PageRank Sculpting: Necessary Or Not?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 15 of October , 2008 at 8:34 am

Google Webmaster Central says PageRank sculpting isn’t necessary. Rand Fishkin, on the other hand, says it works. Who should we believe?

To put it into perspective, let’s clarify each position in their own words. First, GWC:

Q: What about using rel=”nofollow” for maximizing PageRank flow in my internal link architecture (such as PageRank sculpting, or PageRank siloing)?

A: It’s not something we, as webmasters who also work at Google, would really spend time or energy on. In other words, if your site already has strong link architecture, it’s far more productive to work on keeping users happy with fresh and compelling content rather than to worry about PageRank sculpting. (emphasis mine)

Now, Rand Fishkin:

Does PageRank Sculpting Matter for My Site?

That all depends on what kind of site you’ve got. When we’ve seen PageRank sculpting provide benefit, it’s almost always on large domains with tens or hundreds of thousands of pages.

I think Rand’s response gets more to the heart of the issue. The folks who write Webmaster Central may be good people, but what kind of sites do they webmaster? They do mention that they are also webmasters, but if the sites they manage are smaller sites then it’s no wonder that they don’t benefit from PageRank sculpting.

Think about what it is. You are using nofollow tags as a part of your internal link structure to ensure that you get link juice flowing from important pages to other pages on your site that you want to have high authority. If you just have 10 pages on your site and your website is a PR 3 then we’re talking about benefits so low that they’re undetectable. Why bother? You’ll be wasting your time.

But if you have a site with thousands of pages and you have some pages in the PR 6 or PR 7 range with others in the PR 3 range that you want to have a higher authority then transferring some of the PR from your Contact page and other low-value pages to your landing pages, which can make you money, will actually benefit you more. Now we’re talking about small dosages of PR in mass quantity and when you add .001 a couple of thousands times you are much better off then .1 ten times. You’ve got to read Rand’s article. It gives you a much clearer possibility of the PageRank search engine optimization sculpting possibilities. But if your site is less than a few hundred pages then don’t bother.

                      Category: Internal Linking, PageRank