NoFollow links DO hold weight in Google... experiment

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by funlol, Jun 10, 2008.

  1. #1
    funlol, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  2. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #2
    astup1didiot, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  3. drbones

    drbones Peon

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    #3
    I participated in this experiment, and unfortunately I told a few people about it. Looks like somebody tried to sabotage the experiment after it was already complete by digging the url.

    On page optimization is not going to automatically outrank 10K other results, especially when the site HAD no dofollow links.
     
    drbones, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  4. WPOSolutions

    WPOSolutions Active Member

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    #4
    Ranking for the term "janked" in 2 weeks is certainly possible, the on page seo factors and that 1 link would certainly do the trick :) Try the experiment again but with something more competitive.
     
    WPOSolutions, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  5. drbones

    drbones Peon

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    #5
    I had this test complete nearly a week ago, and I should have taken a screenshot of the yahoo site explorer then (which I verified and it DID NOT contain a digg), but somebody I've shown has gone and digged the site in order to reduce my credibility.

    Take it as you will.
     
    drbones, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  6. wulawula

    wulawula Banned

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    #6
    sharp reviews. i go with you.
     
    wulawula, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  7. edual200

    edual200 Active Member

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    #7
    Not sure how that proves anything, 10k results and on first page and biggest reason is the domain and page title plus the other on page seo, most new domains get indexed with or without links, so suppose your no follow links didnt help youd still be indexed by google. i have ofer 30k "pages" on the first page of google for the keywords i try to rank for and most have about 100k results, no backlinks to any pages other then my homepage.

    if it helps my site has 400k pages indexed on google, my contactus.html and privacy.html both are linked to from all 400k pages with rel=nofollow, neither is indexed on google.
     
    edual200, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  8. onlineshopping

    onlineshopping Banned

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    #8
    Ssancdecki another vote for your expert comment.
     
    onlineshopping, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  9. SEO-Expert

    SEO-Expert Well-Known Member

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    #9
    It's good to see a webmaster performing SEO tests like this, but unfortunately the test was flawed from the start.

    The biggest problem is you picked a search phrase that is within the on page coding, the domain name of a site does help with that pages SERP. So janked.net should naturally rank high for an easy SERP like janked in Google etc... (little about this here http://www.seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial/domain-name-choice).

    Your test should have been something like one I've been running for 11 days now.

    Add a link or links with the nofollow attribute to any page you like and use anchor text that currently does not exist as a search phrase in Google. For example a search for SEOgobblemonstonk results in no pages found AND doesn't give any spelling suggestions (avoid results with spelling suggestions, can really mess tests up).

    Give it a month and if the nofollow attribute does what the search engines say it does you should only find the pages holding the nofollow link indexed. If the search engines are lying, since the anchor text of links is enough to result in a page being listed for a SERP: a good example used to be the Computers SERP, think it was Dell didn't have the word computers on the page, it's high position was all due to anchor text. with an easy made up SERP a single link will be enough to get both the linking out page and the linked to page indexed for that SERP.

    My 11 day old test has a single nofollow link from a comment on another site of mine. It's a WordPress blog so comments are automatically nofollow.

    If I told you the search phrase now and you searched for it you'd find one result and that's the page that's linking out. So far the linked to page is not listed.

    In a few weeks time I'll write it up as an article on one of my SEO sites with screenshots etc.. so when others decide to wreck the experiment (they always do unfortunately) I'll have documented the proof.

    Will then start the experiment again, but not publish the details so every month I can recheck the results to see if Google has changed. Got lots of SEO experiments like this running so I know when something changes quite quickly.

    If your trying to do an SEO test try to keep it simple, exclude as many variables as possible. The best SEO experiments cover one variable at a time, like the nofollow test I'm doing. As long as no one messes with the test the results will be conclusive.

    David Law
     
    SEO-Expert, Jun 10, 2008 IP
    Rivers likes this.
  10. Rivers

    Rivers Peon

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    #10
    Just as David said, it was flawed from the start. Can't explain it any better ;)
     
    Rivers, Jun 10, 2008 IP
  11. kappaknight

    kappaknight Peon

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    #11
    Would you say... "this experiment is janked!?"
     
    kappaknight, Jun 11, 2008 IP
  12. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #12
    Excellent post, atleast someone felt like going into the details :D
     
    astup1didiot, Jun 11, 2008 IP
  13. ericajoieake

    ericajoieake Guest

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    #13
    The keyword you use is a null keyword anyone can rank their website with that keyword. And any website uses their domain name as their keyword is an advantage and most of the search engines didn't use the nofollow, that is why that is the result in your experiment in just a few weeks, why don't you try to use the most competitive keyword according to your niche using with the same strategies. I assure to you its impossible to get a rank in google.
     
    ericajoieake, Jun 11, 2008 IP
  14. blueyes

    blueyes Greenhorn

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    #14
    You site is ranking, cause every domain has some power (even without incoming dofollow links), but you need to have at least 1 incoming link, to get indexed- it may be nofollow. Nothing new...
     
    blueyes, Jul 15, 2010 IP
  15. Groovystar

    Groovystar Peon

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    #15
    Always make sure too to use a backlink checker before you are sure of the results. Someone could easily link to your site without your knowing.
     
    Groovystar, Jul 15, 2010 IP
  16. JamesCF

    JamesCF Peon

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    #16
    Either way, from my own experiences, nofollows do hold weight, especially if the blog has some relevancy to your site..
     
    JamesCF, Jul 15, 2010 IP
  17. gocali2009

    gocali2009 Active Member

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    #17
    It's not worth going after no-follow imo, not when it's so easy to tell which are no-follow or do-follow with the Search Status plugin
     
    gocali2009, Jul 15, 2010 IP