Will This Javascript Formatted Link Pass PR? Yes or No?

[morestar]

So I'm doing a little link editing and so forth, some basic PR sculpting and would like to know for sure, no if, ands or buts if the following code will deny the passing of PR (link-juice)...


<a href="javascript:window.open('http://www.mysite.com', 'newWindow')">Anchor Text</a>My intention is to use this javascript format for links I don't want to pass PR to at all.

Your input and answers are greatly appreciated.

:-P

[morestar]

P.S. I am fully aware of using the attribute rel="nofollow" in links so as to hinder the spread of PR but I don't believe everything I read regarding the nofollow attribute. I would like to make sure no PR is spread at all.

Also, I have just gone and tested a few of these links and in FireFox and Chrome, that Javascript code I posted above is causing a new blank window to open with the words OBJECT being posted to the browser - so that's not working.

I need something that will definitely stop the passing or PR without depending on the rel='nofollow' attribute in link tags.

[mjtaylor]

You might find some enlightenment here: SEO Interview with Matt Cutts (http://www.searchnewz.com/topstory/news/sn-2-20100315SEOInterviewwithMattCutts.html) ... and there is a longer version if you want to read the full interview on that topic. Start at #23.

[wige]

There is no absolute guarantee that that method will prevent the passing of PR through the link. As the search engines get better at processing links that use javascript, they may allow pagerank to flow, if it doesn't already.

As far as I know, there is only one way to be absolutely sure that a link does not pass pagerank, and that method is to create a forwarder, a script on your site that accepts as parameters the destination url, and uses a 302 redirect to forward a human user to the destination page. This script should be in a folder that is blocked with robots.txt to ensure that spiders can't even get forwarded. As an extra level of security, you could make the url parameterized:

forwarder.php?sub=www&domain=domain&tld=com&path=folder/file&ext=.html

This simply further eliminates the chance that a search engine would guess what the destination URL is, although it is easy enough to encode for the link.

[morestar]

Thank you MJ and wige...there's nothing like a pretty perfect answer to a question like this...

;)

I shall be reading your link MJ and trying out your solution wige...

[danlefree]

If you really want to create a link without passing PR you will want to run a post-page load substitution with Javascript.

It's unobtrusive (as opposed to creating a broken link - see what happens when you click that link in FireFox) and more or less transparent to SE's.

[keyon]

My intention is to use this javascript format for links I don't want to pass PR to at all.

Just curious, morestar -
I'm still trying to grasp the concept of how PR flows (or doesn't flow) from links on a page. So I'm curious what kind of reasons a person might have to restrict PR flow to a particular page or external website. That is, if it's true that link juice going away from a page doesn't really have any affect on that page itself.

[keyon]

Well, I might have answered my own question. Obviously restricting PR flow from one link means that the juice would be redistributed to the other links on the page.

[morestar]

Thanks keyon, I didn't even go as far as considering that the PR will be redistributed - even better but it all matters the next time there's a PR update I suppose.

[keyon]

Thanks keyon, I didn't even go as far as considering that the PR will be redistributed

I guess I'm still curious, then, what the effect is you're going after - stopping link juice from passing through a particlular link on a page.

[morestar]

Yes, there are a few links out there to a site I'm working with and I have control over those sites and links. To make a long story short and a tad private, I need to remove some of the PR to some sites and redirect it to others.

[mjtaylor]

Well, I might have answered my own question. Obviously restricting PR flow from one link means that the juice would be redistributed to the other links on the page.

Actually, it doesn't work like that in Google. Google deducts the value the no-follow would have received before calculating PageRank flow to the other links.


Thanks keyon, I didn't even go as far as considering that the PR will be redistributed - even better but it all matters the next time there's a PR update I suppose.

PageRank matters when Google calculates it. Toolbar PR is merely a push of already outdated PR info.