It is, however, unclear whether the nofollow attribute has been removed permanently or it has something to do with the social media site’s revamp
In its source code, Twitter has stripped the ‘nofollow’ link attribute from the links shared on the micro-blogging platform. However, it’s ambiguous if Twitter removed this feature deliberately or as a glitch due to a potential design overhaul.
According to sources, Twitter has disabled the ‘nofollow’ link element in recent weeks and is no longer using rel=”nofollow.”
As a result, all links posted throughout the social media site, including those found in profile bios, tweets, and other Twitter pages, are now ‘dofollow’ links.
External links on Twitter ‘nofollow’ since 2008
In 2008, Twitter introduced the ‘nofollow’ link attribute to the bio sections only. However, it was then implemented site-wide to all tweets and other portions a year later.
Meanwhile, SEO experts believe that the change by Twitter for a website’s ‘dofollow’ link profile – a key ranking element in search results – would be ignored by search engines like Google.
Search engines likely to treat links as ‘nofollow’
It is hard to believe that Google, Bing, or other search engines will begin to analyze and index links found on Twitter.com merely because of the removed nofollow attribute. This is because user-generated content and links are not trusted by search engines in general.
Most SEO experts believe that Google would still consider such links as nofollow as it does with most social networks. The other search engines would follow suit.
Experts call it a short-lived phenomenon
Many others believe that Twitter will restore the nofollow link attribute to external links soon because it has not been done purposefully. They maintain that it is a short-lived ‘glitch’ which might have occurred due to a possible design revamp.
It is pertinent to mention here that Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms and links shared on the platform drive huge traffic for external websites.
If the shared links remain dofollow, it might lead to increased link spam on the platform, which will ultimately lower the value of the shared links in terms of visibility on search results.
