Using rel="nofollow"
-
Hello,
Quick question really, as far as the SERPs are concerned If I had a site with say 180 links on each page - 80 above suggested limit, would putting 'rel="nofollow"' on 80 of these be as good as only having 100 links per page?
Currently I have removed the links, but wereally need these as they point to networked sites that we own and are relevant...
But we dont want to look spammy...
An example of one of the sites without the links can be seen here
whereas a site with the links can be seen here
You can see the links we are looking to keep (at the bottom) and why...
Thanks
-
Sorry, by "bigger problems" I just meant the potential link-farm.
The nofollow will remove the SEO risk - you'll still lose a little link-juice to those links, but you won't get penalized down the road for having them. Of course, you won't gain any SEO value from the cross-linking either. At this point, though, I think that's inevitable. The risk is greater than the reward from cross-linking this many domains.
Any other ways to block the links are going to look more suspicious to Google than nofollow (including iFrames). Any I can think of would be best avoided in this scenario.
Any way you can contextually cross-link would create less SEO risk and potentially let you get some ranking value out of the connections. That's why I suggested links at the job listing level. I think that might benefit users a bit more, too. Even then, you don't want to go overboard.
-
Hi Dr Peter
Thanks for the detailed response. A few questions, you say I have bigger problems than the 100 links/page - is that just that the sites are at risk of looking like a link farm, or are there bigger problems still?
I hear you on the fact that links in the footer carry less weight and on the consolidating aspect, and it is something that we are working on, but in the mean time, I would really like to find a way if possible to keep some form of cross connecting the sites.. We do have the detail pages which we don't need to be SEO primed, really we only need the -
SEO primed, you can see the different phrases (search patterns) that we are targeting; each site has hundreds of pages like this, that we don't necessarily need primed as these are only live for 28 days..
Is there an option to either include these links in either an iframe in the footer area (for user reference only) or on the detail pages?
Any other options that will work, that will not result in the sites being at risk of looking like a link farm?
I appreciate your insight.
Many thanks
-
You've got bigger problems here than 100 links/page (that's just a guideline) - you're cross-connecting enough sites that it looks like a link farm. Having them all in the footer only adds to the problem, and makes the tactic look lower-quality. I'd definitely no-follow these, as you could potentially be penalized.
The nofollow won't really help with the 180 links - it'll still burn up link-juice. It'll just keep these links from getting you into trouble. Realistically, these links are probably already being devalued by the algorithm.
Practically, being in the footer, these links may not have a ton of value for visitors (if you click-mapped the page, I'm betting the CTR is very low). I wonder if there's a way to integrate them. For example, when someone clicks through to a job listing in Kent, having something like "See more jobs in Kent" on that page and link it to: http://www.kentjobsonline.net/.
From an SEO standpoint, these geo-targeted microsites have lost a lot of value over the past couple of years. I've even seen the strategy run into Panda issues. You may want to re-evaluate down the road and consider consolidating.
-
They are all legitimate links, all 74 sites act as one larger site, or a network of sites. But the thing is when I removed the links I moved up in the SERPs...
What would be the best way of showing te links to visitors but hiding them from SERPs?
Thanks
-
Quality is MUCH better than quantity
-
You should build the site for functionality and if there is a legitimate reason to have all those links then feel free to put them in. I wouldn't over think this.
-
I think nowadays rel=nofollow there is no meaning. With the changes in google, also the link juice is not been affect by it. You can check some info in this old post: http://www.seomoz.org/q/do-you-use-nofollow-and-rel-nofollow
But in SEO's live everything is gray, and not black in white. Its better for you using 100 links per page and go with more security.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
"Google-selected canonical different to user-declared" - issues
Hi Moz! We are having issues on a number of our international sites where Google is choosing our page 2 of a category as the canonical over page 1. Example; https://www.yoursclothing.de/kleider-grosse-groessen (Image attached). We currently use infinite loading, however when javascript is disabled we have a text link to page 2 which is done via a query string of '?filter=true&view=X&categoryid=X&page=2' Page 2 is blocked via robots.txt and has a canonical pointing at page 1. Due to Google selecting page 2 as the canonical, the page is no longer ranking. For the main keyphrase a subcategory page is ranking poorly. LqDO0qr
On-Page Optimization | | RemarkableAgency1 -
The correct way to rel=canonical
When adding the rel=canonical tag to a landing page inside a folder, should the tag read: or With or without the index.php? TY KJr
On-Page Optimization | | KevnJr1 -
What is the best use of canonical ref on home (default/index) page?
Moz reports show duplicate content for my www.domain.com and www.domain.com/default.html How do I format the canonical ref to put on the default.html page?
On-Page Optimization | | bhsiao0 -
Positioning rethinking regarding triplicate keyword "landing pages"
Hi! We're rethinking our website and we have some doubts on how it would affect our positioning. Our main keyword right now is "casas de madera". Positioning by this keyword we have three different "main" pages: Our home (http://www.canexel.es/) 2)SEO landing page (http://www.canexel.es/casas-de-madera/) 3)A blog section (http://www.canexel.es/blog/casas-de-madera/) We thought at first about changing our home main keyword, but this option has been ruled out since is the keyword that gives us the most visits and changing it would result on a rebrandindg strategy we are not sure we want to pursue. We're thinking about a canonical from the landing page (2) to our Home (1) and making it disappear from our website. Regarding our blog we've thought about removing the blog section. We've thought about a 301 from every post to a new category or just deleting the category "casas de madera" from our site and telling google not to index the section (3) but continue indexing the posts we already have published under this category. Would any of these harm our positioning? And, if so, is ther any other steps you wolud recomend us taking? In this same topic, we're about to create a SEM Landing page for this same keyword. This page will be very visual and with little text. We are not sure if we should have a canonical pointing from it to our home or just not indexing the new SEM landing page. What would you recommend? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Canexel0 -
Should I use nofollow when interlinking large, networked sites?
My company runs a network of very large networked sites, each with thousands of content pages. In our main navigation we are currently not nofollowing links between these networked sites. The links appear on every single page in the top navigation, and there are thousands of pages on each site. I am worried this will look to Google like we have suspiciously received thousands of links from one domain - one link from every page on the domain. Should we be nofollowing these navigation links between the different sites in our network?
On-Page Optimization | | Natasha90040 -
Can I use Same Keyword for Multi pages Title Tags?
Hello All, I am working on client website and currently they are targeting One Keywords for multi pages. As I have search with Allintitle: Search query and Google display around 37 pages of website which carry same keyword in "Title Tags". I have told to client to change the "Title Tags" but they want that keyword for all relevant pages. So I want to know is that harm in Search Engine Ranking? Note: They have not done the link building activities for multi pages with same Keyword, they are using only in "Title Tags" only
On-Page Optimization | | jemindesai0 -
Why DoFollow & NoFollow Attributes on Same Internal Text Links?
I want to know that, why SEOmoz have defined DoFollow & NoFollow attributes on same internal text links? Please, find out attachment to know more. Left bar have On-Page / Site Optimization link with dofollow attribute but, right section have nofollow. So, why should they have apply on DoFollow or NoFollow attribute on same text links? 6806571615_138b8765fd_b.jpg
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0 -
Should H1s be used in the logo? If they are and it is dynamic on each page to relate to the page content, is this detrimental to the site rather than having it in the page content?
On some sites, the H1 is contained within the logo and remains consistent throughout the site (i.e. the company name is in the of the logo). If the h1 in a logo is dynamic for each page (i.e. on the homepage it is company name - homepage) is this better or worse to have it changed out on the logo rather than having it in the page content?
On-Page Optimization | | CabbageTree0