Is Google And SEO On A Collision Course?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, September 4, 2008

There have been several times when Google have stated they have no problems with the search engine optimization industry or SEO consultants. However, Google seems lately to be pushing nofollow linking whenever they can which ultimately will lead to a showdown between SEO, Google and perhaps website owners.

Google seem to be pressuring social networks into apply nofollow to many of the links. The latest journey down this path occurred on Twitter. Within an hour of Matt Cutts tweeting Twitter’s founders, the nofollow tag was applied. If you build profiles on social pages as part of your SEO strategy, perhaps it’s time for a rethink.

The social networking website Twitter already uses nofollow in many places, but not in the bio sections. I am with many others who question why bio’s or profiles need to be nofollowed. More importantly, why it is that Google wants these links nofollowed - is it to thwart the SEO work of website owners.

In what is probably a strange twist, rumor suggests that Google builds their own profiles of all users, ostensibly to provide targeted advertising. However, there is also the scope to associate web sites with users by collecting data from profiles and bio’s. They don’t want to follow the link for ranking purposes, but they will for data collection. This could provide them with a lot of important data.

Social media over time could prove to be more valuable as a guide to authority than backlinks. Google it seems wants to be sure it is all done under their conditions. I can see a collision course looming here as those that undertake SEO become frustrated.

Category: SEO

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4 Comments

Comment by Laura

Made Saturday, 6 of September , 2008 at 11:52 am

I’m sorry for such a remedial question, but what does a nofollow link mean?

Comment by Allen Taylor

Made Saturday, 6 of September , 2008 at 6:50 pm

A nofollow link is a link that the search engines don’t give link juice for. In other words, it doesn’t count as a back link. No SEO love.

Comment by Edwin

Made Monday, 15 of September , 2008 at 5:15 am

This is how it works :
A Social media site gets popular, gaines substancial pagerank, is discovered by spambots and link builders, some smart ass seo posts an article on link building oppurtunities, Google discovers it, forces a nofollow policy on this social media.
Next..

Comment by renan orola

Made Thursday, 18 of September , 2008 at 1:07 am

As of now I cannot understand what is nowfollow link..