Impact of nofollow links
-
Does anyone know what the impact of a nofollowed link is on the ranking value any given page has to distribute? For example, if I have 2 links on a page, both followed, I know those links each distribute nearly 50% of the total ranking value the current page has to offer. However, if one of those links is nofollowed, does that automatically mean the other link gets the ranking value cast off by the nofollowed link? In other words, the single followed link now distributes nearly 100% of the ranking value the page has to offer?
It seems to me I remember hearing this was not the case and that the ranking value a nofollowed link would have if it were followed just evaporates. This would mean the single followed link still only passes on around 50%...not 100%.
Is the effect different if the links are internal vs. external?
If any citations are available to justify knowledge here, that would be great. I know a lot of people have opinions about this subject, but I'm not sure anyone knows Google's position.
Thanks!
-
Marcus, Great! That confirms everything I was thinking. We certainly aren't wasting our time page rank sculpting. Rather, I just wanted a confirmation (and appropriate citation) before requesting some changes. Thanks! Ryan
-
Hey Ryan,
If you nofollow a link the pagerank is still split evenly amongst the links on the page and the page rank that would have flowed through this one link is lost.
Google's position is pretty clear on this and is has been clarified by Matt Cutts and in the Google Webmaster Guidelines which provide some examples of the correct usage of the nofollow tag.
Back in the day, you could control the flow of page rank throughout your site like this but that ship sailed a long, long time ago (and crashed against the rocks).
The nofollow tag should be used for a few legitimate reasons.
- Untrusted links like those from blog comments
- To prevent a crawler following a link where it can not gain access like a forum profile or login page
- And to prevent the selling of page rank via paid links
There are likely some other legitimate uses but this covers off the basics.
If you are looking to use this to in a way sculpt the page rank and create more powerful links on pages within your site, don't bother, it won't work and is not the recommended way to interlink documents within your own site. If you want specific pages to not be indexed then use the noindex, follow tag on them or block them in robots.txt.
A few references:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=96569
http://searchengineland.com/friends-dont-let-friends-use-nofollow-77922
Hope it helps!
Marcus
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
-
Nofollow Meta Tag
Hello, I'm new to this forum so please forgive if this has been discussed before. I have a question about the nofollow meta tag being used at the page level. We have external links within our website's guest blog pages that we do not want followed. I would use a nofollow rel attribute on the link itself, but since we allow the blog to be posted using a wysiwyg-type text editor, that proves to be a little difficult to enforce. I was thinking about using the nofollow meta tag at the page level to handle this, but was a little unsure on how that may affect our own links...such as menu and side-bar links...that are on those pages. I'm not too concerned about those internal links not being followed on those particular blog pages, but I wanted to make sure a nofollow for a link on one page won't have any negative side effects on those same menu links that appear on various other pages without the nofollow meta tag. Would there be any negative side effects to using the nofollow meta tag like that? Thanks in advance for any insight. Best Regards, Ken
On-Page Optimization | | kens1090 -
Does redoing a homepage impact search rankings?
Hello, all! Does anyone know if redesigning a website's homepage affects search rankings? I'm considering redoing my website's homepage - including rewriting the copy, and perhaps in Leadpages - but I don't want to compromise search. I gather that SEO is a bit of a black box, but am curious to hear others' perspectives before moving ahead. Thanks in advance for sharing your time and thoughts!
On-Page Optimization | | lightsfilmschool0 -
Having 200 internal links on a page...is always bad?
I have an e-commerce site with a very important page that have over than 200 links...I have read in various sites that is bad to have too much links in page...what do you think? This is one of the most important pages in my site = general product page. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | Maximilian210 -
Too Many on page links! Will "NoFollow" for navigation help?
I am getting to many on page links ( for all my pages). Here is my website: http://www.websterpowerproducts.co.uk I think it is to do with the the navigation bar down the right hand side. I don't really want to get ride of this as it offers users a way of getting where they want without lots of clicking. I was wondering if adding a "NoFollow" tag to each of they links would stop the link juice getting diluted by the navigation bar. Many Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | WebsterPowerTools0 -
Broken Links/Images Non Optimized Content Help
Hello, After 4 years of incorrect blog creation and 4000 blog posts I have seen the light. I have implemented a new theme, SEO friendly, based on a yoast website report and have been creating timeless blogs with correct structure. However, I have 5400 broken links and images based on the Broken Link Checker. Additionally, of our 2500 blog posts which are on app reviews, only 500 are optimized so I have been painstakingly been going through each to optimize, while balancing new content output. The trouble is Google is seeing massive changes and we are tumbling in search. Any suggestions on how to approach this as it is my understanding that the broken links/images are doing considerable damage to our website overall. the website is crazymikesapps.com thank you Mike
On-Page Optimization | | crazymikesapps0 -
Are To Many Rel Canonical Links A Bad Thing?
Are To Many Rel Canonical Links A Bad Thing? I had "twin" domains so I redirected my .com to www..com and now I have a lot of Rel Canonical Links.
On-Page Optimization | | Mike.Bean0 -
Linking within Secondary Site
So we've got a secondary site that has quite a bit of authority & links that used to have all types of info on parasailing. All those pages are gone and homepage is now a salespage (management decision, not mine) Our main site sells a wide range of tours and activities and does have a page for parasailing. The secondary site uses the same template/navigation as our main site (again, not my decision). Do you think that's an effective way to send link juice to our main site? The secondary site has some pretty awesome high authority sites linking to it. I've considered 301'ing the whole site to our main site but it's got a really solid domain name and I'd like to take up 2 SERP listings (main and secondary site) Is there a better way to have double listings but still send a good amount of link juice?
On-Page Optimization | | SoulSurfer80 -
Link Juice not passing for root domain to an internal page
Hi Im working in a SEO proyect for the web fagorarrasate.com, it has good root domain ranking, but it seems like the root domain isn't passing any of its link juice to other internal pages of the site although there are links which link to these sub pages For example if I seach in Google for the page http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Stamping+System+and+Presses The firs page appears without any page ranking, so it seems that the root domain is not passing any of its ranking Why could this be happening? Thanks Jordi
On-Page Optimization | | joralles0