DoFollow links and NoFollow links are the two options for adding links to anchor texts. Links are important because they lead to search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO is important because:

1)      Your page will appear on the fact page of Google’s results list. This increases your visibility.

2)      Most web surfers only consider the results on the first page of the results list. This means you will get more hits and consequently, more money.

Although many people do not consider the difference to be significant, the two options have several differences worth noting. Knowing these differences will help you choose the option that is best suited for your specific situation.

Difference between DoFollow and NoFollow Links

1)      With a DoFollow link, your website will receive the vote of the webmaster and this will increase your ranking. With a NoFollow link, you get no vote and so your ranking will not change.

2)      NoFollow links do not have unrelated ads to weblogs and other forums while DoFollow links does. DoFollow links are considered to be a dirty tactic, just as bad as spamming. The NoFollow attribute was developed by Google to fight DoFollow links. With DoFollow links, there is a risk that your whole site, or a single page, may be filtered out.

3)      You can use NoFollow links with large sites such as google.com, digg.com, and cnn.com. This is because these sites are already popular and nothing you do can break them.

4)      Most forum owners allow DoFollow links in the signature and add NoFollow links in the post body.

5)      NoFollow links are popular with bloggers because they add to the value of the blog. This is because search engines love fresh content and comments are one source of such content. Bloggers opt for NoFollow links because they know they can attract visitors if the visitors can benefit from the commenting.

You can determine the link you have by checking the page source or through Firefox add-ons such as Status Search.

Search engine optimization is important because:

• Most people consider what is on the first page of Google’s results list to be better than what is on other pages, although this is not always true.

• The higher the rank, the higher the chances that people will click on your website or blog.

• Most web users are usually too lazy to search for results outside the first page of the results list.

• With a high page rank, you will attract quality links.

All these factors will help you get more hits and consequently, you will make more money.

In recent years, Google has changed its algorithms to keep off people who over-optimize to get a higher ranking.

How do you know you have been penalized?

Google can penalize you for a single page or it can penalize your whole website. The plan of action for the two penalties is different.

1)      If your rank drops on almost all your keywords but you have a page that is still ranked, then Google is penalizing your pages.

2)      If you search for your website with keywords or key phrases that only your website has and you are still ranking low, this is an indication that Google has penalized the complete site.

How Google is Penalizing People for Over-Optimization

Google has several penalty filters and it filters out over-optimized websites or pages every 2 to 3 weeks. The more you have over-optimized, the more the ‘penalty points’ you will get and the lower you will rank.

Some search engine optimization techniques will get your ranking dropped by Google. You should therefore avoid techniques such as putting keywords in META tags, img titles, H1 tags, and link anchor text.

Google penalizes you slowly, with a drop of 5 to 10 spots, then about 30 spot, and then about 100 spots.