The term ‘outbound link’ refers to a link which is meant to take you elsewhere. Outbound links are links which are going to take you to alternative webpage or website. Most, if not all, websites include outbound links.
There are two kinds of outbound links. These are nofollow and dofollow links:
- The dofollow link is a normal link. This type of link is a default link. It is not necessary to add to the code or to change anything. Just insert a link into your website and it’s automatically a dofollow link. A dofollow link is what every link should be like. The is because it passes on Google’s PageRank juice from your webpage to a targeted webpage.
- A nofollow link is an abnormal link. It does not pass on any of Google’s PageRank juice to the targeted webpage but, instead, it blocks off the Google PageRank flow. A nofollow link has a rel=”nofollow” tag inside the code. This tag tells the Google spider ‘not to follow’ the link.
Nofollow Links Are Valuable
As we said in the previous paragraph, nofollow links do not pass on PageRank. This means that using a nofollow link means that link will not pass PageRank to another page. On the one hand, Google cannot penalise you for linking to a site which is known to be a low-quality site. They also can’t penalise you for linking out too much. If you make use of a nofollow link this means that a link from your website bears no value to other websites, which means that is not likely that they will include you in announcements of new products or, alternatively, exciting developments. This is unless you already have a large user base and are on point with your digital marketing.
Many of the largest websites (such as CNN and the NFL) now place nofollow on all of their outbound links. This has the result that a link on their website has no PageRank value. However, links that come from these websites still have a high value owing to the quality as well as the size of their user base. Even a nofollow link has value as it gives potential visitors the chance to visit your website and expands awareness. Even a mention on a website without a link is valuable for increasing awareness.
