Is Google deciding which links are Do/Nofollow?

[jediviper]

Hey guys,
An interesting theory that I have heard at a recent SEO online summit.
One guy (Robert Niechciał) mentioned that there is a theory that after the 5th May Update Google started to decide by itself which links are Dofollow or Nofollow.
So if this theory is correct, it doesn't matter anymore about what links you buy/get as dofollow, as Google can decide differently.

What do u think guys?

[goodroi]

Didn't Google publicly announce this over a year ago? [webmasterworld.com...]

I still want as many relevant dofollow links as possible to make it easier for Google to recognize my sites are trusted and valuable.

[JesterMagic]

Yup Google announced it a while ago. They only take your rel="nofollow" (and whatever the user generated content one is) as a suggestion as Google decides ultimately what any external link is.

I would still mark your links as nofollow if they should be as if you don't and you have enough of them Google could decide you are up to no good and lower your rankings.

[jediviper]

You got it wrong about what I am writing.
I am not talking about what Google said about the nofollow, that they may or not consider such links.
This interesting concept -that I am talking about- was about the dofollow links and that Google can also not consider them, exactly as it does for the nofollow.
I thought that till now all dofollow links were sure to be used by Google. But this new theory change everything.

[not2easy]

Link intent has been in the mix for quite a while. All links are not equal. Even though there is not a nofollow tag does not mean it has much value. Link building used to be a free for all and many new blogs might have thousands of backlinks. People are still trying to build links those ways and being disappointed.

Pre-Penguin, Google gave hints that they were taking a new (New then anyway) look at link manipulation: [googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...] and that was discussed at length: Google Discounting Reciprocal Link Exchanges [webmasterworld.com]

A good long 2014 discussion on the topic: What kind of backlinks are "Bad" links [webmasterworld.com]

A 2016 discussion: Link Building Mistakes of the Pros and Newbs [webmasterworld.com]

It has been a long evolution. Google does follow links, it is what they do and how they decide whether a link has value. The 'nofollow' tag does not prevent Google from following a link nor from deciding it has value. There is no equivalent "dofollow" tag that means anything. A link without a nofollow tag is followed by default but it may or may not have value just by virtue of lacking a nofollow tag. It is not new.

[tangor]

Pretty sure most of the major se's are looking at links as VALUE, not only to the sites involved, but to their SERPS as well.

Meanwhile, if there is a link on a page you know they follow it, regardless of your instructions. NOFOLLOW became important when sites were getting tanked via third party UGC and it was the best way to disavow what others have posted to their sites. Does not mean g and others won't follow just, hopefully, g and others will not hold it against you (the webmaster) who allowed a third party to play.

So far the verdict is still out on how all this works, or if it works at all.

Note: I do not personally use either DOFOLLOW or NOFOLLOW, I just don't allow links from MY SITE to any other that I do not approve of---and it seems to worked out okay over the decades.

I can't control links TO MY SITE so I don't mess them, unless it is something I can control via .htaccess (generally bad actor COUNTRIES and ISPs).

I have, however, never deluded myself that g or any other would NOT follow a link they came across. Period.