Page Rank Sculpting and the Use Nofollow On Internal Links

Published by: Alex George
Google recommends the use of rel="nofollow" to the link to which you do not want to pass authority. Though we mainly use it for external links, many websites using nofollow attribute for their internal links. I do not like the idea of using rel="nofollow" to the internal links. It is because we do not need to prevent the possible authority passing to the other pages on the same domain. This article examines the effects of the usage of nofollow attribute with internal links.

Page Rank Sculpting is the reason provided by many webmasters to support the use of nofollow on internal links. Let us check how much truth in this argument.


The Concept of Page Rank Sculpting
When I started doing SEO for my websites, the concept of Page Rank sculpting was important. According to Page Rank Sculpting, we can channel the PR juice of one webpage to selected links on that page including internal and external links.

In those days, Google was treating nofollow attribute as a barrier which prevents the flow of PR juice. By using this loophole, webmasters prevented the PR juice flow to unwanted pages, and channel it to the selected pages.


Let us consider a webpage contains ten links (including both internal and external URLs). Each of them passes 1/10 of the total PR juice. According to PR Sculpting, if we add nofollow to 5 links, PR flow through them are blocked.

No more link juice is passing through them. Only five other links without nofollow tag pass the total Page Rank juice. The PR juice passing through each one is now doubled ( 1/5).

PR Flow through a link = 1/(Number of Links without nofollow attribute)

By Page Rank sculpting we can decide how much value passes through a link. But those days are over. Now the concept of Page Rank Sculpting no longer works. Google realized the misuse of nofollow attribute and they changed the way Page trust flows between pages.

Now irrespective of this attribute, link juice passing through links from on webpage follows the following equation.

PR juice passing through one link =1/(total number of links on the web page )

After this Google update, if we add nofollow to links on a web page, it does not influence the PR juice flow. So, I recommend my fellow webmasters to avoid using the nofollow attribute on internal links for passing more link juice through certain links.

It does not work anymore. The best SEO internal linking strategy is to avoid adding nofollow attribute while pointing internal pages.

Internal links have a vital role in total Search Engine rank of your website. The free flow of Page Rank throughout your website helps internal pages to rank higher in Search Engine results.

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You can see some internal pages as backlinks while checking backlinks in Google or Bing. To learn more about it click on the link below.
How to Check Backlinks To Your Website Using Google and Bing

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If you are a blogger, you know the importance of having a custom domain name for your blog. It can help you to promote your blog among your audience and in Social Media.

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A unique domain name helps backlink building process too. To learn about adding custom domain follow the instructions provided in the link below.
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WThe best source to check the backlinks pointing to our website is Google webmaster tools. However, sometimes it does not work well. Last week, most of the backlinks pointing to my website disappeared on my webmaster tools account.

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Those links are still out there but somehow Webmastertools not showing them. You can read more about it by visiting the link below.
A Lot Of External Links to My Website Suddenly Disappeared From Google Webmaster Tools

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