This morning I woke up to an article by Sam Harrelson about “nofollow” attributes to all outgoing links from Wikipedia. In his article Sam raises question about the SEO effects of “nofollow” attributes should other social media sites choose it as a solution to combat the spam on their sites.
While I am not that worried about Wikipedia, it looks like Sam is onto something. I often check the page strength of my websites at SEOmoz. Their tool factors in links from Wikipedia, and for a while I was planing to contribute to Wekiedia in hopes to get an incoming link to my website. Of course now it is no longer a priority for me, and I wonder how many other Wikipedia contributors will feel the same. It will be interesting to see if SEOmoz will remove the Wikipeida factor from their page strength toll?
While reading Sams article I have learned (from Scott Jangro’s comment) that there is already a plug in for WordPress users that will give all outgoing links to Wikipedia from your blog “nofollow” attributes. This in effect is form of retaliation for Wikipedia move on “nofollow” move on their part.
But most unfortunate thing is that I have learned today from both Sam and Scott, is that WordPress per default has “nofollow” attributes for the links in the comment area of your blog. Fortunately they have directed me to “dofollow” plug in and my blog will give credit to links in comment area from now on.
Good insight.
I need to look into the SEOmoz site to see how the nofollow fad could really shake things up.
Thanks, Vlad!
I was trying to look it up myslef few minutes ago, but their page strength tool is down. Maybe they are already working to adjust this recent change. If I remeber correctly the value of Wikipedia at SEOmoz was quiet big. I believe my blog had about 1000 incoming links according to Yahoo! and SEOmoz attributed only about 20% on their scale. While only one link from Wikipedia would give you a whooping 40% or so.
Good insight.
I need to look into the SEOmoz site to see how the nofollow fad could really shake things up.
Thanks, Vlad!
I was trying to look it up myslef few minutes ago, but their page strength tool is down. Maybe they are already working to adjust this recent change. If I remeber correctly the value of Wikipedia at SEOmoz was quiet big. I believe my blog had about 1000 incoming links according to Yahoo! and SEOmoz attributed only about 20% on their scale. While only one link from Wikipedia would give you a whooping 40% or so.
I have often questioned the value of Wikipedia off-site links and this just confirms it. However, a nofollow link from there could still potentially drive traffic to your website, so it may still be worth pursuing as a link building strategy.