Hidden External Link

Hidden external links are links to your site from another site that, for some reason, can't be seen or used by all users.

Hidden External Link

Hidden external links, sometimes called "nofollow" or "noindex" links, are external links to your web site from another web site that, for some reason, can't be seen or used by all users.

Why Does This Matter to Me?

There are two categories of hidden external links.

On the one hand there are external links that are hidden from viewers. These links may, if the search engines discover what is going on, have a negative impact on your site SEO (search engine optimization) and should be avoided. These may be links where the color of the link is the same color (or very close to the same color) as the background it is over, or links in text that is so small it cannot be read. Sometimes these are links that are coded to not show up, or links that are on tiny images or transparent images.

Hidden links can also be links that are visible to the site visitors, but are not visible (or not clickable) to the search engines. These include many links in Flash or other animation, links that are scripted for tracking purposes or to get special features or effects, or links that are coded on the page to be ignored by search engines - the "nofollow" and "noindex" links. These links can help get people to your site, but since the search engines cannot see them - or cannot follow them - these links can't help your search engine placement.