The secrets of website optimization are not only their promotion on key requests, concern for usability and increased traffic, but also in the correct use of html-code. The correct use of tags and their attributes often helps to avoid multi-day work. There are popular and effective tricks. Probably, in SEO optimization, you cannot separate the attributes of rel nofollow and the noindex tag. Therefore, this article will discuss both that and the other, as well as about why they are needed, whether they should be placed side by side and in what cases to use them, and when not to do it.
Indexing pages and their weight
One of the most important parameters for getting a site into the TOP 10 search engines is the weight of its pages. It is they who fall into the first issuance of Yandex and Google, and after them the Internet portals. The weight of each of them increases due to links - both external and internal. It is important for every webmaster to understand how the process of distributing this parameter between the pages of your site and Internet projects, the links of which are placed on your own resource, is important.
Where does the weight go?
Let's consider an elementary example. Suppose that in the main text there are two links leading to other publications. Initially, we assign each page a weight of 1. When indexing, the search robot will consider both links. In this case, the weight of the main page will decrease by a factor of 0.85. It is easy to calculate how much the referenced publications will receive: 0.85 / 2 = 0.425.
This algorithm is not an accurate and official calculation of search engines. It is presented so that the reader in general terms can understand the distribution of such a parameter as the page weight. When its meaning is clear, it is easier to perceive information about what the rel nofollow attribute is .
Hide links from search robots
Of course, any site is created with the goal of making any profit from it. And the weight of each page is appreciated by the webmaster. But it’s impossible not to post external links in your publications. There are reasons for this, and here are a few of them:
- buying and selling links makes a profit;
- citation on authoritative resources adds weight to the site;
- The attendance of the Internet project is increasing.
It is believed that the tag attribute a - rel nofollow will help hide anchors from search robots, and at the same time, the weight of the page will remain. But this statement is only possible with proper coding. The exact spelling of this attribute looks like this:
a href = "URL" rel = "nofollow"> anchor.
Correct linking only adds weight to the site and increases its ranking. Needless to say, there is no need to use a href rel nofollow for internal links.
Usage example
The explanation in general terms does not always open up the full picture of the importance of using certain tags and their attributes. Hide the link, do not give the page weight of your site to another. What is it? Just greed? No, this is far from the case. For example, many sites have social media buttons. Agree that their trust is already so great. Codes of social buttons with the preservation of the weight of their own pages are registered using the attributes target blank, rel nofollow. The first of them, after a click, will lead the visitor to third-party Internet resources by opening another browser tab. The second - will not allow you to reduce the weight of the page. For example, for a Twitter social network button, it would look like this:
a rel = ”nofollow” target = ”_ blank” href = ”URL / home /.
It is worth mentioning the validity of the code - compliance with all technical requirements of html-markup. The rel external nofollow tag not only replaces the target_blank attribute no worse, but is also better perceived by search engine robots.
A rel href nofollow, or When you still need it
Not only social networks do not need a deficit for a young Internet project weight. Typically, an attribute is used to:
- hiding from search engines links to "bad" or non-thematic sites;
- In order to hide a large number of addresses to third-party resources;
- hide links in case the webmaster sells them;
- weight transfer to megapopular portals such as Yandex or Google;
- hide links in comments.
Nofollow saves sites, and especially blogs, from spam. Unverified links closed by this attribute will appear less and less in comments.
Noindex, and why you should talk about it
The indexing prohibition to search robots can be set not only on the external and internal links, but also on individual text elements, as well as the entire page. For this, webmasters use the noindex tag. He hides only the texts. For pictures and photos not applicable. The links that rel nofollow successfully hides cannot be hidden from search engines by noindex. The robot will not see the anchors, but it will index the addresses. Noindex is usually used to hide part of the content:
- with obscene expressions;
- with non-unique text;
- in sidebars and newsletters.
The tag certainly needs to be used. But it does not work on every engine. The fact is that noindex is not valid, that is, it does not meet the standards. That is why one of the most popular WordPress blogging platforms “kicks out” a tag from its code. The secret of validity is the use of several characters. <! - / noindex ->. By writing the code in this form, you can be sure that Yandex does not index the pages of the blog on WordPress.
Sharing
Is it worth writing both the tag and the attribute in the page code? Nothing prevents the use of noindex and a rel nofollow in pairs. The tag does not interfere with the attribute, and vice versa. They are put together because search engines see the site code differently. For example, when using both the tag and the attribute, the webmaster can be sure that the Yandex anchor robot will not recognize, nor will it see the link itself. Google will see the text, but the weight will not pass to third-party pages of other sites.
Especially for beginners
Website optimization is a new job market and an interesting job. The lack of systematically planned information resources for beginners greatly complicates their activities. And naturally, young webmasters make mistakes. Someone fills the content with an insane amount of links, someone leaves the page without one at all. The same picture is in the case of the arrangement of the noindex tag and the rel nofollow attribute.
The desire to bring the site to the TOP of search engines is the cause of a critical error. The fact is that newcomers often close external links with both a tag and an attribute. This to some extent really saves the weight of each page of the site. But the truth is that the same external links increase the trust of search engines. Weight loss can be compensated for by promoting low- and mid-frequency requests.
Any optimizer should remember that any information will be perceived by readers with great confidence, if possible, follow the link to its source. Surely the webmasters themselves are unlikely to adopt a book or a brochure that does not contain a list of used literature.
More and more Internet users are guided by authoritative sources. And if the young site does not refer to their opinion, then it will be much more difficult for him to keep readers and attract subscribers. Of course, this will negatively affect the optimization of the resource according to the behavioral factor. So is it worth it to blindly use the rel nofollow attributes?
A good webmaster takes care of his reader. He remembers that one of the foundations of the Internet is links to authoritative resources that provide reliable information. Sites made for people, search engines "love." And the weight of the pages is not the only parameter by which pages with content get into the TOP. According to 800 parameters, Yandex evaluates Internet projects.
And in the end, the weight of the pages is only relevant for publications that receive it from links from third-party sites. As experience shows, donors, leaving this ranking parameter to themselves, do not rise higher in the "eyes" of search engines.