Does Google Index the Linked-to Page
According to an article on Wikipedia, Google won’t index a linked-to page from a nofollow link. So strictly speaking if a website isn’t indexed in Google and I make a comment on a nofollow blog that comment and nofollow link to my website shouldn’t cause my site to get indexed.
A week or so ago I decided to buy a new domain and hosting to go with it. I put up some decent content on the one and only page on the site, while I get the rest of the content sorted. I didn’t submit the site to Google Webmaster Tools or do anything with it or get any other links.
According to this article on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow and an old article that I quickly dug up here www.searchenginejournal.com Google won’t index a page through the no follow attribute.
So when I posted a blog comment on a popular no follow blog and decided to enter the new website in the optional website textbox, a few days later the site was indexed in Google and Yahoo. The only link to the site is through the blog which Yahoo site explorer also shows up.
So I guess Google does indeed index no followed links.
September 18th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Hi Michael, as you’ve found – this myth is debunked. The only thing that happens with a no-follow is that pagerank doesn’t get passed.
In other words the bot behaviour won’t take it into account when determining important pages.
Many people (spammers) are still successfully ranking in Google using ONLY no-follow links from blogs etc.
September 18th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Hi Paul,
Although there’s no PR passed, it’s a good way to get a site indexed quickly.
I can’t imagine that you could rank for fairly competitive terms using just this one strategy.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Michael,
I see you are using rel=”nofollow” on this blog..
I decided to take it off my ppcni.com blog.
If a comment is spammy then I don’t publish it. If it is a quality comment then I think it is only fair that I share the wealth a wee bit ! 🙂
September 21st, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Jordan,
If a comment is from someone that I don’t know and poor then I tend not to approve it.
The no follow attribute is the default that’s all. Maybe when I get a sec I’ll remove it.
September 21st, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I installed the ‘Do Follow 4.0’ plugin for WordPress. It is dead simple, and works retrospectively as well i.e. all previous posts get the ‘nofollow’ removed…
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
In my opinion, if you want to give link juice to someone who deserves it, do so in the article body.
Opening up comments for follow, is a sure fire way to attract more comment spam, and to make it onto a dofollow list of blogs.
Just my two cents. I’ve experimented with b4, and found it didn’t make a bit of difference to audience participation.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:16 am
🙂
There is no right answer to this one I guess. It is a debate that could go on for years (and probably will…)
September 30th, 2011 at 11:10 am
Am I correct in thinking that if I have do follow links on my site, it will negatively affect my own rank? Or can you pass PR without losing any of your own?
By the way, thanks for the interesting post / comments.