No Follow vs Do Follow

I often wonder why advertisers always specify and will not approve a paid post if the link is rel=no follow. I know you are itching to know too. My curiosity peaked when one of our contest sponsor (for our upcoming contest, the biggest contest in blogniverse, I may add) commented that his link is NO FOLLOW. What’s the difference? At first I thought, a no follow link means a broken link. A link that when clicked won’t direct you to the page of that link. So I clicked on our sponsor link and was shocked to know that it is directed to his page.. huh? so what is the DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NO FOLLOW AND DO FOLLOW LINK?

Thank you so much Mr. G for providing the answer. And to save you from opening another window and searching for Mr G, here is an explanation that is easier for you and me.

Do follow links are links that is followed. That’s easy. Followed by whom? and where? Example, if your link is here in my blog and if it is a do follow link, the search engines will follow that link and will associate your site to my website.

A no follow link is simply a way of saying that a link should not be associated to your site. This is best done for sites that you think have malicious contents. So if you don’t wanna share your page ranks and all, use rel=no follow on your links.

In human terms, do follow means we’re friends and you know what they say about friends, tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. And with no follow it means you are not friends.

Should we really care if a link on our site is a no follow or do follow?

I don’t think for us there is much difference. We are unlike advertisers who paid for links. That’s why with them it is very important that their link are do follow. They are paying for Pagerank and stats association. That’s the reason why advertisers pays higher than the usual if your PR is higher, because you are also sharing to them your Page Rank.

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