Controlling the internal linking with nofollow

Johannes Beus
The internal linking is at the same time a very interesting and important but also in many cases criminally neglected parameter for searchengineoptimization, especially for comprehensive websites. Through selective changes it is possible to quickly produce noticeable results and all that without the need to buy acquire new incoming links. The homepage for a typical Internet shop on the subject of “sport” should contain the following internal linkage:


along comes the searchengine, takes a look at the five links on the homepage and determines that way that the lower pages are obviously about Watersport, Wintersport, the customer account, shipping and the legal notice, all with the same importance (!) per part. In many cases this assessment is amplified by the fact that this navigation is being repeated on every page since it is incorporated in the template. The problem arises because the value of each internal link will decrease with a rising number of links on this page, two thirds of the available “juice” in this – admittedly extreme – example is being wasted rather needlessly. Here we get the idea that only pages which are relevant for the ranking in the searchengines will get internal links. While in the past there was a need to work with complicated flash- and JavaScript-constructs to keep a link accessible for the user but to make it invisible for the searchengines, thankfully we have the “nofollow-attribute” for links, for a while now. It was initially thought of as a way to combat commentspam in guestbooks and blogs but we can also splendidly alienate it: just mark the pages that need to be there and linked for the user but which searchengines have no use for in this way and the flow of “juice” through the internal linking should be considerably improved.
Johannes Beus - on Sun (09/30/2007) at 22:49 PM

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