Why Some External Links On MaxLaumeister.com Have An “nf” Mark

As you noticed, some of the links on my website have a tiny superscript “nf” next to them, like this:

This marking denotes a nofollow link, which is a special type of link that asks search engine crawlers to withhold endorsement for the linked website. In other words, it tells crawlers that I do not endorse the linked domain, so please don’t count the link in the recipient’s favor when calculating search rankings.

The nofollow link is an extremely commonly used web feature, but (surprisingly or unsurprisingly) I have never seen a website that decided to visibly show their use of it like mine does. It’s typically only viewable in the page’s source code, to be seen by search engine crawlers and no one else. I decided to make them visible on my site for the sake of honesty, in accordance with my ideal of a radically transparent internet.

If all website owners followed this practice:

It would be clear which websites are withholding endorsement because their links are user-generated, and so the links can’t be taken as an endorsement from the website owner him/herself (a common and correct use of the tag).
It would be clear which websites are withholding some endorsement because they simply don’t endorse certain websites (also a correct use of the tag).
It would be clear which websites are wholesale withholding all endorsement because they are too lazy to figure out which links they want to count as endorsements, or they still believe the SEO myth that marking all links nofollow can help “contain” SEO juice within your website.

In my case, I only mark a small handful of domains on my website as nofollow (aside from the user-generated comments section, which is marked automatically). Every other website I link to enjoys the slight SEO boost that my links provide.

For example, I don’t agree with the way Conde Nast is running Reddit, so I disavow my outbound links to Reddit.

As with other HTML tag attributes, and likewise with all endeavors in life, nofollow links should be used with mindfulness and intention.

…if you enjoyed this read, you might enjoy my blog.