Getting your website on page 1 of Google is not an easy task. On the other hand, ruining your current PageRank is very, very easy. We already mentioned how important text hyperlinks are for your website… but the disaster happens when you link to other websites.
So, here is a simple fix that could save your website’s reputation. If you still need to link to other websites, just pay attention to how you do it – or you might lose your current search engine ranking in seconds.
The issue: You’re giving away unnecessary PageRank
If your own website has external links to other websites (sure it does!) you automatically “pass” your search engine reputation to those websites. In other words, each link influences the link target’s ranking in the search engines.
So, whether you have paid links (ie advertisements) or have link to other websites (eg your suppliers) or have a “recommended links” section, your website is basically passing its PageRank to those targets.
And if the target is not relevant to your website or, even worse, untrusted by Google – your website ranking will be seriously affected. It’s very simple: if your website links to an untrusted website, both websites become untrusted.
The solution: Tell Google not to follow your links
Here’s the quick fix. There is a way you can avoid sharing your reputation with the untrusted websites you link to. Getting blacklisted by Google is even worse than being not able to reach “Page 1”: your website won’t show up at all in the search engine.
Fixing your links is very easy but first we need to explain a bit of HTML language. If you have a website with Content Management System (CMS) you should be able to access your website’s HTML code yourself. Otherwise, contact your web developer – half a minute per link will be enough to accomplish the “nofollow” strategy.
This is how a link appear on your website: link
This is the HTML code “behind it”: < a href=”link-address” > link < /a >
There is no need to go further – all you have to do is adding this simple string of text to each untrusted link: rel=”nofollow”
This is the corrected HTML code: < a href=”link-address” rel=”nofollow” > link < /a >
Very simple, very effective, don’t you think? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Since I have discovered your website, I am always looking for tips and tricks. Very good content !
Thanks Jak!