The first rel=”nofollow” test is complete and the results are as expected. To avoid the results getting tainted we were unable to provide the specifics as to how the test was being run. Well, that’s not the case anymore.
What we wanted to determine is whether a link to a website that had the rel=”nofollow” attribute attached passed on anchor text weight. To determine this we built a few links to the Beanstalk homepage from a few forums that automatically added rel=”nofollow” to all links. The anchor text we used for these links was bsiseoinc (knowing that the keyword itself fit into two criteria: it didn’t appear anywhere else and it held no value to anyone.
As of this morning we are now seeing the Beanstalk homepage among the Google results for this phrase despite the fact that that the term appears nowhere on it and there are no links pointing to it with that keyword that do not contain the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
Now, what we don’t know right now is exactly how much weight these links have. Until now the common belief was that anchor text from a rel=”nofollow” link would pass weight only if the site had other links using the same anchor text that were not “blocked”. This is clearly not the case. That said, it is clear that they don’t hold as much weight as a standard link as the Beanstalk homepage appears low in the results at this time.
And so we will continue testing this. The next test will be to determine how much weight a link with rel=”nofollow” passes. This test will be spread over months as we will be building two sites to complete for an unused term, one getting only rel=”nofollow” links and the other getting only standard links to determine how many rel=”nofollow” links are required to beat the site with followed links when all else is equal.
We will of course keep our blog visitors posted. 
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 1:41 pm
Our test on the relevancy and value of links that contain the rel=”follow” attribute are still underway however I thought I’d pass along an update.
In this test we chose a word that appears nowhere on the Internet and posted links to our homepage with the rel=”nofollow” attribute in them. At this time a number of the links we built have been picked up. That said, our site is not yet appearing for the keyword in question and so the test in inconclusive (though only a few days old).
My own estimates at that if the anchor text relevancy is going to pass (which I believe it will) that the Beanstalk site should rank within 2 weeks of the start date of this test which means we should be ranking for this phrase if my personal estimates/assumptions are correct.
Keep watching and we’ll keep you posted on this test an other important happenings in the industry.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 4:19 pm
There is much confusion out there regarding the rel=”nofollow” attribute despite the fact that it has been around for years. Newbies and hardened SEO-geeks alike are still not 100% sure as to what the value of a link is that contains the rel=”nofollow” attribute. And so we at Beanstalk will be running a number of tests to determine what we can about this tag and any value a link that includes it may pass to a target site.
To insure the purity of the test we’ll be releasing the methods we’re using as we post the results rather than prior to the test completing. The first test, we can say, is to determine whether anchor text relevancy passes through a link that includes rel=”nofollow”.
Stay tuned, we’ll report back as soon as the first test is complete.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 1:38 pm
. If we know that posting in forums WITH LEGITIMATE RESPONSES OR COMMENTS will help our site or a client’s site in the rankings then it is a useful tactic. I’m hoping not to see a flurry of bots now ransacking blogs and forums with “guaranteed lowest rates on mortgages” or the oh-so-useful Viagra ads.
