Google Page Rank is Still Important, Rel=NoFollow Can Help
It never ceases to amaze me as I read forums and listen to "experts" in SEO talk about how Page Rank isn't important anymore. Yeah I know the standard line about "there are 100 different elements to the algo and PR is just one of em". It makes me laugh a little I have to admit. And the reason is that Page Rank is still an important concept for any SEO to understand. And not because you should only chase links from high Page Rank sites. That's the kind of old school thinking that gave Page Rank a bad name to begin with. But for those that think Page Rank is irrelevant. Let me clue you in on one simple fact. Google built a multi billion dollar search business on the basis of Page Rank. They have exclusive license to it until 2011. It's the primary differentiator in the public view (think Wall Street) that separates there search engine from all the others. Yeah I know Google does a thousands and one things and that their technology and server clusters are state of the art and yada yada yada. But the biggest thing in search that Google is associated with is Page Rank. And it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
That's why I was very interested in seeing this article about sculpting Page Rank which in my opinion, makes a ton of sense. Using the rel=nofollow tags to prevent page rank from flowing to unimportant pages that happen to be linked from your homepage (ie, privacy policy, hacker safe links, shopping cart pages, etc) can really make a difference in the way you rank. Back before I was a white hat kinda guy (think Grey Hat with some chimney dust), I discovered a guy named Leslie Rohde and his SEO techniques. Now I am not advocating his products, I am just letting you know what I used a few years ago. You're milage at this point may vary. Basically he was (and still is to my knowledge) using this same concept of Page Rank sculpting (although a little more aggressively than what I would recommend) to optimize Web site structure to funnel the majority of PR to his most important pages. Back then, there was no rel=nofollow tag and therefore he used Java based links to create the same effect (links in java script were not indexed by search engines at that time, nowadays there is some evidence to suggest that the engines see some links that are hidden in java script). Anyway, I was very successful using those techniques and at one point, one of the sites I controlled was ranked #3 for "las vegas hotels" for over 6 months. Nowadays, I am not a proponent of designing Web sites strictly to funnel Page Rank. I believe more in designing your site for users so that they can find what they are looking for on your site as quickly and as easily as possible. But, that doesn't mean that you can't be smart about the way that you link and maximize your Page Rank potential. And that's really what this Sculpting Page Rank article is all about. Its about taking advantage of mechanisms that allow you to give Google a better picture of the content on your site that you feel is important.
To those who think that this is some sort of below the board tactic, consider what Matt Cutts, Google Spam Engineer said in his interview with Rankd Fishkin:
"(Matt's precise words were: 'The nofollow attribute is just a mechanism that gives webmasters the ability to modify PageRank flow at link-level granularity. Plenty of other mechanisms would also work (e.g. a link through a page that is robot.txt'ed out), but nofollow on individual links is simpler for some folks to use. There's no stigma to using nofollow, even on your own internal links; for Google, nofollow'ed links are dropped out of our link graph; we don't even use such links for discovery. By the way, the nofollow meta tag does that same thing, but at a page level.')"
The fact that Page Rank continues to be talked about by Google engineers and continues to appear in Google Webmaster guidelines should indicate to most people that it still carries some weight within the algorithm. Ask yourself, if Page Rank isn't important, why is Google going to such lengths to discourage the buying and selling of it? Is Google Page Rank the end all be all Holy Grail of SEO? no, of coarse not. Is it still an important thing to think about and use effectively for SEO, yes.
Google Page Rank is important for SEOs to understand as a concept. Because its a recursive algorithm, it might take a little more than a basic understanding of algebra to comprehend. But once you understand the formula and the intention behind the formula, it gives you greater insight into constructing an Internet Architecture that is effective for search. It also serves as a great tool for understanding potential indexing problems and linking problems. Where it is not important is when you use it to gauge the value of a link. Variables link anchor text, page theme, page content and trust are just a few of the other variable that one has to look at when evaluating links. And using Page Rank as some form of currency as it has been used and continues to be used is a slippery slope at best. But that doesn't take away from the fact that Page Rank is still an important concept in search engine optimization and that using it effectively can make a big difference in your rankings.
That's why I was very interested in seeing this article about sculpting Page Rank which in my opinion, makes a ton of sense. Using the rel=nofollow tags to prevent page rank from flowing to unimportant pages that happen to be linked from your homepage (ie, privacy policy, hacker safe links, shopping cart pages, etc) can really make a difference in the way you rank. Back before I was a white hat kinda guy (think Grey Hat with some chimney dust), I discovered a guy named Leslie Rohde and his SEO techniques. Now I am not advocating his products, I am just letting you know what I used a few years ago. You're milage at this point may vary. Basically he was (and still is to my knowledge) using this same concept of Page Rank sculpting (although a little more aggressively than what I would recommend) to optimize Web site structure to funnel the majority of PR to his most important pages. Back then, there was no rel=nofollow tag and therefore he used Java based links to create the same effect (links in java script were not indexed by search engines at that time, nowadays there is some evidence to suggest that the engines see some links that are hidden in java script). Anyway, I was very successful using those techniques and at one point, one of the sites I controlled was ranked #3 for "las vegas hotels" for over 6 months. Nowadays, I am not a proponent of designing Web sites strictly to funnel Page Rank. I believe more in designing your site for users so that they can find what they are looking for on your site as quickly and as easily as possible. But, that doesn't mean that you can't be smart about the way that you link and maximize your Page Rank potential. And that's really what this Sculpting Page Rank article is all about. Its about taking advantage of mechanisms that allow you to give Google a better picture of the content on your site that you feel is important.
To those who think that this is some sort of below the board tactic, consider what Matt Cutts, Google Spam Engineer said in his interview with Rankd Fishkin:
"(Matt's precise words were: 'The nofollow attribute is just a mechanism that gives webmasters the ability to modify PageRank flow at link-level granularity. Plenty of other mechanisms would also work (e.g. a link through a page that is robot.txt'ed out), but nofollow on individual links is simpler for some folks to use. There's no stigma to using nofollow, even on your own internal links; for Google, nofollow'ed links are dropped out of our link graph; we don't even use such links for discovery. By the way, the nofollow meta tag does that same thing, but at a page level.')"
The fact that Page Rank continues to be talked about by Google engineers and continues to appear in Google Webmaster guidelines should indicate to most people that it still carries some weight within the algorithm. Ask yourself, if Page Rank isn't important, why is Google going to such lengths to discourage the buying and selling of it? Is Google Page Rank the end all be all Holy Grail of SEO? no, of coarse not. Is it still an important thing to think about and use effectively for SEO, yes.
Google Page Rank is important for SEOs to understand as a concept. Because its a recursive algorithm, it might take a little more than a basic understanding of algebra to comprehend. But once you understand the formula and the intention behind the formula, it gives you greater insight into constructing an Internet Architecture that is effective for search. It also serves as a great tool for understanding potential indexing problems and linking problems. Where it is not important is when you use it to gauge the value of a link. Variables link anchor text, page theme, page content and trust are just a few of the other variable that one has to look at when evaluating links. And using Page Rank as some form of currency as it has been used and continues to be used is a slippery slope at best. But that doesn't take away from the fact that Page Rank is still an important concept in search engine optimization and that using it effectively can make a big difference in your rankings.
posted by Catfish at
10:46 AM
5 Comments:
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
I think that there is a massive difference between PageRank and link juice.
Whilst the algorithm which determines PageRank is an important part of the algorithm which determines SERPs, I think it is naive to think that the little green bar does more than reflect the authority of a page.
I do sculpt links to prevent too much emphasis being put on pages such as Ts&Cs etc. and the use of nofollow is an excellent tool when that page still wants to be indexed, but we need to recognise the difference between the green bar and the strength of a page.
As an aside, I was a little confused by the old-school link obfuscation section of this post - using JavaScript to effectively produce nofollows I am familiar with, but could you expand on the use of Java a little please?
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Essentially I was just saying that in the old days before nofollow, I used to achieve the same kind of page rank sculpting by creating links with Java script instead of HTML. However, I was a lot more aggressive back then in trying to manipulate Page Rank according to Leslie's principles. I hope that answers your questions.
Google has in the past advised people to use “rel=’nofollow’” on links pointing out to other sites’ pages on the assumption that you cannot be sure of what those links are pointing to. After all, “rel=’nofollow’” was supposed to save bloggers from link spam. Spammers would supposedly get the message that their links would not help their search visibility.
---------------
oliviaharis
interactive marketing
Post a Comment
<< Blog Home Page