No Follow
No Follow is a value given to rel attribute in anchor tag to tell search engine not to follow the link. It is often used for promotional or external link. When nofollow value is passed in rel attribute of an anchor tag, then it influences search engine optimization by not passing link equity.
With nofollow, the referral information is passed to the browser but the link is not followed. When you don’t trust any external link then use can use no follow. This simply instruct search engine to not pass link equity to owners. When you are using a trusted info rich link, for example: govt link or Wikipedia link, then it is advised not to use nofollow to get link equity/juice.
In WordPress, Links opening in new tab has a by default rel value nofollow. But, if you have custom coded website, it is recommended to add the rel=”nofollow” to all your external links in the source code.
Example of No Follow
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<a href="https://w3wiki.org" rel="nofollow">Go to w3wiki</a>
<!--Link Juice will not be passed to w3wiki.org-->
</body>
</html>
When to use No Follow
If your site includes sections where users can post content, such as comments or forums. In this case adding nofollow to user-generated links can prevent spam and ensure that search engines don’t follow links to low-quality or harmful sites.
- External Link
- Untrusted/Spammy Link
- Promotional Link
Difference between no follow and no referrer in SEO
No follow and No referrer are the two html attribute which is often used with anchor tag. It is an important attribute in SEO which is used with Links for various purposes. Developers and SEO enthusiasts are often git confused about the difference between these two attributes. They are not clear about where to use no follow and where to use no referrer. Both has it’s own significance in search engine optimization.
Below is the difference between No Follow and No Referrer.