Nofollow for links to profile pages - should I use?

[piernik]

I have a social website with thousands of user profiles. I'm using for their profile pages `noindex` attribute, cause there are a lot of them and those pages are very similar and not interesting.
On my landing pages (ex. https://www.example.pl/widgetlandia.htm) I have opinions of users. I have to link them to profile pages (I think that's the right way).
Right now, I'm using `nofollow` attribute for those profile links. Why Google should crawl them if I have `noindex` on them? Am I right?

[edited by: not2easy at 1:59 pm (utc) on Apr 8, 2022]
[edit reason] example.domain for readability [/edit]

[Wilburforce]

If they are noindexed in the page's header (<meta name="robots" content="noindex">), not in links to it, Google won't index them, whether or not they are crawled However, if they are linked from anywhere else (e.g. a page on someone else's site) they are still likely to get crawled, even if they are nofollowed on yours: Google still has to crawl them to find the noindex tag. If you don't want Google to see them at all, block them in .htaccess.

[piernik]

What about idea that all these links convert to javascript links - no `a href` only data-attribute that has `click` action. That way, I would get rid of 10-20 unnecessary links on a single landing page. Is it good idea?

[Wilburforce]

What about idea that all these links convert to javascript links - no `a href` only data-attribute that has `click` action. That way, I would get rid of 10-20 unnecessary links on a single landing page. Is it good idea?

Don't rely on js to prevent Google finding things. Also, even if that succeeds on your own site, you can't prevent another site linking to the pages using href, which defeats your intention.

Your primary objective should be to make it easy for your users to find what they are looking for (or to find what you want them to find, which isn't necessarily the same thing). If js serves that purpose, then use js. If links do it better, use links.

I wouldn't worry about Google crawling pages unless your bandwidth is very limited and crawling those pages consumes a lot of it. If they are noindexed correctly they won't be indexed. If you are detemined to prevent crawling by Google (or othse SEs/bots), use .htaccess.

Most of all, however, be very wary of trying to serve one thing to your users and another to Google. That way lies perdition.

[piernik]

Thanks for help

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

A noindex tag on the profile pages, or in htaccess so that all profile pages return a noindex header response, is the way to go.

- Do NOT add profile pages to your robots.txt file or you will see them indexed with a "we couldn't crawl this page" description.
- Do NOT place a nofollow attribute on any links to the profile pages, if a link is internal let it flow.
- DO make sure you have a good number of links to other important pages from the profile pages (index, categories, latest or best content etc).

It's perfectly OK to have a lot of profile pages, just use noindex to keep them out of the index. If you're worried about "link juice" you can stop worrying, it will flow right through a noindexed page, but not one you've hidden from Google.

Tip: If you want to go a step further then only display links to user profiles for users who are logged in. Google may or may not find them depending on if they are linked to on from other sites but you'll slightly lessen their number in the eyes of Google, and thus their share of internal page rank from any given page... or so it is believed.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

That's right - Never use nofollow on an internal link. Use noindex on the page you don't want indexed instead.

As for your links to your social profiles it's probable that once Google associates them to you and your site that they will trust the link with or without nofollow in the links. Google stated that nofollow is a suggestion not too long ago, and a good idea when money is involved such as with affiliate links.

Suggestion #1 - Only show links to profile pages, internal or external, when a user is logged iin on your site. This reduces the outbound link equity on a per page basis.

Suggestion #2 - Don't have external profiles on Facebook, Twitter etc. Instead replace the profile link with a url that, when clicked, allows visitors to share your page's contents on their profiles, if they have one..

Suggestion #3 - Do both and only add a link to external profiles on your about page so they don't drain from every page. Remember, Google treats URLs independently.

Bottom line - you control your domain and you never go wrong improving it. Any resources spent on a domain you do not control, like Facebook and Twitter, should yield a return else you could have used those resources to improve your own site. I see people spend all day building up their profiles and getting no traffic for their efforts, not good.