Inernal nofollow, not a good idea

As a marketing specialist you sometimes come across internal links with 'rel = "nofollow"' attribute. It might seem like a good idea to add 'nofollow to' unimportant internal links in order to let pagerank flows to the important parts of your page. Unfortunately it is not. We explain why below.

Nofollow is meant to prevent spam

Links on a page pass page rank to other pages. By adding the nofollow attribute tp a link, we ensure that this link no longer passes on a page rank. This nofollow attribute is designed to prevent spam. Webmasters can add the nofollow attribute to links in comments and on forums in order to counteract 'comment spam'. For example.

<a href="https://www.example.com" rel="nofollow">look at my homepage</a>

Why are internal nofollow links used?

Webmasters are always looking for ways to get higher in Google. Because pagerank is an important factor to be found, webmasters thought that pagerank had to be sent to the right pages. This is called 'pagerank shaping' and that actually works very well. By linking to important pages, page rank is forwarded to these pages. To send even more pagarank to the right paignas, sometimes less important internal links were provided with a 'nofollow'.

Internal nofollow, a bad idea

Internal nofollow links are actually always a bad idea. It is a wrong solution with more adverse consequences than you may have thought. Google'sd Gary Illyes also tells us that internal nofollow should not be used.

  • For all types of problems there are better solutions than 'nofollow'
  • Nofollow does not shape pagerank like you would expect. Nofollow works like a black hole and loses pagerank.
  • Nofollow indicates that you do not trust a page (enough), which can lead to a higher spam score.

Better solutions to 'nofollowing' internal links

There are a number of reasons to use internal nofollow links. You will find the most important ones below with additional tips for better pagerank distribution,

1. The receiving page is not important enough

This is actually the classic 'pagerank scultping' argument. 
Pagerank is not otherwise controlled by nofollow but rather evaporates. Moreover, the use of nofollow stops the 'pagerank flow'. You actually build a dam while you want to move on like that. 
If a page is really not important enough, it is best not to link to it.

2. The receiving page is of low quality

Ai ai ai, you are now trying to hide the fact that you have poor quality pages on your site by masking internal links to those pages. Unfortunately, this is not how it works, Google will detect these pages anyway and will adjust the quality score of your site accordingly. Poor quality pages should be improved or excluded from the index via the robots.txt or meta tags / server headers.

3. The receiving page is a 'duplicate content' page

Many web stores use / abuse the nofollow attribute at category level. Product overview pages can be sorted in many ways but the content remains the same. This has duplicate content. Some webmasters have given the links to these pages a nofollow. 
Also this is not solved with an internal nofollow but with a cannonical where you indicate that the original of this page can be found elsewhere.

Free 14-day trial

MarketingTracer smart A.I. tool shows you what you need to rank. Then we'll help you get it done.

Start your 14-day trial >>
  • No credit card required
  • No installation needed
  • No strings attached