This post was originally titled \u201cIs PageRank Sculpting Dead & Can Comments Kill Your PageRank\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Following a confirmation post from Google\u2019s Matt Cutts today, it seems PageRank Sculpting as practiced by many SEOs is effectively dead, and comments, even using links with nofollow\u00a0CAN<\/strong>\u00a0have a negative effect on the amount of PageRank that can be passed on to your internal pages.<\/p>\n Link to updates from Matt Cutts\u00a0plus tips on how to continue PageRank sculpting effectively.<\/p>\n Has Google in one quick swipe removed all benefit of Dynamic Linking (old school term) or PageRank sculpting (when it became \u201ctrendy\u201d), and potentially caused massive penalties for sites nofollowing links for user generated content and comments?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have left a few comments on various blog posts over the last few days, especially on SEOmoz and Twitter, but though it important to solidify some thoughts here, and potentially add a little more perspective.<\/p>\n The idea of controlling the flow of \u201cGoogle Juice\u201d around a website to pages that matter, or to other sites that matter has been around for a long time, at least as early as 2003 when Leslie Rohde (Stompernet Faculty) was calling it \u201cDynamic Linking\u201d.<\/p>\n Those were the days before \u201cnofollow\u201d and you had to use Javascript to accomplish the internal linking control.<\/p>\n In the past I have linked to Michael Campbell\u2019s Revenge of the Mininet which also provides access to Leslie\u2019s original Dynamic Linking membership site. They are both now free, (Michael used to charge $79.95 for his ebook)<\/p>\n I am sure I have sent 1000s of people to Michael\u2019s newsletter signup page over the years, but I am equally confident that 90% of the visitors didn\u2019t sign up. I don\u2019t receive any kind of payment recommending Michael\u2019s work, or Leslie\u2019s dynamic linking.<\/p>\n In many ways I look on at least a passing understanding of these groundbreaking ebooks as required reading for any of my SEO articles<\/strong><\/p>\n From the comments I see on most SEO blogs, and even many of the articles, I am quietly confident that these seminal works haven\u2019t been truly understood, and of course the content rarely gets referenced.<\/p>\n So I am going to do something unprecedented, and I hope Michael won\u2019t mind \u2013 the page does appear in the SERPs.<\/p>\n Once you get there, you can pick up a password to access\u00a0Leslie\u2019s Dynamic Linking site.<\/p>\n Leslie has always had this great disclaimer:<\/p>\n DISCLAIMER!<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of the techniques and technologies described in the foregoing are not without their pitfalls and potential unintended consequences. If you are new to web business, inexperienced at search engine optimization, or do not feel comfortable with HTML and Javascript (at least at a rudimentary level), you should not attempt to employ the advanced techniques shown here!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I have just given you access to 4 or 5 year old information that in all likelihood is more advanced than you will find discussed on 95% of SEO blogs and forums, and whilst I don\u2019t from principle\/ethics join any private SEO content area to avoid conflict with what I blog about, I am quietly confident that it would still be looked on as advanced content for members only, or not even covered in such depth.<\/p>\n But that is just a trickle of knowledge compared to direct access.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am still eagerly awaiting an update to Leslie\u2019s Dynamic Linking suggested on his\u00a0SEO Software\u00a0site.<\/p>\n A major update to this material is currently in process owing to some recently discovered changes in the way Google is processing links. Look for an announcement early next year (2009) \u2014 the changes will likely revolutionize on-site linking techniques \u2026 again!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Leslie also has an\u00a0SEO Strategy<\/a>\u00a0blog, which he actually updates once in a while. I am going to have to explore the blogging platform he uses,\u00a0Pebble.<\/p>\n There are 2 other ways to learn more from Leslie:<\/p>\n Of everything that has been discussed about Google making changes to which links they will follow and count going forward, how they handle javascript is probably the one that is worth the most consideration.<\/p>\n The first I read about it was on Search Engine Land in an article by Vanessa Fox (who used to work for Google as a member of their webmaster team) covering\u00a0Google Javascript Links<\/a>. Having given a great link, I can justify grabbing a small code example<\/p>\n Some examples of code that Googlebot can now execute include:<\/p>\n This will probably work<\/p>\n onclick=\u201dmyfunction(\u2018jkhhjstdysd\u2019)<\/p>\n Have myfunction() within a file loaded in the header, or preferably in the footer for faster page loading. You would still want to use the CSS that Michael and Leslie suggest for usability. If Google somehow cope with that, and possibly easier would be to just use pure external javascript that pulls in some XML, but that then complicates things if you want to mix real links with dynamic ones.<\/p>\n But this is moot if nofollow actually still works.<\/p>\n I am going to lead with the freshest insight I have read, Dan Thies (also Stompernet Faculty) thinks things are\u00a0being blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n Here are the primary\u00a0opinion pieces<\/strong>\u00a0and coverage I have seen, though I am sure there were plenty more<\/p>\n Google Loses \u201cBackwards Compatibility\u201d On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting Didn\u2019t comment, was too busy looking for other coverage.<\/p>\n Google (Maybe) Changes How the PageRank Algorithm Handles Nofollow<\/a><\/p>\n My comment on the post:<\/p>\n I can only think that Google have been misinterpreted.<\/p>\n If I have a blog post with 300 comments, and have the links nofollowed (my blog is dofollow but example), then there would effectively be juice lost due to the comment links.<\/p>\n Links are valuable, because they add to the relevance of a comment made, because a reader can follow them to find out more about the person. If this is only for internal links, there are major problems because often a link will be nofollowed because it points to a tracking link that is also blocked by robots.txt<\/p>\n Any sensible knowledgeable webmaster is going to nofollow those links, because they serve no purpose for Google in their current state, and who wants to turn them into hanging pages.<\/p>\n That may also be a workaround, if Google handles links blocked with Robots.txt differently<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No Clarification Forthcoming from Google on Nofollow & PageRank Flow<\/a><\/p>\n My comment on the post:<\/p>\n I can\u2019t see any evidence that this is affecting external links.<\/p>\n Wikipedia is still a black hole of link equity. If this affected Wikipedia external links, we would see some effect, because due to recursive calculations through internal linking, it could potentially reduce their juice pool by as much as 30%<\/p>\n It would also affect the Ebay group with sites such as epinions.<\/p>\n If it has any effect, it will be internal links only.<\/p>\n The amount of juice lost could be similar to dangling or hanging pages, and due to many poor SEO articles suggesting robots.txt for duplicate content, Google Webmaster guidelines suggesting robots.txt for search results, and just ignoring obvious signals such as TBPR.<\/p>\n Yes, any smart SEO could spot the toolbar showing some green on pages blocked by robots.txt and work things out for themselves.<\/p>\n But the juice goes into the internet ether, and due to macro PageRank calculations, comes back.<\/p>\n If anything, this will help Google surface more long-tail content, and sites with lots of pages will benefit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You & A With Matt Cutts<\/a><\/p>\nPageRank Sculpting Formerly Known As Dynamic Linking<\/h3>\n
Access The Source of SEO Knowledge<\/h2>\n
Michael Campbell<\/h3>\n
Leslie Rohde<\/h3>\n
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\nZone based SEO might seem obvious at first, but it allows you to systematize and possibly even automate specific SEO campaigns, especially now it is possible to extract ranking positions from Google referrer data.<\/li>\nThe Death Of Dynamic Linking With Javascript?<\/h2>\n
\n(Note: I know that anchor text is very contrived, but SEO is about helping people find what they are searching for, not snake oil or gaming Google)<\/p>\n\n
<div onclick=\"document.location.href='http:\/\/foo.com\/'\"><\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
<tr onclick=\"myfunction('index.html')\"><a href=\"#\"\r\nonclick=\"myfunction()\">new page<\/a><\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<a href=\"javascript:void(0)\" onclick=\"window.open\r\n('welcome.html')\">open new window<\/a><\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nJavascript That Is Still Dynamic?<\/h3>\n
\nSomehow define which destination \u2018jkhhjstdysd\u2019 refers to, and that could potentially be broken down into components.<\/p>\nDoes Nofollow Still Work For Dynamic Linking or PageRank Sculpting?<\/h3>\n
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\nHowever they also form part of disclosure.<\/p>\nLive Blogging Of Matt Cutts @ SMX<\/h3>\n