Don't Use "nofollow" In Your Ecommerce's Menu

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Clik here to view.Many SEOs believe in implementing the attribute “rel=nofollow” on the menu links of Ecommerce sites.

That’s actually a pretty common SEO misconception even amongst the more experienced Search Engine Optimizers.

Here’s why, how, and everything in between:

First you should know what is “rel=nofollow” and what are the benefits of using this attribute on some links in your site. Come back once you’ve read this short article.

You’re back? Good.

So naturally some store owners want to use “rel=nofollow” on their Ecommerce site menus in order to not “lose” any Page Rank value from the home page to the site’s sub-pages (product categories in this case). In that way, they’re hoping to “accumulate” as much Page Rank value as possible on their site’s home page.

Here’s a visual explanation of this logic (extremely simplified):

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Now here’s what actually happens (again – very simplified):

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As you can see Search Engines use the site internal navigation to evaluate which pages are more important. So whatever Page Rank value you “lose” to category pages and product pages comes back to the home page through internal linking. If your site uses breadcrumbs and the logo links back to the home page, your home page will not lose any Page Rank value.

Ok – but why not use “rel=nofollow”?

Using “rel=nofollow” on your Ecommerce navigation may not hurt the ranking of your store’s home page. But it will hurt your site’s SEO as a whole. You’ll lose tons of great Page Rank value throughout your system. Here’s how it happens (in this simplified example “rel=noffolow” is put on the link to “sub-page 2″):

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Clik here to view.

As a rule of thumb, “rel=nofollow” on internal links is a bad idea. Internal linking is a very important asset to improve your site’s Search Engine Ranking – you should use it! Navigation, breadcrumbs, internal links in content pages,  are just a few examples of the tools you can use to make the best of your site’s Page Rank. This is particular important when it comes Ecommerce!

Check out these articles as well:

• What famous Google Engineer has to say about Page Rank sculpting
• Why SEO requires ongoing efforts

Don't Use "nofollow" In Your Ecommerce's Menu is a post from: Noam Design

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