Once and for all: redirect vs. rel="no follow" vs. clean linking

Lets take another look please.

[Nosmada]

If you have some links on a page that you are linking out to for your site visitors only and you don't need to pass on page rank is it best to use rel="no follow", a cgi redirect where you block your cgi bin or just clean link and don't worry about the page rank leakage? Maybe the previous two methods will get you in trouble? Or maybe they won't get you in trouble but they might in the future?

I thought it would be pertinent to revisit this.

[Oliver Henniges]

It is my personal opinion, though not empirically justified, that valuable outbound links are well-appreciated by google. Pagerank-leaks is one think, the SERPs are another.

In the past I designed a few pages, on which I put some absolutely unneccessary outbound links to topic-related pages, even to some of my collegues; all these pages rank faily well.

[pageoneresults]

I thought it would be pertinent to revisit this.

Is this something that really needs to be done? I mean, is micro management of links to influence PageRank a viable solution these days? Is the management factor involved worth the miniscule benefit achieved? If any?

[seochristine]

Hi
A Catch 22 situation, it seems. If you want to get better positions in SERP's, then give many outbound links to pages relevant to the topic or content. because G prefers. But in the due course you are to loose some valuable PageRank.
But again if you are into link building and exchanging there are several Webmasters who really attach a lot of importance to pages with a good PR, and are willing to provide links only to those sites having a good PR.

[berto]

I apply rel="nofollow" to outbound commercial links (e.g., to Amazon.com), and clean link to all non-commercial, content URLs.

[Nosmada]

Thank you everybody so far. Well I still am left with questions.

On many of my pages I offer a few links to related blogs, a few to web sites that are topic related and generally selling products and services, a few to some general news stories of the day, and sometimes also a few to some cj products (these are currently redirected).

If I also have an area where I exchange links and want my pr to be good and my SERP postitioning to be good what should one do to do present this information for best effect with these dual purposes? I want to keep it clean and ethical.

[Kufu]

if you are into link building and exchanging

Link-exchanges are almost entirely useless, especially for larger engines, specifically Google.

If they are relevant outbound links to authority sites then, I am almost certain that they will benefit you more than they will hurt you.

[buckworks]

is micro management of links to influence PageRank a viable solution these days

Only for micro players content with micro progress, and micro understanding of other factors that are important in developing one's web presence.

[moishe]

I want to keep it clean and ethical.

Then use the W3 guidlines for linking, use the A tag with no added rel's, no redirects, no java, no robots.txt;

Just make links, links.

PR does not leak. A PR5 with one outbound will not become a PR3 if you add 1000 outbound links to it, it will just pass less PR to link partners.

[Nosmada]

"Only for micro players content with micro progress, and micro understanding of other factors that are important in developing one's web presence"

Well I wonder why all my sites where I exchange links with have page one positioning for high traffic terms. It's a good thing I don't listen to all of the people that say link exchanges don't work.

Also what is micro players content about relevant blogs. I guess nothing is considered good anymore.

[BigDave]

I use rel="nofollow" only when I specifically do not like the site.

I am even changing all my sites so that only anonymous posters and new members will have rel="nofollow" added to any links in their comments or profile. If someone is truly contributing to a site over time, they get to put up live links.

I use rel="nofollow" more for directing the bots away from certain areas of my own site. I don't necessarily want to shut the bots out completely, just deemphasize those areas.

I never believed in hogging PR, even when it was considered "the thing to do". If a site is worth linking to as a resource for your users, then they deserve the "vote" in the search engines as well.