Every blogger eventually has to deal with comment spam on their blogs. It’s an issue that leads to the search engine optimization debate of implementing “no follow” on outbound comment links. This gives the spam link no authority on the page, so that the spammer’s website will not get an increased PageRank from the link.
SEOmoz unveiled an interesting search engine optimization (SEO) study analyzing this “no follow” policy on blogs. SEOmoz suggests that “there is overwhelming evidence that… there is much more value in link building and creating content that is link-worthy than obsessing over search engine algorithm fluctuations like PageRank sculpting.”
Their “experiment” tested five PageRank sculpting methods for search engine optimization that include the standard mechanism for nofollowing a link (rel=”nofollow”). They tested the method over a two month period and duplicated it on over 40 unique domains. SEOmoz’s findings suggest that nofollow is the most effective method for PageRank sculpting, suggesting to blogs that it’s almost essential for them to implement nofollow.
Their experiment has been praised but also criticized. Search engine optimization forums and sites like SEO Theory claiming SEOmoz’s experiment was based on vague and unreliable data and furthermore encourages readers to take the results with a grain of salt. They infer that nofollow’s effectiveness has been hotly debated, with Google deciding that “so many Websites were screwing up their search visibility with [nofollow] on internal links that they felt compelled to… chang[e] how they handled PageRank on pages with ‘nofollowed’ links” this past June. SEO Theory stresses that SEOmoz’s experiment failed to incorporate this fact.
Critics suggest that SEOmoz release a more in-depth study for what they have done, with all the raw data and results so that the search engine optimization industry can analyze it.
For our readers, what do you think of the experiment? What is your personal opinion on “nofollow?”
Written by: Daisy K.