PageRank dilution is when outbound links siphon off your Google PageRank which would normally be distributed to your internal pages, therefore reducing your site or blog’s overall PageRank. How much effect PageRank dilution has on your blog or site depends on the strength of your internal linking and how many outbound links you have.
So how do we counter PageRank leaks?
- Increasing internal linking on your blog or website.
- Eliminating redundant outbound links.
Internal linking is easy and is something you should get into the habit of doing regularly.
- Link to other relevant posts in the body of articles.
- Tag your posts.
- Link to recent/popular posts in your sidebar.
- Add related posts to single pages.
Removing redundant outbound links: Usually in blogs most people include a blogroll in their sidebar. The problem lies here is that this blogroll will be displayed on each and every single page on your blog which in turn drains out your PageRank out of your blog. Imagine those whose blogroll runs pages and pages! While outbound links contained within a post add some relevance to the post, sitewide blogrolls add no relevant value to the content on display. Therefore they are redundant and it is best to limit the damage that they can cause.
Dealing with blogroll:
- You can create a separate page to display your blogroll. This definitely works but a lot of bloggers prefer to keep their blogroll in the sidebar.
- Adding a nofollow attribute to links on blogroll. However, this is a very antisocial and selfish approach and really loses the meaning of having a blogroll. But then, if you have to do it, then you have to do it!
- Display your blogroll only on the homepage. Is this possible? Yes, it is and lets see how.
How to display your blogroll only on the homepage?
This can be done with a little a PHP code. This PHP code will instruct WordPress under what conditions our blogroll should be displayed.
Step 1: Add the following code at the beginning of your sidebar.php file.
<?php if (is_home()) { $check_home = '1'; } else { $check_home = '0'; } ?>
This simply checks if the current page is the homepage. This code is necessary because the ‘is_home()’ function in WordPress does not register the homepage correctly.
Step 2: Use the following code to display your blogroll only when a user is on the homepage.
<?php if ($check_home == '1') { ?>
Add your blogroll code here
<?php } ?>
This simple piece of PHP code can also be used to limit other sidebar items to the homepage as well, such as the Top Commentators list, some ads that you want displayed only on the homepage and so on.
Do keep in mind that you should not be completely eliminating outbound links as they are also one of the factors Google takes into consideration when determining PageRank. The key is to link to relevant and trustworthy sites.
More about PageRank
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Hi, My name is Narayanan and i'm your resident blogger. Technology and internet have always fascinated me and that's the reason behind the origin of this blog. Thanks for visiting Tech Spikes :)
Interesting - I didn’t know about this. What if your blogroll is very small? Does it matter that much? Mine currently has 7 links and they are all people that I have a professional relationship with. Should I still only have it on the home page?