32

By default, all links in SO profiles have rel="nofollow" set. But I have checked some profiles like Jon Skeet & Anoop Vaidya, and they have dofollow (i.e., not nofollow) links to their websites.

Like you see Jon Skeet has a dofollow link to C# in Depth and Anoop Vaidya has a dofollow link to Interview Questions on Cocoa.

So, I want to know how can I get a dofollow link to my website in my SO Profile?

I know 2000 reputation is required to get dofollow link in Website field. but what is the condition to get dofollow link in About Me Section. Ex. Jon Skeet got on C# in Depth.

one more thing If I have 2k+ reputation in Stack Overflow so its possible that I get dofollow links in Pro Webmasters?

Improve this question
41
  • 5
    Just use markdown as you normally would for posts. Your "About Me" section is entirely editable.
    – Bart
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:35
  • 3
    @SumitBijvani: The link you're referring to Jon Skeet's About Me is Author of <a href="http://www.manning.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=876_230" rel="nofollow">C# in Depth</a>.<br>. It's explicitly nofollow, not dofollow.
    – David Robinson
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:38
  • 1
    SO gives nofollow links you can check all links have attribute rel="nofollow"
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:39
  • 1
    @SumitBijvani Then just use the html tags.
    – Bart
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:39
  • 1
    Ah, but you're referring to the second link, the one in the list: <a href="http://csharpindepth.com">C# in Depth</a>. He probably created that using the raw HTML tags.
    – David Robinson
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:40
  • @DavidRobinson its dofollow <a href="http://csharpindepth.com">C# in Depth</a> check 2nd link not first
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:40
  • @DavidRobinson how can I do this?
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:40
  • @SumitBijvani: You can use HTML (instead of Markdown) in posts/About Me.
    – gen_Eric
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:41
  • @DavidRobinson no it doesn't work
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:42
  • @SumitBijvani: Interesting- you are right!
    – David Robinson
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:43
  • @SumitBijvani: Works for me.
    – gen_Eric
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:44
  • @RocketHazmat can you show me that link?
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:45
  • 7
    IIRC rel="nofollow" get removed at a certain reputation threshold. There was a question about this at some point in time…
    – Ry-
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:57
  • 1
    @RocketHazmat: False, he has his website set and it's nofollow. Like minitech said, it looks like it's a rep threshold thing.
    – David Robinson
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:58
  • 1
    @minitech how much reputation for dofollow link?
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 16:59

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
50
+50

You need to earn 2000 points for the rel="nofollow" restriction for your website link to be lifted.

Note that links in your "About me" section will always have the rel="nofollow" restriction applied except for the link in your Website field. It has to be an exact match though, if one has a trailing slash and the other doesn't then the restriction is applied anyway.

To rephrase that: If you enter a link in your Website profile field, and use that exact same link in your About Me section, then that link is not given the nofollow restriction.

Jon Skeet lists http://csharpindepth.com/ as his Website link, so the exact same link in the About Me section is not given the nofollow restriction. All other links in that section do.

The limitation is per site; if you have multiple, associated accounts across the Stack Exchange network, the restriction is not lifted for accounts with less than 2k even if other accounts have reached 2k already. Jon Skeet's Code Review account is well below 2k and has the nofollow restriction applied to his links.

Improve this answer
49
  • 3
    but some accounts also get dofollow in About Me section like Jon Skeet
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:05
  • @MartijnPieters Jon Skeet get the dofollow link you can check his 2nd link
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:08
  • I have added same link twice but getting nofollow in both
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:10
  • so how can I get dofollow in my About Me section?
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:13
  • Check my profile I also have added link twice but didn't get dofollow on any link stackoverflow.com/users/1087998/sumit-bijvani
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:17
  • I think its not because I have updated my profile last year and I still didn't get any dofollow link
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:20
  • 1
    @SumitBijvani You don't have enough reputation to have the nofollow removed, yet.
    – Andrew Barber
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:23
  • @AndrewBarber yah, I don't have as per Martijn answer I have to get 3000 reputation for it
    – Sumit Bijvani
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:25
  • 1
    @SumitBijvani: Pekka (191k) has nofollow while S. Lott (171k) does not. I think Martijn Pieters is correct.
    – mmyers
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:44
  • 1
    @mmyers: Solved it. I had a / at the end of my own Webpage field. I updated my About Me section to include the slash, and now my nofollow restriction is gone too.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Mar 12, 2013 at 17:52
  • 1
    FYI: It's been 2K for years. I don't know if it was ever 3k.
    – Shog9
    Mar 12, 2013 at 18:13
  • 1
    @SumitBijvani: I already tested this exhaustively. All links in my profile except the one I named in my Website section have nofollow.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Mar 14, 2013 at 17:08
  • 1
    @SumitBijvani: Yes, provided that link is the same as what you put in the Website field.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Mar 14, 2013 at 17:25
  • 1
    @SumitBijvani: Here are some more examples of 2k+ users whose About Me section contains the same link as the Website field: stackoverflow.com/users/1380680/reinier-torenbeek, stackoverflow.com/users/351901/bruno077, stackoverflow.com/users/285850/olivier-croisier, stackoverflow.com/users/496992/patrick-boos
    – Martijn Pieters
    Mar 14, 2013 at 18:16
  • 3
    @SumitBijvani: No, the restriction is per site.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Mar 14, 2013 at 18:39
10

After some testing, I came up with the following conclusions:

  • If you have over 2000 reputation, your website link won't have nofollow.
  • If that same link is there on your about page, it won't get nofollow either.
  • Any other links will have nofollow.

There's nothing much to do about it, it's just the way it is.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .