32 replies to this topic

[Jill]

What do you guys think about the value of anchor text on links that are using the nofollow attribute?

Has anyone studied this at all?

I would have assumed that if Google truly discounts links with the nofollow attribute, they would give no power (link juice, whatever) to the anchor text of those links.

However, I noticed something today that makes me wonder. Of course, basing any conclusions on one instance is just silly, which is why I'm wondering what others thing and, or if we could do some additional tests.

I had made a comment over at SEOmoz in their Ron Paul thread and made mention that my daughter Corie's blog post was ranking #21 for Ron Paul abortion and used the phrase "Ron Paul abortion" as the anchor text pointing to her post. The link, like all SEOmoz links has the nofollow attribute on it and was made a little over a week ago.

Today, when I checked for fun where her post ranked for the phrase (I'm holding myself back from linking to it here so as not to skew things!), her post had moved up to #13 in Google for that phrase. Coincidence? Just normal Google fluctuations?

Or does G actually give nofollowed links some anchor text juice? And if so, do they actually give it some PageRank as well, regardless of what they officially state?

[dharrison]

Hi Jill

Nofollow must reduce some of the juice but not entirely by the looks of it. having said that SEOmoz is very reputable (every other SEO site I've gone to of late has at least one resourcelink to SEOmoz.

Is "Ron Paul Abortion" a popular key phrase on that side of the pond?

[Jill]

No, it's not an extremely competitive keyword phrase, but Ron Paul is a U.S. Presidential candidate who has a controversial stance on the abortion issue, so it does get talked about.

Deb, what makes you say this:

Nofollow must reduce some of the juice but not entirely by the looks of it.

Have you observed this phenomenon previously? I'm really interested in hearing from people's direct experience with this.

[markov]

Even if it has nofollow link, I'm sure it does have some positive effect for its anchor text. Google definitely loves ANCHOR TEXT.

[Jill]

Why are you so sure of that Markov? The idea of nofollow is to not trust what is being linked to. So it is completely backwards of they are actually giving the anchor text some juice, no?

[dharrison]

Deb, what makes you say this:
Have you observed this phenomenon previously? I'm really interested in hearing from people's direct experience with this.

Sorry. I meant based on what you said in your original post. I haven't felt the need to use nofollow yet. If I have to refer to another site (ie a competitors ) I either break the link or give clues.

[Randy]

I have no clue Jill, but the premise that the nofollow'd link would pass anything would at first glance fly in the face of the pronouncements Matt Cutts has made on the subject. Why (and how?) in the world could anchor text pass if no link reputation at all is being passed to the target page, as Matt C has espoused?

It should be easy enough to test though. Simply setting up a link to a previously non-existent page that uses a silly phrase for anchor text that isn't included in the target page. Then see if the target page ever ranks for the silly phrase, or only if the linking page shows up since it's the only place where the phrase should appear.

I'll set up a test or two as soon as my brane kicks in and I can find a couple of phrases that bring up no results. Hopefully some others will test it too so we can compare results. Don't let me forget to check on it in a week or two.

[Jill]

I think that's a good idea, Randy. But regardless of what such a test would show, I wonder if it could possibly make a difference based on the trustedness (or authority) of the site in question. For instance, perhaps a wikipedia nofollowed link might pass anchor text juice, but a brand new site with the same sort of link might not?

In which case, SEOmoz being a somewhat trusted authority could indeed pass anchor text juice. On the otherhand, that would be silly to allow since comment links are very rarely worth trusting.

[nethy]

I would like to see if adding a nofollow attribute to links after they have already been indexed would have an effect. See if we can drop a page in & out of a SERP this way.

[Randy]

I'll add that to my test nethy, since I haven't had a chance yet to set it up. What can I say, I get a lot of real site development work done on Saturday's and Sunday's while everybody else is taking the day off and leaving me alone.

It's a good point to raise Jill. I'll make sure I run at least some of the tests on one of my Development-only domains that has basically no authority since it's never been a real, live site. If it appears to pass the anchor text juice too it may allow us to rule out the Authority of a domain having a effect.

[coolslko]

What do you guys think about the value of anchor text on links that are using the nofollow attribute?

Has anyone studied this at all?

I would have assumed that if Google truly discounts links with the nofollow attribute, they would give no power (link juice, whatever) to the anchor text of those links.

However, I noticed something today that makes me wonder. Of course, basing any conclusions on one instance is just silly, which is why I'm wondering what others thing and, or if we could do some additional tests.

I had made a comment over at SEOmoz in their Ron Paul thread and made mention that my daughter Corie's blog post was ranking #21 for Ron Paul abortion and used the phrase "Ron Paul abortion" as the anchor text pointing to her post. The link, like all SEOmoz links has the nofollow attribute on it and was made a little over a week ago.

Today, when I checked for fun where her post ranked for the phrase (I'm holding myself back from linking to it here so as not to skew things!), her post had moved up to #13 in Google for that phrase. Coincidence? Just normal Google fluctuations?

Or does G actually give nofollowed links some anchor text juice? And if so, do they actually give it some PageRank as well, regardless of what they officially state?

Well.....links with nofollow attribute, are not consider as a backlink by google and anchor text of these links have no link juice in terms of google but still they are valuable in terms of traffic. Suppose you have posted a comment on blog or forum and if it is to the point or eyecatching then visitor must follow your link to know more about you through your link that may always help to increase traffic to your site........so I think however nofollow links ar not consider as backlink but still have value a lot....isn't it

[Jill]

Well.....links with nofollow attribute, are not consider as a backlink by google and anchor text of these links have no link juice in terms of google but still they are valuable in terms of traffic.

Yes. But that was not the question.

[Ahmed]

She's saying that the nofollow link seemed to pass a "vote". Testing would be fun I'll get on it lol

OK well I setup a domain name for the silly keyword and I'm giving it a try hehe If there are any tips or suggestions people have for this test you can post them and I"ll try to make them work. It would be nice if we can do a series of tests as a community.

So far the domain name and the page have nothing to do with the keyword as randy suggested. I'm just going to blog about the test and link to it to see if anything happens.

[nethy]

Anchor Text And Nofollow Links, Do they really pass no juice?

In light of recent events, May I suggest that nofollow links pass on PR, just not toolbar PR? Maybe there is a whole other category of juice, toolbar juice.

[nethy]

I'll add that to my test nethy, since I haven't had a chance yet to set it up. What can I say, I get a lot of real site development work done on Saturday's and Sunday's while everybody else is taking the day off and leaving me alone.

Thanks Randy. Let me know how long I have to come up with the entire list of research questions for adding to your expirement.