Avoid nofollow on internal links

Adding rel=nofollow to internal links prevents PageRank from flowing to those pages—reducing their ability to rank—while providing no benefit over simply omitting the attribute.

Quick Reference

• rel=nofollow on internal links blocks PageRank flow to your own pages
• Internal nofollow was once used for 'PageRank sculpting' but is no longer effective
• Use nofollow only on outbound links to untrusted or sponsored content
• If you don't want a page crawled or indexed, use noindex on the target page instead

Check

Scan all internal links (<a href> tags pointing to the same domain) for the presence of rel='nofollow' or rel containing 'nofollow'. List each instance with its source page, anchor text, and target URL.

Fix

Remove rel='nofollow' from internal links. If the goal was to prevent indexing of the target page, add <meta name='robots' content='noindex'> to the target page instead. If the goal was to prevent crawling, use robots.txt Disallow for that path.

Explain

The rel=nofollow attribute was originally designed for untrusted external links. When applied to internal links, it blocks PageRank from flowing to your own pages with…