Do Google nofollow link will affect SEO in 2019?

Google announced a major change to how nofollow links are counted. Previously nofollow links were treated as a directive, meaning Google obeyed the nofollow, period. Starting today, for ranking purposes, Google is treating nofollow as a hint. This means that Google will decide whether to use the link for ranking purposes or not. This change impacts on-page SEO, content marketing, link building and link spam.

Google’s Official Statement on Nofollow Hints

This is Google’s official announcement of the change in nofollow links:

“When nofollow was introduced, Google would not count any link marked this way as a signal to use within our search algorithms. This has now changed.

All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow — are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search.

We’ll use these hints — along with other signals — as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems.”

Digital Marketing Community Still Absorbing Changes

Mark Traphagen, VP Content Strategy for AimClear commented on how the search marketing community is trying to understand the changes:

“Because Google not only redefined how it uses nofollow, but also added two new link attributes (sponsored and UGC), I can understand confusion among SEOs about what needs to be done, if anything. “

The Change Helps Sites Get Link Equity they Deserve

Link building expert, Julie Joyce the founder of Link Fish Media, brought up an interesting viewpoint.

It’s well known that websites automatically place nofollow links on all links. This creates what some say is an unfair situation in that these links should count. Google’s change opens up the possibility of websites obtaining the link equity and a ranking boost they deserve.

Here is how Julie explained it:

“…some sites automatically nofollow all links and that’s just their policy but it’s not good to just refuse to endorse what you’re linking out to.”

I asked Cyrus Shepard for his opinion and he offered his typically unique and nuanced view:

“I think this is good news for link builders, and the link graph overall, but a potential headache for publishers.

Even though most links still won’t “count”, this won’t stop folks from rushing to create comments, UGC, and Wikipedia edits with the hope that they might count, no matter how slim the possibility.

Rumors and misinformation will abound. Folks are already confused.

Good for Google for doing this, but the industry is going to need more clarification before this thing shakes out.”

Why Would Google Change Nofollow to a Hint?

Many people have said that there are less opportunities for links because nobody’s creating links anymore.

1. Forum traffic is down. There are less people on forums creating links.

2. Blogging is down. There are less bloggers publishing and creating links.

3. Video and Audio content does not generate links.

It could be that the link signal has become progressively weaker.

How Will Google Use Wikipedia Nofollow Links?

Wikipedia links could be viewed as a high value link. In general they are seen as high quality links because of tight editorial standards.

Adding Wikipedia links to Google’s ranking calculations could introduce a new way to improve the link signal, which could then trickle down and make the link calculations stronger.

Andrea Volpini, of AI Powered SEO for WordPress company WordLift said this about Wikipedia links :

“Most of today’s NLP/NLU (Natural Language Processing/Natural Language Understanding) is based on models trained on Wikipedia, links included.

Some of the NLP we use is also dependent on links found on Wikipedia’s article. The value of these links is strategic.

here is an example of how Wikipedia links can be used to extract knowledge patterns, Encyclopedic Knowledge Patterns from Wikipedia Links”

Wikipedia Nofollow Links for Ranking Purposes?

I asked Bill Slawski, Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital about the possibility of Google using Wikipedia links for ranking purposes:

“I hope not. They already do well enough. It wouldn’t be good seeing them spammed more.”

The Search Marketing Community Responds

Change May Incentivize Commerce in Nofollow Links

Discussing this with Bill Slawski, he brought a good point about how this change may cause an increase in the business of selling nofollow links.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m afraid that comment spammers will see an announcement like that as an invitation to spam.”

That’s a good insight. I’m a consultant and my business site is constantly under attack by spammers. I also publish several forums and informational sites and they too are under constant attack by spammers.

Nofollow links are already a commodity that is sold by people who insist they help sites rank. It’s possible that this change may fuel an increase in the commerce of nofollow spam links, especially blog, article, Wikipedia and forum spam.

Nofollow Hint Links May Lead to More Spam

UK digital marketing expert Gordon Campbell shared a similar opinion to Bill.

“If you have worked with large sites, especially eCommerce sites with lots of filtered pages, you’ll know that Google can be pretty bad at recognising the canonical URL.

If this proves to be the same with nofollow links, and Google aren’t accurate when it comes to understanding which nofollow links pass link equity, I suspect this will give a green light to blackhat SEOs and we will see a sharp increase in the use of techniques such as comment and forum spam.”

Nofollow Hints Takeaway: SEO Will Be Impacted

Google’s announcement changes how links for ranking purposes are calculated. The change introduces fairness because links that were arbitrarily nofollowed may now count. But the change may also introduce an increase in link spam. It’s certainly an opportunity for some to begin selling nofollow links.

Read Google’s official announcement

Evolving “nofollow” – new ways to identify the nature of links