How to link to a site without supporting it

This is something many readers have probably known about for ages, but since this blog may appeal to non-technical people, this may still be of help to some.

Reading Planet Atheism, from time to time I see someone mentioning an “enemy” site (say, one by creationists, or liars… but I had no need to say it twice), and saying something such as “I’d link to that site / page / article, but I don’t want to support it.”

While this is perfectly understandable, it may also be counterproductive not to direct your readers to what you’re talking about. In other words, what you probably want is to show your current readers that page, but not “support” it, in terms of having a permanent link to it which will be picked up by search engines such as Google. To search engines, a link is akin to a “vote of confidence”; indeed, a huge part of search engine optimization is getting other sites to link to yours.

So, what if you don’t want to promote a site, but still want to show it to your readers? Easy: you use the rel="nofollow" parameter.

A normal link goes like this:

<a href="http://www.wayofthemind.org/">Way of the Mind</a>

While a link you don’t want search engines to pick up as a vote of confidence goes like this:

<a href="http://www.expelledthemovie.com/" rel="nofollow">Creationist anti-science dishonest ad-hitlerum propaganda</a>

See the difference? With the second method, you can show a site to your readers, but not improve its ranking in search engines.

Of course, if your site is hugely popular (think Pharyngula), the simple fact that your “army” of readers visits that site may be seen as “promotion”… but, then again, if you’re pointing out a site filled with wrong claims, attacks, lies, and so on, your regular readers are unlikely to turn into regular visitors of that site (unless they want a good laugh, of course).

Add to: