Sharing links on Google+ as DoFollow or NoFollow | RankWise

This article is meant as a HOW-TO on sharing internet pages, or any other internet resource, on Google+ using DoFollow hyperlinks. In this article the concept of nofollow is explained as also the difference between DoFollow and NoFollow links. Furter I will explain how to post a blog article / internet page to Google+ as a DoFollow link. This how-to on sharing on Google+ is written in for a non technical audience and intended for professional and or advanced users of social media and Google+.

Sharing a link on Google+ as a NoFollow hyperlink

All that we need to remember when it comes to recognizing NoFollow hyperlinks is that it will always contain the attribute rel=”nofollow” in the HTML source code for the link. Below is the HTML code for the post The complete Google Authorship markup Cheat Sheet post that I shared with the Google+ community Google Authorship & Author Rank.

The above screen grab is an example of a link to a blog post that is shared as a NoFollow hyperlink on Google+. We can see this for ourselves by looking up the HTML code for the any hyperlink. If the tag contains the attribute rel=”nofollow” than it is what is what we call a NoFollow link. For the example used here we can clearly see that the hyperlink has the attribute rel=”nofollow” what we now know makes it a NoFollow link. The below HTML source code is taken from the above post on Google+ and is the hyperlink tag for the link that is visible in the screen grab directly above Read more.

Example HTML tag for a NoFollow hyperlink on Google+

<a href="http://www.google-plus-marketing.com/google-authorship-markup-cheat-sheet/" class="ot-anchor" rel="nofollow">http://www.google-plus-marketing.com/google-authorship-markup-cheat-sheet/</a> 

Which links are NoFollow on Google+?

The answer is straight forward and simple as:

All links / URL's shared on Google+ are NoFollow except for URL's / links shared as a link!
So only those URL's / internet page or other resources that we share as a link on Google+ are DoFollow links. How to share a URL as a link is explained next.

Google+ and DoFollow hyperlinks

A DoFollow link is a hyperlink that does not contain the attribute rel=”nofollow”. The fact that this is all that constitutes a DoFollow hyperlink is what causes lots of people to find the concept of NoFollow to be confusing in the beginning. This also leads to the common misconception that a DoFollow link contains an attribute stating that it is a DoFollow link. The fact of the matter is that such an attribute does not exist for DoFollow so if you thought this  then you should forget this as soon as possible. Instead try to accept that:

a DoFollow link is simply a link without the attribute rel=”nofollow”.
It might help to know that DoFollow is an informal name that is widely used on the internet but that you will not encounter in any of the technical standards where the NoFollow concept is discussed as it's not a formal concept.

How to share a URL / link as DoFollow on Google+

If we want to share an internet page like a blog post as a DoFollow link on Google+ than we should share the URL as a Link on Google+. We do this by going to Google+, click the Share button and then choose the option Link and then enter the URL of the internet page we want to share there.  This is what is commonly referred to as something like sharing as a link on Google+.

The above screen grab shows how to share a URL as a DoFollow link on Google+ by sharing it as a link on Google+.

How Rel="nofollow" is used on the internet and by Google Search

The NoFollow concept is not unique to Google+ and is the standard on the internet by which search engines are informed on how they should handle a specific hyperlink on an internet page when it comes to passing PageRank to the page linked to and if it should be indexed by the search engine. The standard is that nofollow links do not give PageRank to the page pointed to and it also tells the search engine not to index the page.

In the above movie Matt Cutts (Chief Search Engine at Google) explains how Google treats the nofollow attribute for hyperlinks it finds on the internet while crawling and indexing content. The movie was published in 2010 but this does not matter for the purpose of this article as the concept of nofollow has not fundamentally changed since then.

Frequently asked questions and answers

1. Why should I post DoFollow links to Google+? Answer
2. When should I use a DoFollow / NoFollow link on Google+? Answer
3. How does Google handle nofollowed links? Answer
4. How can I see what links are DoFollow / NoFollow without needing to have to look in the HTML code? Answer

1.  Why should I use a DoFollow link when sharing on Google+?

Google+ indexes the sources for DoFollow links on Google+ almost instantly providing that the source and author are in good standing with Google Search. Also a DoFollow link gives PageRank to the page the link points to. When a DoFollow link is shared on Google+ it remains a DoFollow link. This means that if someone reshares a post that contains a DoFollow link that it will also be placed as a DoFollow link as part of the reshare the Google+ page or profile it's shared on. Note that PageRank for a DoFollow link on Google+ will not give the source pointed to the PageRank from the domain plus.google.com. This is not the same as PageRank for 'regular' DoFollow links on the internet and it's effects is still debated amongst the experts. Most are in agreement that it is good for the SERP position of a page.    

2. When should I use a DoFollow / NoFollow link on Google+?

This all depends on what our priorities and goals are when sharing a URL / link on Google+. The DoFollow link gets picked up by Google Search almost instantly and causes Google Search to index the page and this is what we want when we publish a completely new internet page / article. A attractive image is more appealing for the intended audience on Google+ an will attract more attention what leads to more engagement. So if your internet page / post is already shared one as a DoFollow on our profile or page then using an image for which we add the link / URL to the header texts is a good option. The fact that it is nofollow does not mean we should not utilize this possibility even more because posting in this manner still creates social signals like reshares, +1 and comments for the source of the link.    

3. How does Google handle nofollowed links?

“In general, we don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.” source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569?hl=en

4. How can I see what links are DoFollow / NoFollow without needing to have to look in the HTML code?

We can use a variety of tools an plugins for this. I myself can recommend the  Chrome extensions NoFollow which is found in the Chrome Web Store via this link https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nofollow/dfogidghaigoomjdeacndafapdijmiid. After activating the plugin first reload any page for which you want to see which links are nofollow as they are highlighted by the plugin. All links that are not highlighted are DoFollow links. 

Sources and acknowledgements: Google+ post: +1s Can Indirectly Cause Search Results to Improve (+Kristoffer Howes)