influence search rankings, while no-follow links signal search engines not to follow or give SEO credit. Balancing both helps maintain a natural link profile.