Tips to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress
December 22. 2020
Adding links to your website does much more than just giving people something to click on. They also play a very important role in search engine optimization. And here, we’re not talking only about linking to other sites. Internal links are also vital for marketing your website. Unfortunately, people seem to be concerned about setting up nofollow links. We understand that it may sound a little bit weird, but a line in code that tells search engines not to follow the path to its intended target shouldn’t scare you. To explain everything thoroughly, we decided to make a list of tips to add nofollow links in WordPress.
We’ll explain to you just how easy it is to add this small piece of coding, as well as why it’s so essential for you to do so. When you consider the bigger picture, you’ll realize that it may be crucial if you want to boost the SEO of your WordPress website. So, here’s what you need to know.
Why are Nofollow Links so Important?
If you’ve been in the SEO world for some time, you must have heard about the term many experts use called, link juice. It is used to describe the equity shared between linked sites. You can think of it as about creating a vote that the site you’re linking to is important to you.
And this link juice is the reason why people go so far and put so much effort into getting quality backlinks. The more links you get leading to your pages, the more important they’ll appear in search engine results.
Although backlinks don’t play the same almighty role they once had, link juice is still as important as it ever was. Especially if your goal is to perform well on sites like Google. On the other hand, not all links are viewed as the same today. Nowadays, it’s all about linking relevant content if you want to rank well.
How to Create Quality Links
It’s all about relevance when it comes to creating quality links too. And this implies for both inbound and outbound material. To get the best results, it’s advisable to use higher quality sites when linking without the nofollow command. This shows search engines that you’re referencing these quality sites and pages, and therefore, your content is viewed more favorably.
So, in essence, you’re adding nofollow links for the people, but not to be scored by search engines. It’s a safe way to link to a site that isn’t authoritative as you’ll shield yourself from negative repercussions from the SEO standpoint. You can also use this type of link as an addition to advanced techniques for improving link equity. There’s plenty of ways you can utilize it, and none of them is wrong if you follow the basic principles.
How to Add Nofollow to WordPress
WordPress is an extremely user-intuitive platform. So, it doesn’t surprise that using nofollow in it is as easy as clicking a checkbox. The next thing in the tips for adding nofollow links in WordPress is the explanation of what you need to do to be able to use the Title and Nofollow For Links plugin. The truth is that it hasn’t been updated in some time now, but it still works like a charm, and it’s free.
Here’s how to use this plugin:
- Go to the Plugins section of the WordPress dashboard panel.
- Click on the Add New button located on the top left.
- In the top right corner, search for Title and Nofollow for Links.
- Install and activate the plugin.
The plugin effectively modifies the link control in the WordPress editor by adding the nofollow control. You can check how everything functions by opening one of your existing posts or pages.
- Highlight the text like you want to edit it.
- Click the link button from the toolbar. (If you’re using visual editor click on the gear icon to open link options).
- Insert link window will open and in it, you’ll see a new checkbox available for Add rel=”nofollow” to link.
The plugin automatically does all the coding to make the link nofollow, so you don’t have to worry about it. If you change your mind about the link at any time, you can simply delete the rel=”nofollow” portion of the code and everything will be back to normal.
It’s also a smart idea to learn how to open external links in a new window in WordPress when creating these links. Although you want to give your customers a better experience and more information, you don’t want to draw them away from your website.
Other Plugins You Can Use
Fortunately, WordPress is loaded with linking plugins which you can use for various purposes. You don’t need much more than a little bit of know-how to be able to choose the best ones for what you need them. It’s a shame that most of the popular examples haven’t been updated in years. However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t work. In fact, some of the most usable plugins have been the same for more than five years.
It’s advisable to also install a few of the best 5 table plugins to show your data. This is a good way to track the progress of your backlinks and to check how your new nofollow examples are doing.
RS Nofollow Blogroll
This is a plugin that modifies how WordPress uses the blogroll function. Rather than sharing link juice with the sites and blogs you follow, these links are automatically modified to nofollow. This is something that’s proven to be very beneficial from the SEO point of view. Blogs you read or like may not be relevant to your site’s content. So, that’s something to keep in mind.
Genesis Footer Links Nofollow
If you’re a person that put lots of links in footers, you should know that these may not need to be followed by search engines. For instance, a link leading back to the creator of your theme doesn’t need to drain any of your link juice. Install Genesis Footer Links Nofollow to automatically change those and prevent search engines from going further.
And that would be all the tips to add nofollow links in WordPress we have for you today. It’s a feature that can be more than useful, but make sure not to abuse it.