In a recent Reddit discussion, Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, addressed the topic of linking from a website to social media profiles.
He emphasized the importance of not using the “nofollow” attribute when linking to your own social media profiles and suggested using the “rel=me” attribute instead. This attribute is an open standard that helps others verify that the profile belongs to you.
Mueller stated that “links to your own profile? Absolutely not”.
It’s worth noting that links on social media sites, including links in your bio page, are typically nofollowed.
However, Mueller was specifically referring to the practice of linking from your own website to your social media profiles, rather than the other way around.
He also mentioned that the “rel=me” attribute can be particularly useful on Mastodon and other open-standards based social media platforms. While it may not have a direct impact on SEO, it is a good practice for promoting your social media profiles and ensuring that they are properly associated with your website.
“Add a rel=me (this is more of a thing on Mastodon & open-standards based social media, but still a good practice), don’t add a rel=nofollow — it’s pretty much the link you should be able to trust the most. Promote your social profile! It’s all “you”, why would you not want to recognize that? Or is your social media profile so bad that you don’t want to be associated with it? (then, well, maybe make it less bad),” said Mueller.
Final thoughts
While the nofollow attribute can be useful in certain circumstances, such as preventing comment spam on your blog, it is generally not recommended for use on links to your own social media profiles.