Nofollow tag is an SEO concept that search engines starting with Google are using to prevent spam mostly with blog commenting. It essentially prevents the landing page to be granted any editorial trust from the site linking to it.

Many webmaster consider in error that this attribute prevents search engine bots to follow the link and inspect the landing page.

What's even startling is the fact that the nofollow attribute has transformed in the weapon of choice for those PageRank-cheap webmasters striving to accumulate a PR10 if possible on their homepage.

If you happen to carry such misconceptions know that Google has changed the way it works with this tag. What I mean is that some of the link juice is transferred to the referred webpage regardless of the careful sculpting done with the nofollow attribute.

To make things clear, SE spiders will follow a nofollow link, they will appoint some variable amount of link juice but, because of your expressed mistrust with that particular landing page SEs won't raise its authority margins in their index.

The code to embed a nofollow back link:

< a href ="http://www.targetdomain.com " rel="nofollow" > anchor text< /a >

So how to effectively use the nofollow tag?

For slim websites the nofollow attribute should be use only with content packed webpages.

First rule when working with Google is to keep your money-making intentions as subtle as possible. Starting from this idea, don't divert PageRank from flowing between your site's webpages to only monetization sections to get better rankings in the organic listings.

For legitimate, solid business websites that offer search engines with unique content is OK to use the tag more freely.

SEO efficiency dictates not to let PageRank be passed to unimportant sections of your site like "terms of service" or "contact us" pages.

The solution is given by the nofollow attribute; use it whenever you need to reference these sections, even if with links on the home page.

A more advantaged technique of using nofollow tag is to embed it on links that point to category pages.

The benefits you'll enjoy are twofold:

1. link juice isn't dispersed in the site's superior levels and

2. concentrates its effect on converting site sections

Of course there are a handful of dodgy practices that revolve around the usage of nofollow attribute.

When exchanging links with another webmaster a good way to remain with a one way link is to nofollow the link pointing to your counterpart website.

Even though it might seem apparently efficient I suggest staying away from this practice because it can severely damage reputations.

The second argument for not using this tactic has to do with SEO mechanics.

Websites that have only nofollowed links referencing related webpages are looked upon with distrust by the search engines, thus accumulating PageRank turns into a bankrupt policy because no SE trust - necessary for ranking with priority - is gained.

If you sell advertising space on your website whether it's a blog or classic platform, be sure to have them nofollowed because Google doesn't approve followed ads. If the advertiser is reluctant to have a dofollow link, demand for a relevant piece of content and insert the link in the page's content container.

Do this job accordingly because your work will be inspected by human editors and not automatic scanning robots.

No doubt, accumulating PageRank and SE trust can be done with just pro-active means, namely massive backlink creation pointing towards important webpages while, on the other hand, neglecting unimportant sections.

This is perfectly doable and gives real ranking results but I suggest taking advantage of the nofollow tag concept in optimizing your site.