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    4. Do you use <nofollow>and rel=nofollow?</nofollow>

    Do you use <nofollow>and rel=nofollow?</nofollow>

    On-Page / Site Optimization
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    • fleetway
      fleetway last edited by

      I just read http://www.thoughtmechanics.com/does-nofollow-attribute-work-google-says-yes-studies-say-otherwise/ .

      Is it really better to avoid using nofollow for local links (from one site to itself)?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • SuperlativB
        SuperlativB last edited by

        Why do you want to include nofollow on internal links? Let that juice flow I say.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • EGOL
          EGOL last edited by

          We don't use it.  If a site is worth linking to then give them the juice.

          If you were google and you came to a site with a lot of nofollowed outgoing links you might think that they mean... "We Don't Trust This".... "They Paid Us"....

          Don't want that odor on my site.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • john4math
            john4math last edited by

            Nofollowing links doesn't sculpt link juice, it burns it.  Doing this to internal links is bad, as you're wasting your own link juice!  If I don't want a page on my site on the SERPs, I'd much rather set a meta noindex, follow tag on the page I don't want indexed rather than nofollow links to it.

            To explain burning vs. sculpting, here's an example.  Say page A has 6 votes of link juice to pass, and links to 3 other pages, B, C, and D.  If all the links are followed, it'll pass 2 votes to each page.  However, if you nofollow the link to page D, it won't give 3 votes to B and C, it'll give the same 2 votes to B and C, and the 2 votes that should have gone to page D go nowhere.  They're burned.

            If instead you set a meta tag on page D to noindex, follow, the link juice will flow in and out of page D, so that would be much preferred.

            EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
            • EGOL
              EGOL @john4math last edited by

              **This is a really good answer. **  The first two paragraphs are the best answer that  I have seen to this type of question.

              Nice work, John.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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