P2Issue #16
Links - Internal No follow Oulinks
❓ What does it mean?
What does it mean?
This issue occurs when internal links (links pointing to other pages within the same website) use the attribute:
<a href="/about-us" rel="nofollow">About Us</a>
The rel="nofollow" tag tells search engines not to follow or pass link equity to the linked page.
While this is sometimes useful for external links (e.g., untrusted sources, sponsored content), it’s generally harmful when applied to internal links.
🚨 Why is it important for SEO?
Why is it bad for SEO?
Wasted Link Equity → Internal nofollow links block the flow of “link juice” across your site.
Crawl Issues → Search engines may not fully crawl important pages if internal links are nofollow.
Weakened Site Structure → Internal linking helps search engines understand hierarchy and importance of pages.
If those links are nofollow, Google sees them as less important.
Poor User Signals → Although users can still click them, search engines treat them as “don’t recommend.”
✅ How to Fix It
How to Fix It
Remove rel="nofollow" from internal links that point to valuable pages (home, categories, products, blog posts).
Use nofollow only when necessary:
Login pages (/login)
Admin or checkout pages (/checkout, /cart)
Duplicate or thin content pages
Audit all internal links → Ensure important pages are linked with followed links for better crawlability.
Update sitemaps & navigation → Make sure your XML sitemap and menu links don’t use nofollow.
❌ Bad Example
Example
❌ Bad (Internal nofollow links):
<a href="/services" rel="nofollow">Our Services</a>
<a href="/contact-us" rel="nofollow">Contact</a>
Search engines won’t pass link equity to /services or /contact-us.
These pages may rank poorly.
✅ Good Example
Good (SEO-friendly internal links):
<a href="/services">Our Services</a>
<a href="/contact-us">Contact</a>
Search engines can crawl and rank these pages.
Internal link equity flows properly.
⚡ Result
⚡ Result
Improved crawlability → Google can discover and index all important pages.
Better PageRank distribution → Link equity flows through the site structure.
Higher visibility → Internal pages rank stronger in search results.