Do Nofollow and sponsored links still show up as a signal in your rankings?

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Ayanseo

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Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
 
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Ayanseo said:
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
Click to expand...
Hi!
I’ve noticed nofollow links can bring traffic and may help rankings, but proving a direct impact is difficult.

I think context matters more than link type and other SEO changes make it hard to confirm the real cause.
 
I have seen pages improve after getting nofollow links, but it is hard to say if those links were the reason. Other SEO changes can play a part too, so I would keep an eye on rankings and traffic before drawing any conclusions.
 
Some pages have been improved after getting nofollow links from the press mentions it seems, but it is not only the real reasons. For this I will track the rankings without making any changes on SEO and will see how the pages responding over the time.
 
They definitely count but only as entity and co-citation signals rather than raw link equity. From isolated tests on stagnant domains, a contextual nofollow inside a topically relevant article helps google map your site's entity, but UGC or sidebar nofollows are completely dead weight.
 
I couldn’t find a solid case proving that a page moved because its only new links were nofollow or sponsored. Small tests show some movement after adding in article nofollow links, but they couldn’t rule out every other cause and they didn’t compare article links with sidebars or comments. I found no convincing sponsored-link case.

That said, Parasite SEO can rank quickly because the article sits on a strong domain. A nofollow editorial link may help, but it’s hard to tell whether the link itself is passing ranking value or the host page’s authority is doing most of the work.
 
what I have learned about SEO that nofollow links are also good.
however, I would test it like one page with the link and other page with no link to see both if there is any difference in rankings. I would see both pages after google finds the page where we got link.
 
Ayanseo said:
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
Click to expand...
I have seen referrals come through nofollow link nd their rankings will be affected if they get traffic; but it is hard to tell whether this is becuaz of that specific link. I would focus on creating in-content relevant link nd waiting for a month or two.
 
Ayanseo said:
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
Click to expand...
In this case, I would like to say that despite the fact that nofollowed link might generate some gud referral traffic, it seems to be difficult to relate the change in ranking with one link. So, I would like to say that the focu needs to be made on content-based link.
 
Ayanseo said:
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
Click to expand...
surely google says they're hints now but in practice i've rarely seen a clear ranking jump from nofollow or sponsored links alone.
in article nofollows from real press feel a bit stronger than sidebar or comment ones, but still not something that i'd count on heavily
 
haven't ruled everything out but a few press mentions marked nofollow seemed to help a page move, mostly through brand visibility. in-article ones looked stronger than sidebar or comment links, which seemed to do almost nothing
 
Ayanseo said:
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
Click to expand...
I've always wondered about this too. The tricky part is separating the link's actual effect from other SEO changes happening at the same time. I'd be more interested in controlled tests comparing in-content links with sidebar or comment links than general ranking anecdotes.
 
Landed a sponsored mention on a mid-tier blog once and honestly couldn't tell if it moved anything. MelendesCanniff201's point about in-article nofollows from real press feels stronger though. Still wouldn't count on them alone.
 
In content nofollow links may help indirectly, but clear ranking gains remain unproven context and referral traffic matter.
 
Ayanseo said:
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints now, not strict commands. In theory that means some of those links can still count, but it is hard to find anyone who backs it with an actual case.

Has anyone seen a page move where the only new links were nofollow or sponsored, say press mentions or editorial links marked sponsored? I am after cases where you ruled out other changes, not general theory. Also whether the effect looked different for a link inside an article versus a sidebar or a comment.

What did you see, and how did you rule out the other things.
Click to expand...
The No-Follow or Sponsored links are not working campaire to Do-Follow Links. The Do-Follow links is much better working and helping websites to improve ranking than No-Follow and Sponsored.
 
I think nofollow and sponsored links can still be useful, especially for referral traffic, brand visibility, and a more natural link profile. It’s difficult to prove they directly improve rankings because other SEO factors can change at the same time.
 
I wouldn't say every no-follow or sponsored links will helps rankings. relevance and quality of the website and the link placements matters while rankings.
Personally I believe relevant link from the authority can works beyond just passing the link juice.
The fun part is you can't prove ranking impact without you tracked the campaign by ruled out other SEO changes.
To be straight, I wouldn't avoid a strong editorial link from the highly relevant authority website, just because it carried no-follow attribute
 
In my opinion, context matters a lot. A nofollow link inside a relevant article seems more valuable overall than one sitting in a random sidebar, even if the ranking impact is hard to measure.
 
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