Posting on Steemit is a competitive endeavour. It takes time and patience before one gets a post that "explodes". Most people look at these successful posts in terms of how much Steem they earned on post - not noticing that they have been given some super powers.
Steemit Super Powers?
When a post hits a certain payout - the links in your post will change from NoFollow to Follow. This is a valuable occurrence that gives you the opportunity to give some power to other worthy sites mentioned in your post (like the diy blog im working on) or maybe you own stocks in Yahoo!. If you write in a particular niche - perhaps you could look for a sponsor looking for back links by an author in their genre.
What are Follow and NoFollow Links? How Powerful Is Steemit?
In the code behind every webpage links can have attributes assigned to them. Two of these attributes are called Follow or NoFollow. A NoFollow link is the default kind of link in a Steemit post. It tells the search engines that find the page to ignore the links on them. Some people argue there is some value in "NoFollow" links - but thats not where the money is. Follow links on the contrary remove the attribute NoFollow and tell the search engine to follow the link. Links are like votes in a big contest of whose website is better than whose. Steemit is a top thousand site in the US according to Alexa - that means its a decent link to get if you can get a proper Follow link. The more links you get from relevant powerful sites - the better you rank.
How Do I Know If My Links Are Follow? How Do I Make My Links Follow?
There is a thresh hold where your post's links have the NoFollow removed. Its reported to be based on rshares (I havent been able to find the exact number - gitbhub is likely the answer) - but at some point over the $10-$40 mark your links become Follow. You can look at the source code of the site to see if the links are Follow or No Follow or you can install the chrome browser extension Nofollow. If a link on a page has a red box around it - it is NofFollow - if it has green around it - it is a Follow.
Why Else Should I Care?
Proper linking is not only good for your users (which can earn you more money) - its great for everyone involved. Steemit needs outbound links - and "the worthy" can use links from a powerful site. As common practice - linking to other peoples posts where appropriate (internally) and linking to sources or projects mentioned in the article will at the very least make Steemit a stronger site - which will compound your reward - as the links you place are immutable on the block-chain forever.
Conclusion
Links are another benefit of posting on Steemit. At the very least your should shamelessly link to your own project like my diy blog. If you are one of those who earns enough to unlock the potential of Follow links - a sponsorship is not far away. A simple banner at the bottom of your post with your contact info could turn into a sponsorship opportunity by a related site!
Thanks to:
https://steemit.com/seo/@cryptoctopus/steemit-seo-today-i-learned-dofollow-links-are-not-about-reputation-at-all
https://www.ordinaryreviews.com/2017/07/26/how-to-use-steemit-to-gain-backlinks/
Hey, Ryan!
Long time no see around here... it's good to see you "pop up" again.
Say, thanks very much for this very interesting information; it's even better having you pop up with something that I need and can use.
I really need the links in my posts to be "follow" links back to my product website. I just installed the Chrome extension, but need to figure out how it works... :O
Anyhow, thank you, and I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.
😄😇😄
Take a look at this to help you with the plugin:
I just took a look at one of your posts https://steemit.com/steem/@creatr/be-the-ex-change-you-want-to-see-in-the-world-five-killer-ideas-to-speed-steem-adoption - this post reached the "magic number" and all the links are Follow.. When you look at your most recent post - all of your links are NoFollow because your payout hasnt reached the rshare value used to unlock your links : https://steemit.com/steemit/@creatr/up-to-1-000-steem-available-will-exchange-for-fiat
NoFollow links are not bad - but they dont pass on the value that a Follow link does. All you can do is keep putting links in your posts and hope that enough people vote it up!
Hope this explains it better.
Actually, you explained it perfectly in your article...
When I wrote my last comment, the plugin hadn't kicked in. It has now; it's very cool!
Thanks again for alerting me to this interesting tool, and the whole "Follow" issue! :D
Hi rgeddes, thanks for your content! that's exactly what I was wondering about link from Steemit to our own blog...
I noticed your link to your blog in the conclusion is "no follow" as you mentionned because of $ level.
I don't really understand this rule of disabling follow links... I was considering Steem both for the great concept but also to improve SEO on my blog... and in that case, it doesn't help :(
So a bit disappointing...
Will you post some of your blog content here or do you recommend it ? because there other issue could be duplicate content as we can't add canonical.
See you !
That it what I was looking for. Even a fresh Steemit blog has over 30 points of page authority. If there was a follow it could bring a threat of Steemit becoming one big link farm.
However if article is interesting(like yours) there should be fe "follow" possible togive kudos to the reffered sites.
reagrds,
Piotr
Glad to hear from a like minded person. Its difficult for Steemit to become a link farm (there are very few outgoing links). When you "unlock" follow links at about the $10 mark - you show up on the other sites like Busy, Steemkr, etc.
The trending page is something I am still testing. Obviously the more people see something the higher the chance of you getting backlinks.. But is there an SEO benefit of sitting at the top of trending for a week? Im not sure -yet.
That is why I don't believe in all of those promo bots. I think people should produce content not because they can get on the top or earn a couple of £, but because they want to share something important. Quality is the key.
One day Google bots will be more intelligent and all of that backlink rubbish will be worth nothing.
I am working on SEO for my company and when I scanned competitors using Moz I was shocked. Well established companies are still using "vagra" spam techniques and they see nothing wrong in this.
I personally use the promo bots to gain followers. I have been posting on Steemit since the beginning - but i've taken breaks in between. It is a terrible financial proposition but it helps build a following and re-establish old connections. A backlink from this site is valuable and I dont think its wrong if relevant to the article.
Some of those spam links are competitors trying to poison your competion. Most companies have a huge disavow list - some of those links might be on it.
Like medium or buzzfeed or any other site that allows user contribution - it will always (and should always) be a part of SEO. I don't think google will ever reach the point where it simply looks at quality content - it will evolve -but as long as they are the gatekeepers setting the rules - we'll shape our content strategy to follow suit! Good luck with your SEO endeavors!