The other day we had a technical question relating to the Quirk SearchStatus tool which we are going to answer here but, for the purposes of this post, we are assuming that you understand the importance and processes of linking in SEO activities. If you’re a little unsure – check out these posts before reading on:
The question posed revolved around the difference between NoFollow links and NoIndex pages and asked whether a NoIndex page could accumulate PageRank. And if so, could it pass on PageRank to the sites it links to (i.e. pass on the link juice it might be receiving).
Before we answer the question, let’s clarify what we are talking about:
- A NoIndex page is a HTML meta tag (at page level) telling the search engine spiders visiting your site not to display the page in the SERPs.
- NoFollow is an attribute of a hyperlink, indicating that the link is not necessarily endorsed by the website and should be ignored by search engine spiders. In Google's case, it means the Google spider will not channel any PageRank link juice to the pages that the link is sending you to.
To get back to our question - effectively the dilemma is whether NoIndex pages have the same effect as NoFollow links when it comes to sharing the link love.
Matt Cutts (Google’s guru of link love) says that a NoIndex page can accumulate PageRank, because the links are still followed both inwards and outwards. So even though the page itself won’t be showing in the SERPs, it can accumulate and pass on PageRank if it has links out to other pages.
The bottom line:
- NoIndex pages can still give and receive PageRank and link love, even though they are effectively invisible in the SERPs.
- A NoFollow link will not share the link love, even if it comes from a highly ranked page. (Different search engines have their own treatments in this regard, but this is the Google way).
Muti
