Though the myth that nofollow links are not becoming indexed by search engines is nonetheless becoming perpetuated amongst webmasters and Search engine optimization gurus alike, the truth is that nofollow links actually are becoming indexed and are affecting search engine ranking. In late 2008, Google began to index links that contained the rel=nofollow attribute.
What is PageRank and How is it Calculated?
Web designers can think of Google PageRank as a reputation method, frequently made use of in many forums to indicate how many helpful posts a user has made. It is a worth that the Google search engine uses to calculate the significance of any given internet page located in its index. Though Google has not disclosed the exact calculations made use of to assign PageRank, they have given internet masters enough specifics that a simple model can be made use of to describe PageRank calculation.
For this simplified instance, Page A, B and C every single have assigned 30 points of reputation. If Page A links to Page B and Page C, the 30 points of reputation from Page A are evenly divided amongst Page B and Page C and added to their respective reputations. Page B and Page C every single total 45 points of reputation with the links from Page A.
To stop infinite loops from occurring in this method, Google PageRank has a built in decay of approximately 10 to 15% that is calculated prior to PageRank is distributed. Factoring this decay into the instance above, Page A is actually passing 13.5 points of reputation to Page B and Page C.
But with the introduction of the nofollow link in 2005, webmasters were able to control their votes for reputation. If Page A linked to Page B with a dofollow link, but linked to Page C with a nofollow link, then all 27 points of reputation would flow to Page B and Page C would get no points of reputation.
How Nofollow Links Were Becoming Employed and Abused
The nofollow link was originally meant to give internet designers a tool to combat the spammers that plagued blogs and forums of more legitimate internet internet sites. This gave Page A the ability to inform search engines that it did not wish to vote for Page C's reputation.
Even so, an unintended side effect of the nofollow attribute allowed internet designers to use the nofollow link to control the flow of PageRank inside their personal internet sites. If a internet designer wanted only selected pages to rank very in search engines, he would funnel all PageRank from the internet website into the desired pages by utilizing nofollow links for all other links on his website. This prevented Google from indexing a lot of high good quality content that users may be looking for.
According to a blog posted on June 15, 2009 by Google guru, Matt Cutts, in an effort to better serve its shoppers Google began indexing links that contained the rel=nofollow attribute in late 2008. No formal announcement was made of this change Google assumed that webmasters would notice the alterations and modify their internet sites accordingly.
What Does This Definitely Imply for Search engine optimization?
This change affected the calculations Google uses to identify PageRank. Now, when Page A gives Page B a dofollow link and gives Page C a nofollow link, Google calculates the PageRank distribution as if both pages B and C were receiving PageRank. Page B receives 13.5 points of PageRank, but the remaining points that would have gone to Page C are merely lost.
This could possibly be negative news for internet designers that had previously made use of PageRank sculpting to control the flow of PageRank inside their internet internet sites, as it unnecessarily reduces the total amount of PageRank that can flow inside the website.
That is the "official" word from Google. Even so, there is a hotly contested debate surrounding this problem amongst those in the Search engine optimization community. Some webmasters think that nofollow links have small worth for Search engine optimization other than the targeted traffic they may straight bring to a web page, although others think that the relevance in terms of content and context of a nofollow link can make the linked page perform better for targeted key phrases.
And It is a properly documented truth that Google is recording nofollow links as backlinks for internet sites. Webmasters require only consult their backlinks from Google's Webmaster Tools to verify this, and there are several threads about this phenomenon in webmaster forums.
The most beneficial suggestions for a webmaster searching for better ranking for very competitive key phrases is to investigate what the top ranking competitors have performed to accomplish their ranking. See exactly where competitors are obtaining their backlinks utilizing Yahoo's Internet site Explorer.
Resources for Google Search Engine Ranking
- Cutts, Matt (June 15, 2009). PageRank Sculpting. Accessed: July 1, 2010.
- seoOverflow (October 27, 2009). Why You Should really Build Nofollow Links. Accessed: July 1, 2010.
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