Matt Cutts: To collect No-Follow links – or not to collect them

Google search guru Matt Cutts speaks in this video about whether a website owner or search marketer should actively pursue No-follow links, or not.
Matt Cutts is very clear about one thing. No-follow links are absolutely useless if only placed for link juice. Google does not give these links any value.

“No-follow links accompanying insightful content will drive traffic”, says Matt Cutts

“Search engines are not the entire limit of the world”, Matt Cutts Says. “If you place a useful comment under a blog post or in a forum, chances are that the writer and likely even a large part of the audience will check out the link. This will drive traffic to your website. ”

What does that teach us about the use of No-Follow links

First of all, you should not go out link-hunting just to collect as many links as you can. Use your time effectively, and only post links if you expect to attract quality traffic.

After all, Google continuously monitors user behavior on our sites as well. If we attract low quality traffic, our bounce rates will go up, our average number of pages and average time on site will go down, giving Google a reason to drop our position in the search engines.

What guidelines do I follow for getting links

Find and follow a network of websites that educate you in your field of work. This will give you lots of benefits:

• You will keep on top of what is going on in your field of work;
• This may inspire you to start writing yourself  (a well needed skill if you would like to attract an audience yourself)
• You will get to know other people in your field of work. If they do the exact same thing in the same area, you could join forces to set standards for the local industry. You could discuss issues encountered. If they do the same thing in another geographic area, you could still exchange best practices, what could inspire some insightful blog posts. If you work in the same industry but different fields of work, you may be able to exchange referrals and discuss all kinds of options to improve life for mutual customers. Just some food for thought…..;
• If you have some insightful comments, or questions to share after reading an article, blog post or forum post, by all means contribute to the discussing. But keep in mind that Thumper’s daddy in the Disney Movie Bambi had to say: “If you cannot think of a way to say something nicely, no not bother saying something at all. Treat others as you would like to be treated.  Contribute positively and you may likely find both writers and their audience check out your website out,  befriend you in facebook and/or follow you on twitter.