Nofollow on a backlink says one thing. It say the originating website doesn't endorse the link. This is supposed to mean the target of the link doesn't get a pagerank boost for having the link. The idea behind the nofollow links is that it stop blog comment spam if you pagerank boost is given. Unfortunately it failed to curb spam. There is a debate if nofollow really doesn't count as a backlink. Much of the internet community believes that despite what the search engines say, any backlink as some value. So, the spam continues virtually unabated.



The nofollow also prevents the original webstie from transferring pagerank to the target. It's a know part of Google's algorithm that the original website loses a little pagerank to the link targets. Nofollow is supposed to prevent that effect. This is why nofollow is so very popular, because webmasters believe they are protecting pagerank by using it.



Dofollow links on the other do give the target a boost in pagerank. They transfer a little rank from the original website.



When you build links, try concentrate on building dofollow links.

One of the best ways to get dofollow backlinks to your Squidoo Lens is article marketing. The concept is you write an article on the same topic as your lens and you submit it to article directories. You include a hyperlink to your lens in the bio area. When the article is published on the article directory domain, voila you have a high quality backlink to your lens.



EzineArticles.com is the premier article directory. It has perhaps the best pagerank of any of the article directories. I won't quote a number here, because pagerank changes all the time. My advice, submit your article to EzineArticles.com first. Wait until they approve and publish it. After that, you can submit to other directories. Just remember the EzineArticles.com backlink is the one you want. In fact, some people only submit articles there.



If you submit your article to other directories first, some else may find it and publish it before EzineArticles.com approves it. If that happens, EzineArticles.com may never publish it because the article will appear to be attributed to someone else. Believe me, I had this happen. Some grabbed my article and put it on their blog before EzineArticles.com published it. They didn't give me credit, and now EzineArticles.com won't publish it.



I find articles I submit to ArticlesBase.com rank very well on Google. Plus, they get published very fast. The problem with ArticlesBase.com is that I can guarantee someone will take your content and publixh it on a blog. That is all well and good IF they keep your bio and backlink. If they don't, it's just theft of your work.



You can also try GoArticles.com, Buzzle.com and Isnare.com. Just make sure you get published on EzineArticles.com first.

Guess what? Twitter backlinks are nofollow links. You may still get traffic because your followers may click the link. But you will not get credit for the backlink in your pagerank.



The same goes for Digg. Digg links are nofollow. Delicious.com links are nofollow. Facebook links are nofollow. Your favorite social media bookmarking website is probably the same.



You can get dofollow links from Digg.com. All you have to do is add them to your profile page on Digg. Digg allows you add as many links as you want.



You can add dofollow links on you Propeller profile too.



Propeller.com also allows dofollow links on the profile page.

As far as backlink checkers go, I think Yahoo is the best.



http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com



The Squid forum said SquidUtils is using Yahoo. If SquidUtils is using Yahoo anyway, just skip the middle man and go right to Yahoo.



I find Yahoo superior to Google's backlink checker under google.com/webmasters. First, Google only lets you work with websites that you control and can add a specific meta tag too. You can't add the meta tag in Squidoo (as least as far as I know). Second, Yahoo just plain has a better set of results.



The only complaints I have for Yahoo are that it takes a really long time for Yahoo to start tracking the backlinks. When you first create a lens, you need to wait at least 2 weeks until Yahoo even knows it's out there. Second, Yahoo show the "nofollow" backlinks. I think it would be nice that they at least tell you what links are nofollow.