Welcome to SEO Advantage’s Trivia feature, where we discuss, dissect and comment on the internet and marketing, and how the two intertwine.
Why did Google release nofollow?
- To combat blog spamming
- To make sure no one else could copy their business model
- To allow people to easily stop their Google Alerts
Nofollow is an HTML code that certain search engines use to determine which hyperlinks should be ignored when it comes to a site’s target rank. Nofollow was invented to try to combat blog spamming by lessening the effectiveness of spammy advertisements online. Nofollow was important because search engine algorithms were designed to rely heavily on website links. False (…or spammy) links would throw off PageRank and make the algorithm less effective.
When nofollow was released, its intention was to eliminate spam comments left on blogs that could have a negative impact on blogging efforts. Nofollow functions differently with Google than it does with the other major search engines. With Google, nofollow follows the link and doesn’t index it. With the other three major search engines (Yahoo!, Bing and Ask) nofollow works as written.
Like many other things in the technological world, the specifics of nofollow have changed since it was launched in 2005—largely due to the launch of PageRank, nofollow isn’t as widely used as it once was.
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