How effective are nofollow links today (2013) ?

[SEMEnthusiast]

Hi,

We had a question about the effectiveness of nofollow today. Nofollowing some links on pages was to make sure pagerank flows to content which is most relevant and useful to visitors on the site.

Looking at the 2009 article, http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow, it seems that adding the meta tag nofollow would no longer help us in ensuring this goal. We had a couple of questions:

1. Do you think Google today only passes pagerank to dofollow links
2. Are sites today using iframes/javascript to make sure googlebot passes pagerank to only relevant pages
3. Any other best practice you would suggest

Thanks

[jesse-landry]

It seems to me like you are suggesting that your PR can be spread out thin by too many followed links from your subdomain... I don't think this is true.

1.) Google does not follow nofollow links..

2.) iframes and javascript are concoctions of the devil himself.

3.) build links from high DA sites organically. Make sure they're relevant.

[SEMEnthusiast]

The article from 2009 points out that nofollow links will be ignored concerning the PR juice flow. To clarify the question - if we use nofollow on some of our links will we get more of the PR juice to the followed links?

Thanks for your comment!

[DorotheaKettler]

1. Google stated it repeatedly and sticks to its decission: nofollow links are meant to tell crawlers not to follow the links. They don't pass pagerank and they won't influence your SERP rankings directly. Nevertheless, most nofollow links (comments, mentions etc) are great techniques for networking. Even if they won't have any impact on your SEO campaign, later on they can help you build partnerships, friendships and, eventually, they can lead to some pretty powerful dofollow links as well.

[jesse-landry]

no it won't make a difference to followed links all it will do is not follow or pass juice to links you chose to nofollow.

google does not parse or split up link juice it either passes on or doesn't.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

This is a complex issue, but let me share with you:

• What we know to be true &
• What most consider best practices

1. Google has stated many times in the past that nofollow link pass neither PageRank nor anchor text.

2. That said, many SEOs believe nofollow links do play some roll in search engine rankings, although the relationship is elusive and difficult to define. The 2011 SEOmoz Ranking Factors did show a correlation between nofollow links and higher rankings (but now I'm getting off topic)

3. Most good SEOs believe that PageRank sculpting either doesn't work, or is generally such a low ROI activity that it isn't worth it.  (However, not everyone holds this opinion)

4. Google is getting better at parsing javascript links (although we don't know what kind of link signals are passed through them) and there is even evidence that Google passes link signals through iframes, but again we can't quantify what signals/how much.

**5. Best Practices - **Generally, you don't want too many links on a page, and you want your important links in prominent places.

If you have too many links that you don't want followed, you should consider consolidating them into a single link. For example, you can put your Contact, Privacy, Info and FAQ into a single link/landing page that leads to a better experience for users and search engines.

See this article by Rand on link consolidation. It's also from 2009, but just as relevant today: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-consolidation-the-new-pagerank-sculpting

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.

[jesse-landry]

Okay I don't know what to believe anymore. I just added a Squidoo page and a few links on there, the source reads nofollow on all even though I completed all necessary fields in the Squidoo guide but still it's showing up on OSE as a followed link..

wtf

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Jesse,

Just this week, Squidoo announced they are now making all external links "nofollow".

http://hq.squidoo.com/squid-news/changing-link-status-on-squidoo/

Links to squidoo.com will still be followed (internal links)

OSE is based on data a few weeks old. The changes on Squidoo.com will be updated in a few weeks.

[jesse-landry]

bah! thanks Cyrus. I missed that announcement. Makes sense!

Can't say I blame them either. But... bummer

[SEMEnthusiast]

Thank you guys!

So the best practice would be to use iFrame in order to improve the PR juice flow to followed links? Like Jesse and the article said, the number of links is what is calculated for distributing the PR juice regardless of the nofollow tag? That's just so weird...

Thanks again!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Er... sorry if I wasn't clear. IFrames may or may not pass PageRank, but I would hardly ever recommend using them if you want to control your SEO variables.

Best practices would be to make the majority of your links followed, and consolidate lessor important links.

[jesse-landry]

+1 to avoiding iframes altogether