I have just read an article that says no follows now leak link juice?
-
I have just been reading a really interesting article about link juice.
The way I read the piece the author was saying that there has been a change in the way link juice is blocked with 'no follows.'
The author seemed to say that there has been a change and now even if you add a 'no follow' onto a page that the page will still send link juice to that page. I may have read this wrong.
I just wanted to check if anyone else had heard this at all?
Many thanks
-
I agree with Mike, this is the article I was going to point you towards.
So in summary: You can stop yourself from passing page rank to another site by adding a nofollow but you cannot save yourself from losing link juice by adding nofollow. This has been the case for several years already (If you go on what Google is saying).
-
Hi Oliver,
In the research I have done on this subject, between 2005 and 2009 the NoFollow directive was used to preserve link juice and keep it from passing through to the particular link. This would allow you to reallocate that link juice to other, more important links on your page. It was mainly developed to discourage comment posters from spamming sites with misc. links; however, web masters soon figured that you could "link sculpt" your site... more or less hoarding your link juice and only pushing it through to your really important pages... making them rank higher.
In 2009 things changes. Matt Cutts commented on the subject saying, "So what happens when you have a page with “ten PageRank points” and ten outgoing links, and five of those links are nofollowed? Let’s leave aside the decay factor to focus on the core part of the question. Originally, the five links without nofollow would have flowed two points of PageRank each (in essence, the nofollowed links didn’t count toward the denominator when dividing PageRank by the outdegree of the page). More than a year ago, Google changed how the PageRank flows so that the five links without nofollow would flow one point of PageRank each." - more or less stating that link juice is discarded and not reallocated.
Matt Cutts also says, "Nofollow links definitely don’t pass PageRank." - So while the PageRank flows through the link, it is discarded, and is not passed to the linked to page.
"The essential thing you need to know is that nofollow links don’t help sites rank higher in Google’s search results." - Matt Cutts
I don't know if the subject of the article you were reading was about sculpting your site, but depending on who you talk to, there are many other tactics that can give you a higher ROI.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Mike
-
While there has been extensive debate to the value of 'nofollow' it's best not to get caught up in the nitty-gritty of it all. Here's the mantra I follow when dealing with links:
1. Ask yourself does your reader REALLY need this link. When in doubt, go without! Conserve your link juice as much as possible but put the user first.
2. Is this the right place for the link - remember links placed higher on a page and in mainstream content react differently that footer or sidelinks.
3. Is this an authority site? If yes I won't nofollow it, I encourage Google to know I'm linking to high-end authority. Otherwise, I'll nofollow the site.
Last but not least consider that either nofollow plugs a page leak or it doesn't, but it certainly doesn't penalize you - so wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry and use it anyways?
-
Hi Oliver,
No Follow links do not leak link juice but there is a new concept in SEO called co-citation. Basically Google and other search engines are using mentions (semantics) http://moz.com/blog/prediction-anchor-text-is-dying-and-will-be-replaced-by-cocitation-whiteboard-friday to determine how to rank your website. I suspect this is Google's effort to try and reduce spam and the linkbuilding business. The more mentions you get the better your website will rank and especially if the website has authority
Thanks
Carla
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
-
Grr SEO linking.. I am not understanding why I wouldn't have lots more links.. Please help. Thanks
I have done the whole moz open exploer and I am not understanding why my site wouldn’t have more links registering to my website.. I have lots of sites(directorys and 3rd party) with my website domain in them. The only one that is linking to my site is BBB.com and my advertsing with saint paul press. www.somerersetautodealer.com But if I have links with all kinds of automotive directories why wouldn’t they register? I am sure this a simply answer or that I am not understanding something. Thanks for your help! Scott
Link Building | | Scott12340 -
Reciprocal links now cancel out any benefit say Google. But what about if one of them is nofollow?
As a web agency we have some of our client sites linking back to us from their footer to show who built the site as is common practice in our industry. This seems to work fine for us generating both referral traffic and we think some help with rankings. Google recently said that reciprocal links do cancel each other out of any benefit which gives us a dilemma for when we want to link to a website as a case study on our own website. Normally we use nofollow on the link but is that enough? I'd rather have the inbound link benefit than provide a link to the website!
Link Building | | RedAntSolutions0 -
Is it worth pursing PR and guest posting just for links?
I'm still new to SEO, but I have a decent foundation on it. To me, it seems like guest posting and earning PR on quality sites is good for the coverage, but will those one-off links really make a difference? I'd have to assume that SEOs earn their worth when they build scalable links (i.e. tools that people link to, guides, etc) So, while PR is nice, I feel as if I shouldn't focus my time there, but spending time on building a product such as QuickSprout.com's SEO audit tool, Cappex's college match tool, CNN's budget calculator, Moz's google weather report, etc.
Link Building | | BrandonPindulic1 -
Are the following considered bad links for Link Building.
I've been doing a lot of research lately on link building & I've read a lot about having a diverse amount of links. Social links, Blog links, comment links, footer links, No follow links, Directory links as well as links with Anchor text URL match, brand match, partial brand match, non-descriptive, and with keywords. But there is a lot of talk of removing those links that look like a site that's built just for link building purposes.... but Directories are basically built for link building are they not? I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if they feel links from the following directories would be bad links. (Non-Paid) http://www.yoganza.com http://www.wkool.com http://www.wee-directory.com http://www.voicelet.com www.hotfrog.ca http://www.webdirectorieslist.com http://multiplelistingboard.com http://mozdirectory.net http://freedirectorypr.info Industry specific below: http://bestautolinks .com http://automotivedome.com http://automobilebuzz.com http://craigsautolinks.com Thanks so much for the help!
Link Building | | DCochrane0 -
Do I get any link juice from a PHP header redirect from another site?
For example would: www.site-A.com/click-tracking.php?site=www.site-B.com contain any link juice? Would a 301 redirect be the simple solution?
Link Building | | David_Viciedo0 -
What to do with some good links I have?
I have some pretty strong links from relevant sources linking to the homepage of a site I deal with. The links are usually from a PR3-5 pages and display specific result about the linking site. Sometimes they come from badges. We offer several services, so sometimes the page is about one service and next time about the other. Currently all of my pages link to the homepage. Would it not be better to link to the specific product page related to the page I have? Also I can do a canonical to the service pages? Which would be best?
Link Building | | Svetoslav0 -
Will No Follow Links count toward your root domain links for Domain Authority?
I am wondering if no follow links help, hurt, or do nothing when it comes to increasing page and domain authority? I know they are not supposed to pass rank and I have read discussions that some people suspect they still might, but I am wondering if I have a mix of follow plus no follow, will the no follow ones increase the count of the root domains linking to me and help boost my authority? Assuming of course the no follow links are coming from quality sites with high page and domain authority of their own. Thanks.
Link Building | | FastLearner0 -
Feedproxy Redirects - Do they pass link juice?
I use commentluv and all the links to my site when I leave a comment go through feedburner so that my URL's look like http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessDoer/~3/yYrCkjbWq_4/ I used HttpFox in Firefox to see what was happening and it looks like a 301. I wanted to make sure that this is indeed passing link juice. Thanks!
Link Building | | gregalam0