Do we need to Disallow profiles from discussions or forums?

[vtmoz]

Hi,

We have a forum where users create different threads like any other community...ex..Moz. Thousands of pages are getting created. New threads and comments are Okay as they have relevant content. We are planning to "Disallow" all profile pages as they do not help with content relevancy and may dilute the link juice with thousands of such profile pages. Is this right way to proceed?

Thanks

[mememax]

I would normally say yes, but it really depends on how good your forum is. Sometimes people like to do reputation marketing and if the site is authoritative you want to show for your name's queries that you are part of an important website with lots of contributions. But if your profile pages are not that relevant or nice or provide any interest to your users, I don't see why you'd like to let google index and serve them

[LureCreative]

I would if I were in your shoes. Having all profile and/or comment links be "do-follow links" can cause alot of spam and potentially be the downfall to the longevity and credibility of your forum.

[vtmoz]

Hi Lure,

Thanks for the answer. We are going to de index these profile pages. Just wondering about "nofollow" as nofollowing internal links is not always correct. What's your call on this?

[LureCreative]

We have never had to nofollow internal links within any of our websites, I am sure their are some circumstances where you could, but since Google's algorithm no longer "penalizes" links I don't see a need to as they are simply ignored. Just avoid spammy tactics like having 100 links under the footer or a bunch of affiliate links, etc.