A no follow link is an HTML attribute that is used to give instructions to search engines that the hyperlink is not to influence the ranking of the search engines index. A no follow link is designed to reduce the effectiveness of search engine spam and improve the overall quality of the search engines results.

Because of the number of spams spreading over the net, In 2005 Google designed the idea of a no follow attribute to a link to eliminate these spams. The no follow link is not for blocking access to web content, only for preventing the content to be indexed by the search engines.

Hyperlinks that include the rel=”nofollow” attribute will not influence the links target page rank or block any content. Although this was a Google design and is copyright owned by Google many other search engines have began using the attribute value as well such as, Yahoo, Windows Live Search, and Bing.

The search engines are not to literally not follow the link; they are supposed to only not index the link in their search engine databases. The link is still able to be clicked and the page will load, no content will be blocked it is just meant to reduce the indexing and spam that comes across in search results. Google for example, states that the no follow link be taken literally and the link will not be followed at all but in reports done for SEO purposes it shows some conflict to this. Google actually follow the no follow link but does not indexed the links on their linked page. Yahoo will follow the link but does not include it in any of its ranking calculations, while MSN Search treats the no follow link as not counting it or following it. Search Engines have heir own algorithm to follow on how to identify a no follow link.

The majority of weblog software programs will automatically submit links with the no follow attribute and not give any options to change or alter this. There are some programs that will allow alterations from trusted users and others will allow them to be submitted as the writer wishes and then use human editors to remove any unwanted links.

The no follow link protects web owners from unwanted content on their site. Many web owners will begin a blog or forum posting to encourage fresh content to be displayed on their page and increase the overall page rank of the site. Negative links to a site could give serious downfall on a websites Pagerank so the no follow link allows the bloggers to leave links but protects the webpage owners from taking negative hits.

Google has began using the no follow links as a machine readable disclosure for paid links and therefore keeping them from gaining any credibility in the search engines results. The web owners are still debating over whether or not the no follow links are protecting them or hurting them as many pages are paying for links to be traded on their site in hopes of increasing their page rank. The no follow link has been contradicted many times over where SEO is concerned and it depends on the web owner as to if they allow them on the site or not.