When was the last time you reviewed your site’s backlink profile? A diverse range of links is essential for improving your SEO performance, reducing the risk of penalties, enhancing your domain authority, and increasing referral traffic.
In this blog, Ignite Visibility’s digital PR expert, Lauren Roberts, will shed some light on often overlooked links, including nofollow, sponsored and UGC links, and explain how you can use them to improve your SEO strategy.
My Expert Opinion On Nofollow Links and Other Important Links
When optimizing pages for SEO, many people may prioritize dofollow links to ensure search engine bots see their designated pages. However, emphasizing the importance of some other critical link types can further help with search engine rankings.
Three of the main types of links to consider include nofollow links, sponsored links, and UGC links, each of which can supplement dofollow links to help your content rank and boost your website’s overall performance in search engines.
Correctly implementing different link types will help prioritize links that will affect your SEO. The key is knowing how these links work and when and where to use them in your SEO strategy.
Nofollow Backlinks
So, “What is a nofollow link?” In short, nofollow links are specifically tagged links indicating certain links that search engine robots shouldn’t crawl. They’re ideal for marking pages that won’t likely have a significant impact on SEO, which redirects bots’ focus toward links that will positively impact SEO.
Here is an example of how a nofollow link will look in your website’s code:
Why Are Nofollow Links Important?
These link types can benefit you in a number of ways. For example, they could help prevent spam that might otherwise negatively impact your SEO efforts. Additionally, they can keep your website from inadvertently endorsing certain types of content, such as gambling and other questionable topics.
When using them as backlinks, they can drive more traffic to your site without hurting your backlink profile. They can also work as gateways leading to dofollow links, as people clicking on nofollow links to your site could eventually create valuable dofollow links that bring even more value to your SEO strategy.
When Should I Use Nofollow Links?
There are some situations when it’s best to use nofollow links, including:
- You don’t want to associate with a linked page: A nofollow link could be useful if you’re linking to a page with content you don’t necessarily endorse, such as when you need to link to a website selling e-cigarette products without the intention of promoting vaping. You might also simply not trust these links. In any case, including this attribute in these links will protect your website’s reputation.
- You’re including paid links: Whether a sponsored link is leading back to your website or from another site linked on yours, you would want also want to include the nofollow attribute.
- You link to irrelevant content: You may use these links if you’re linking to a page with content that’s not directly associated with your industry. For instance, you might link to a news website with an article that’s disconnected from your niche.
What Is the Value of A Nofollow Link?
Until March 2020, it was believed that nofollow links had no impact on search engine rankings.
However, Google has since decided to treat the nofollow attribute as a “hint” rather than a directive, meaning that in some cases, nofollow links may be used for crawling, indexing, and even ranking purposes.
So, are nofollow links still worth going after? They can still provide indirect value by:
- Driving traffic to your site
- Increasing your brand’s visibility
- Leading to more “dofollow” links in the future
Plus, with Google’s new stance on nofollow links, they could potentially have an impact on your rankings. So yes—nofollow links are still worth the chase.
And in 2019, Google introduced new attributes for nofollow links: “sponsored” and “UGC” to better understand the nature of links on the web. This marked a significant shift from the traditional binary model of “follow” or “nofollow” links, giving a more nuanced understanding of the link landscape.
Sponsored Links
A sponsored backlink is a link that has been paid for and marked as such. It’s a shoutout from one website to another, with a little cash changing hands to make it happen.
This is what a sponsored link would look like:
Why Are Sponsored Links Important?
Now, onto the million-dollar question—what’s the value of a sponsored backlink?
1. Brand Awareness: Think of it as a billboard on the digital highway, where traffic never stops. When a popular site links to your site, it’s like they’re hoisting up a giant neon sign saying “Check this out!” You’re getting your name in front of their audience, and that’s priceless.
2. Referral Traffic: A sponsored backlink is like a bridge. It connects the audience of the site where the link is placed, to your site. If they like what they see, they’ll cross that bridge and end up on your website. It’s a great way to (potentially) increase your traffic.
3. Potential Conversions: Now, this is where the magic happens. Once those visitors have crossed the bridge and landed on your site, they’re potential customers. If you’ve done your job right, and your site is filled with fantastic, compelling content (or products, or services), then these visitors might just turn into customers.
4. Ensured Transparency and Compliance: Google has specific guidelines in place indicating the importance of properly tagged links for SEO. Having the sponsored tag for paid, affiliate, and ad links will keep your liking strategy transparent and compliant, which can help your SEO. As such, you can avoid ptoential penalties while clearly labeling paid links within your content.
As for strategies to get sponsored backlinks, it’s all about relationships: Networking, outreach, and building relationships with influencers, bloggers, and other industry figures are the way to go.
When Should I Use Sponsored Links?
There are a few key situations when you should implement sponsored links, such as:
- The link is a form of advertisement: If a link is advertising a brand, product, or service, you may want to include the rel=sponsored tag in the link.
- You include a paid link: If your link is the result of any form of payment, let search engines know it’s a paid link with the sponsored link attribute.
- You’re using an affiliate link: Any affiliate links on your website should also include the rel=sponsored tag to indicate their status to Google, whether the link involves direct payment or commissions.
What Is the Value of a Sponsored Links?
Does a sponsored backlink have any SEO value? In the past, the answer was a resounding “No!” because Google didn’t use nofollow links (which included sponsored links) for ranking.
But since 2020, Google’s stance has shifted, and they now treat nofollow attributes, including sponsored and UGC, as “hints” which may be used for ranking in some cases.
Google still primarily uses these attributes to understand the link graph rather than as a strong ranking signal.
And remember, transparency is vital—always disclose sponsored links to stay in good graces with both your audience and search engines. More specifically in regards to your audiences, transparency equals more credibility, helping your business’s reputation.
So while sponsored backlinks may not be the golden ticket to top Google rankings, they can still offer considerable benefits in terms of brand awareness, referral traffic, and potential conversions.
UGC or User-Generated Content Links
A UGC (User-Generated Content) link comes from content that users contribute, such as blog comments, forum posts, or any other form of user input. The rel=ugc tag in links will let search engines know that the content is user-generated to potentially affect SEO performance.
The Importance of UGC Links
Adding the UGC link attribute to your user-generated content can have certain benefits, including:
- Better content management: Using these attributes in comments and other content can make it easier to manage this content type on your website.
- Protect your reputation: You’ll also maintain transparency and compliance with search engine guidelines by clearly indicating to Google what types of links are on your site. These links could also have an indirect impact on SEO.
When Should I Use UGC Links?
You’ll want to incorporate the UGC tag for links in the following pieces of user-generated content:
- Comments
- Reviews
- Forum posts
- User profiles
- Any other types of UGC content
What’s the SEO Value of a UGC link?
When it comes to SEO, the benefits of UGC links are a topic of debate. Google has stated that it treats all nofollow directives, including UGC, as “hints” for ranking purposes.
This means that while they might not directly impact ranking, Google reserves the right to consider them if they wish. It’s like a subtle nod from Google saying, “I see what you did there, and I might just take that into account.”
However, the SEO value is not the only way UGC links can be beneficial—they can also be powerful tools for driving traffic to your site.
Imagine a user stumbles upon a link to your business in a forum thread or blog comment while searching for solutions to their problems. This could lead them straight to your website, turning a casual browser into a potential customer.
Additionally, UGC links can significantly boost your brand awareness.
Think about it this way: every UGC link is like a mini billboard for your brand, displayed to all users viewing that content. And in the world of the internet, that could be a sizeable crowd.
So what’s the true value of a UGC link? It might not always bring you immediate tangible benefits (like a direct boost in SEO rankings), but it helps build relationships, fosters trust, and subtly spreads the word about your brand.
So are UGC links worth acquiring for your business? Absolutely! They’re your chance to mingle, make an impression, and, who knows, even woo a few customers your way!
Practical Implementation of Nofollow and Other Link Attributes
While nofollow, sponsored, and UGC links can work separately, you may want to use multiple tags where it makes sense to do so.
For instance, you might use several attributes to indicate when a link is in sponsored user-generated content, which might look something like:
You could also combine the rel=nofollow tag with UGC or sponsored links. An example of this would inclued a link that sponsored or paid while also letting search engines know that they shouldn’t follow it:
Tools & Plugins to Incorporate Nofollow Links and Other Tags
If you want to add these attributes to your links, you can easily do so in your website’s CMS.
For example, WordPress allows you to add relevant tags by taking the following basic steps:
- Choose the anchor text in your content to use as a hyperlink.
- Click on the link icon to add the desired link.
- Choose the elliptical (…) menu and click on “Edit HTML.”
- Add the desired tag to the link in the appropriate location.
You can also use various plugins for your CMS to further simplify this process, including:
FAQs
Have more questions about nofollow links or other types of rel tags? Here are some frequently asked questions and answers to give you more guidance:
1. Do you need to stop using nofollow links with sponsored or ugc links?
Put simply, you should continue to combine them when it’s appropriate to do so. Don’t consider the rel=nofollow tag different from sponsored or UGC tags. If you have sponsored or user-generated content you don’t want search engines to scan, combine the nofollow tag with others.
2. Are nofollow links good for SEO?
Even if nofollow links don’t have a direct impact on your SEO, they can still benefit your SEO in certain ways. One benefit of using links with nofollow tags is the ability to attract more traffic to your website, and you can balance your backlink profile with the help of these links.
3. Do nofollow links count as backlinks?
Yes, these links do still count as backlinks, making them an important component of off-page SEO. They differ from dofollow links in that dofollow links have the goal of distributing website authority between the linking and linked site, whereas nofollow tags indicate that the linking site doesn’t vouch for the linked site.
Fully Optimize Your SEO Now
Want to succeed with your SEO strategy? Nofollow, UGC, and sponsored links can help by indicating which links for search engines to follow and which to avoid, supplementing other efforts.
To get the most from these assets and others in your campaigns, consider reaching out to the experts at Ignite Visibility. We’ll work with you to develop a complete strategy that incorporates nofollow links and other SEO elements, which could otherwise require a lot of time and effort on your end.
Whether you need help with SEO or other digital marketing efforts, we’ll work with you to develop a winning strategy.
Our professionals can help:
- Determine which links warrant the nofollow, sponsored, or UGC tag
- Build a network of authoritative backlinks
- Revamp your internal linking strategy
- Develop and curate top-quality SEO-optimized content
- Integrate all on-page and off-page SEO elements for a complete strategy
Sound good to you? Get in touch with us to speak with a member of our team today and learn how we’ll approach your next strategy.
