buckworks - 9:39 pm on Apr 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

I don't think anyone knows if blocking Google with robots.txt or noindex etc. would reallocate the available PR to the other pages being linked to. Even if it can't go any further, Google can still see the link(s).

A certain way to hide "housekeeping links" from spiders would be to place them in an external .js file. This might also help your page load speeds a bit because the same .js file could be called from cache as a visitor moved around your site. There would need to be alternate access so visitors with javascript turned off could still get to those pages. A set of ordinary links on the home page would do the trick.

Another approach could be to link liberally to the housekeeping pages so they DO collect PR, then link from them to selected pages where you want extra PR to flow. That would avoid the complications of javascript.

A final thought: when you're seeking link exchanges, check whether a link from one of the other site's houskeeping pages might be advantageous. Example: Something simple like "We're proud to be listed in blahblah.com" on their About Us page might be surprisingly beneficial PR-wise, depending on how their site is structured.