Google Search Advocate John Mueller says that while linking from a site to any social media profile, the nofollow links must not be followed.
“Links to your own profile? Absolutely not, do not nofollow those links,” says John.
Like Always, John Muller Has A Different View
For those not aware, generally, links on social media are nofollow. These links include the ones present on the profile page of users on social media platforms. However, John has a different view. According to him, you must link from your own site to your social media profiles – not the other way around.
He further states that people should add the rel=me feature to social media sites. It is a trusted way of substantiating that profile.
Relevance Matters, Not The Quantity
John Mueller also doesn’t think much about the total number of links pointing to a website. He says that number is now not relevant to Google. That’s why it is not necessary to expend one’s energy, time, and resources in focusing on getting more links to point to their websites. Links are not at the core of your search engine rankings now. It is not about the numbers but about the relevance of links. Relevance is the factor Google considers to decide how much to weigh individual links.
According to Mueller, Google’s algorithm understands the relevance and context of content within the web better now because of its advanced features. There will be an apparent dip in the reliance on backlinks as a ranking signal in the future. He believes that with an improved approach to evaluating how content fits into the overall web, the significance of inbound links for SEO specialists may diminish.
Will The Significance of Links Diminish Over Time?
Google aims to dissuade artificial link-building practices. The specific penalties are not openly discussed or shared by Google for doing so. Still, the focus is shifting to promoting high-quality, natural links instead of using unscrupulous strategies.
There is no denying the importance of links to Google. They will always be at the center of Google’s activities as they serve as a means of discovering web pages. It works the same way as locating a particular page on the internet without any reference or information about the page or where to find it.
However, given the developments happening around the links, and the emergence of other more reliable factors for gaining rankings, it is safe to assume that as time progresses, the importance of links may reduce compared to their current standing. Notable shifts are already visible in this aspect.
Conclusion
The nofollow feature is normally used to signify to search engines that a particular link should not influence the ranking of the linked page. According to John Mueller, as social media profiles are associated with your website and provide valuable background about your brand, it is generally beneficial to allow search engines to follow these links. By not using the nofollow aspect, search engines can crawl, and index social media profiles and possibly provide them additional visibility and relevance.
