Google: No Nofollow Linking Penalty

Jul 2, 2012 - 8:45 am 38 by

nofollowDo you have an awful lot of sites linking to you with the nofollow attribute appended to the link? Are you worried Google uses that as a signal to not trust your site? Google's John Mueller said don't worry, it won't hurt you.

In a Google Webmaster Help thread, John Mueller of Google said having a lot of links with nofollows pointing to you won't have a negative impact on your site.

John wrote:

Having links (even a large number of them) with rel=nofollow pointing to your site does not negatively affect your site. We take these links out of our PageRank calculations, and out of our algorithms when they use links.

It obviously won't help you either but it shouldn't hurt.

I am a bit surprised by this, because if 90% of the links pointing to my site were nofollowed, I'd think that would raise a red flag. Of course, assuming I had a substantial number of links.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 15, 2024

Mar 15, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Previous Story: Fake Google Webmaster Support Phone Calls