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Earlier If someone had asked me to draft a thousand-word article on this topic, one could easily guess my reaction.
First, Who’d waste an effort to build them?
And Second, Who’d write an article on this?
Yes, this would be my reaction back then 😛
But, here I am not only building links that we call no-follow but also writing about this unconventional, out-of-the league topic.
Over time, we have been hearing a lot of debates around this topic “Which is better: DoFollow or NoFollow?” and no wonder most of them are overstating the value of Do-follow back-links in one way or another.
But is there any site who is ranking really well on the SERP with the help of do-follow back-links only? Well, I am afraid, you can not recall a single website here.
However, having spent a good time in this ever-changing niche of SEO, I got this one thing very clear that links are links no matter do-follow or no-follow unless quality is not compromised.
Links establish your presence on the internet.
So, I repeat my question. Are No-follow links really important?
During one of my all-time favorite meet-ups with SEO friends, I raised this never-ending debate again. However, this time the debate had some clear motives and some clear conclusions as well. And I am more than happy to discuss them over here.
The main points of our debate were:
Before moving forward, check out this ultimate guide to do blog comments here.
Now, let’s not beat the bush around and come straight to the point of our overall discussion.
First, comes first-
In simpler terms, No-follow links give instruction to search engines to disregard the link so that it doesn’t pass any “link juice” to its targeted hyperlink.
Google’s official saying on No-follow links is: In General, We Don’t Follow Them.
However, an average user can not identify the difference between them.
Let’s try it:
I went to London Eye yesterday.
I went to London Eye Yesterday.
Can you tell me which one is no-follow and which is follow link here?
Yes, both look identical here and the difference is apparent only when one digs into their HTML code. The difference lies in the <rel> tag of HTML only.
This is how a no-follow link looks like:
And a follow link:
Some even say that a No-follow link doesn’t even influence the search engine rankings of its destination URL. Does this mean they are not worthy to make?
Well, This gives me my second sub-heading here.
Yes, they certainly do. I mean if that isn’t the case, why am I writing this blog. Right 😉
Ahrefs made this helpful study for all of us showing a correlation between Google rankings and various back link attributes.
This is a summary of what they found:
When you look closely, you’ll find that the correlation for the number of “do follow” backlinks is a little less than the total number of backlinks. This means Google values some no-follow links as well.
Tim, the CMO of Ahrefs also said,
Hence, In order to get the most out of your link building efforts, you need to maintain a healthy ratio of no-follow and do-follow links.
No-follow backlinks do have a potential secondary value that only they can bring to any SEO campaign. Like:
Now let’s come to the main point of the article.
Enough of facts and theories, let’s move to the execution part.
Yes, in this section of the post, I’ll let you know some techniques and some sites that will give you a no-follow back link in return of your efforts.
Let’s dig in the details.
You post a blog on your site and then what?
Sharing it on a social media platform is probably the second step most of us generally perform. That’s the reason we have optimized Og Tags with our blog posts.
But do you know these high traffic generator websites give you a no-follow link in return?
Yes! Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, they all give you an NF Back link. But don’t forget they are generally the biggest sources of your referral traffic.
The most powerful yet the most underrated link building technique of SEO is Blog commenting.
Why?
Just because it gives a no-follow link back in return, people think they add no value to their SEO campaigns. But as I have mentioned already in my previous blog, When done right, Blog commenting service can do wonders for your online identity. It is one of the best and easiest techniques to build no-follow backlinks.
I mean if it is not that useful, why big bloggers have all these comments on their blogs?
Article submission is one off-page SEO technique that every small or big SEO expert makes use of.
However, most of the free article submission sites leverage you with Do-follow backlinks but there are some sites that don’t, yet we love to contribute on such sites, again and again, Thanks to the high authority they bring along with them.
Here are some sites where you can get a no-follow link back.
| Website | DA | PA | Free/Paid |
| https://ezinearticles.com | 87 | 72 | Free |
| https://medium.com | 95 | 79 | Free |
| https://www.buzzfeed.com | 93 | 77 | Free |
| https://www.selfgrowth.com | 65 | 63 | Free |
| https://www.sooperarticles.com | 53 | 58 | Free |
| https://go2article.com | 32 | 42 | Free |
| https://www.articlization.com | 28 | 30 | Free |
| http://www.articleswrap.com | 31 | 48 | Free |
Forum posting and Q&A are one of the oldest SEO techniques where people get a chance to be a part of an online community to discuss their issues with real people. In short, here you tell people that you’re good in a certain niche( which the forum or a particular thread is about in the first place) and build trust and reputation for yourself.
When done correctly, these SEO techniques can:
Since anyone can register and post an answer to a thread, these Forums generally provide a no-follow link back.
| Website | DA | PA |
| http://community.sitepoint.com | 86 | 55 |
| https://forums.digitalpoint.com | 75 | 63 |
| https://forums.majorgeeks.com | 84 | 53 |
| http://forum.siteground.com | 85 | 59 |
| https://forums.guru3d.com | 82 | 53 |
Quora:
Launched in 2009, Quora today has 300 million active monthly users on its site, and I would wonder if you are not a part of this huge community.
No matter what industry you belong to, Quora is the best platform for all. It can be viewed as a “social” network that helps you to get high-quality traffic, boosts your authority and gives you more understanding about your audience. So if you haven’t started using Quora, now is the time.
Just look at the number of views this answer has 😲
Reddit:
Reddit is another online discussion site with a massive number of the user base. By creating an account on Reddit you are putting your foot forward into the community of 330 million active monthly users and the numbers are growing. Hence, you can see “the front page of the Internet” can give you a lot of exposure if the content is newsworthy here. However, do not accept a do-follow backlink from here.
In exchange for an NF link back, they give you huge brand exposure and targeted traffic for your business.
Through content distribution, people share and spread their valued content to their audiences and beyond. Some people confuse this term with social bookmarking, but these content distribution sites are way better than those old school bookmarking.
Although many SEO experts don’t entertain this technique very much, I personally like to do it because of the number of views I get in return.
Below are some content distribution platforms, I have in my hit list of getting high-quality no-follow backlinks.
| Website | DA | PA |
| https://www.scoop.it/ | 92 | 74 |
| https://flipboard.com | 91 | 69 |
| https://mix.com/ | 82 | 56 |
| https://triberr.com/ | 52 | 56 |
The importance of business citations doesn’t need an explanation since they are Mandatory.
Local business citations play a very crucial part in deciding your SERP positions by building a good link profile for your business. While most of the citation sites provide do-follow link backs, some sites are there providing no-follow in return. Well, this doesn’t mean we should not build a link on them.
| URL | DA | PA |
| https://www.yelp.com | 94 | 83 |
| https://www.f6s.com | 72 | 59 |
| https://www.showmelocal.com/ | 51 | 57 |
| https://ezlocal.com/ | 53 | 55 |
| https://www.cylex.us.com | 51 | 47 |
| https://www.merchantcircle.com/ | 73 | 65 |
Also Read our blog for free local business listing sites for USA.
Although No-Follow backlinks don’t give your ranks an immediate bump, they surely do improve your visibility and traffic which is the ultimate goal of marketing- Driving people to your website.
So now, It’s your turn!
Build a natural link profile for your website and boost overall authority metrics by building No-Follow backlinks.
