I am participating in the Biannual Blogathon Bash!
This is a mini-challenge for the Biannual Blogathon Bash and anyone is welcome to participate and benefit from this mini-challenge, but only participants in the Biannual Blogathon Bash are eligible to win prizes for it!
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What is no-follow?
Google defines no-follow as “telling search engines ‘don’t follow links on this page’ or ‘don’t follow this specific link’.” I like to think of a no-follow link as I am providing my readers with the website, but I want the bots to see it as just words and not an actual link.
A recommendation from Google (who we know rules the cyber world) is to no-follow paid links. (Paid links would constitute posts that are written in return for compensation in terms of money or product – anything that has monetary value.)
If the link is paid, they are paying to influence search results which angers the Google people (which we do not want to do as they are the rulers of cyber space).
In fact, per Google’s paid post guidelines paid posts must be no-follow.
Google further recommends no-following untrusted content. (That could just end up ugly!)
You can see all of Google’s no-follow guidelines here.
How to No-Follow
To create a no-follow link, you would use the following format:
<a href=”url” rel=”nofollow”>title</a>
For example:
<a href=”http://lifeasleels.com” rel=”nofollow”>Life as Leels</a> = Life as Leels <– this link is a no-follow link meaning the bots will not follow this link
Links that are good to do-follow would be fellow bloggers or any other site that has not paid you to link to their site (another good reason to make sure you have disclosures on your posts).
Note: If you are on a self hosted wordpress blog, there is a plug-in to make life easier! The plug-in is called NoFollow Link. (If you need assistance installing this plug-in, please let me know!)
With this plug-in, you can just add the link in html as normal and then when in visual mode, highlight the link and hit the stops sign icon in the post tool bar to automatically install the no-follow code!
Mini-Challenge
For this mini-challenge, and to be eligible for the prize, I would like you to go through your posts from this past 5 days and no-follow any paid links.
Remember to come back and leave a comment that you completed the mini-challenge to be eligible for the prize!
About Leila
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Thanks for the clear explanation!! I put a link to this post in my blog post today!!!
http://newmommabeckers.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-design-in-works-stay-tuned.html
Rebecca Rider recently posted..New design in the works – stay tuned!!!
Aw, thanks! I appreciate that!
I didnt really have to do anything to my posts from the last 5 days because they were already no follow but I did go through my really old posts and I think I got through about 1/4 of them making all my links no follow. I feel pretty accomplished about this.
Kat B. recently posted..Summer Biannual Blogathon Bash Wrap Up
Good! Just do a little at a time when time allows so you don’t stress yourself out!
Thanks for reminding me about this once again – over here in the UK there are actually blogs which have been stripped of their page rank by google due to using follow instead of no-follow links. I haven’t had anything on my blog in the last week that requires no-follow links, but next time I’m typing up a review I will definitely use them. Well explained challenge – Thanks!
Erin @ American Mom in England recently posted..First Impressions – BritMums Live
Oh wow! I have not heard of anyone being stripped of their page rank, but I have heard that it lowers their rank
I just went through the last few weeks to make sure any review posts were nofollow. I’m definitely going to check out that plug-in, though, to save some time. (And, I wish I’d known that Windows Live Writer has it as an easy edit option before you even publish. I found that a few weeks ago and could have used it more than a year ago!)
Laura O in AK recently posted..Blogathon Mini-Challenge #2 ~ Blogging Notebook
Oh no! I hate finding things after the fact when they could have been beneficial before! There are lots of no-follow plug ins so just find what works for you!
Happy to say that I had only 2 posts that I had forgotten to no-follow that is now fixed thanks for this great mini challenge.
That’s great! I did 3 review posts today and had to go back and no-follow because I forgot to! LOL