Should you really nofollow your menu links to optimize crawling?

Why does Mueller's statement challenge a common practice?

For years, some SEOs have nofollowed menu links — thinking they could preserve crawl budget or prevent Google from wasting time on 'secondary' pages (legal notices, terms and conditions, contact forms). The idea was to guide Googlebot towards pages with high SEO value.

Mueller dismisses this approach outright. If you don't want a page to be indexed, use noindex on the page itself, not nofollow on the links leading to it. Nofollow prevents link following, sure, but it doesn’t guarantee anything regarding indexing — Google can discover the page through other means (sitemaps, external backlinks, breadcrumb navigation).

What actually happens when you nofollow a menu link?

Nofollow tells Google to not follow the link during crawling. Googlebot will not use this link to discover or recrawl the target page. But beware: this does not prevent indexing if the page is accessible through other means.

Moreover, blocking internal PageRank flow via nofollow can create involuntary silos or weaken pages that deserve to be crawled. A menu is a navigation hub — neutralizing it is like cutting off strategic routes in your internal linking.

When could nofollow on menu links be beneficial?

Honestly? Very few cases justify this practice. One might imagine a site with thousands of dynamically generated filtered facets in a mega-menu, where each combination produces a unique URL. Here, nofollow could limit crawl explosion — but proper management via robots.txt, canonical tags, or parameters in Search Console remains more effective.

For a typical site (average e-commerce, blog, corporate site), nofollow on menu links is an unnecessary complication. If a page should not be indexed (login, cart, client area), a noindex achieves the goal without cutting off internal linking.

• Nofollow prevents link following, not indexing — Google can discover the page through other means.
• Noindex on the target page is the recommended method to block indexing.
• Blocking internal PageRank via nofollow can weaken your link architecture without any real benefit.
• Valid use cases for nofollow on menus are rare and related to complex architectures (infinite facets, toxic crawl).
• A menu is a navigation pillar — deliberately sabotaging it makes sense only if you have a deeper structural problem to address.

Is this statement consistent with observed practices in the field?

Absolutely. Site audits show that nofollow on menu links rarely produces a measurable gain in crawl efficiency or rankings. Worse, it sometimes creates side effects: important pages become orphaned from a crawl perspective, PageRank gets stuck in dead ends, and link analysis becomes unreadable.

Log analysis tools confirm that Googlebot explores extensively via menus — using nofollow in this context is like shutting down highways to force the bot to take back roads. The result: a less efficient crawl, not more. [To be verified]: some claim that on very large sites (millions of pages), nofollow on certain navigation elements can 'canalize' the crawl — but public data is lacking to validate this hypothesis generally.

What nuances should be added to Mueller's recommendation?

Mueller speaks of a standard case: a classic menu with a few institutional links. But some sites have dynamic mega-menus generated by filters or facets — each combination creating a unique URL. In this context, a targeted nofollow might limit the crawl of combinations without SEO value.

Another nuance: nofollow no longer transfers PageRank since 2019 (the attribute became a 'hint'). Previously, a nofollowed link 'wasted' link juice — today, Google can choose to ignore or follow it anyway. The impact of nofollow has thus become more ambiguous, reinforcing the uselessness of using it on menus for 'sculpting' purposes.

In what scenarios does this rule not apply?

If your site generates millions of pagination, sorting, or filtering URLs accessible via the menu or persistent widgets, you have an architectural problem — and nofollow is just a band-aid. The real solution involves a combination of canonical tags, URL parameters in Search Console, proper pagination (rel=next/prev is outdated, but a clear HTML structure remains useful), and possibly a well-thought-out robots.txt.

Similarly, if you use a mobile menu with lazy loading or JS rendering, Googlebot may not see certain links — making nofollow redundant since the link is not crawlable anyway. Focus on the detectability of critical links rather than blocking them.

What should you do if you have already nofollowed menu links?

Audit the real impact. Compare crawl logs before and after adding nofollow: Is Googlebot exploring fewer unnecessary pages, or just fewer pages overall? If you notice a drop in crawling on important pages, remove the nofollow.

Next, replace nofollow with a noindex strategy for pages you genuinely want to exclude from indexing. It's cleaner, more predictable, and it doesn't disrupt your internal linking. An audit with Screaming Frog or Oncrawl helps you identify nofollowed pages and assess if they warrant this restriction.

What mistakes should be avoided when managing menu links?

First mistake: confusing crawl with indexing. Nofollow reduces crawling, noindex blocks indexing — they are not interchangeable. If you want a page to be crawled (to pass PageRank or allow for the discovery of child links) but not indexed, use noindex without nofollow.

Second mistake: mass nofollow without measurement. Some CMS allow for mass nofollowing of categories of links (tags, authors, dates…). The result: a sudden impoverishment of internal linking. Always test on a sample and monitor the crawl before generalizing.

How can you check if your internal linking strategy is optimal?

Use Google Search Console to identify pages that are crawled but not indexed — often a sign that crawling is ineffective or that the content is deemed of low value. If strategic pages appear in this category, check that they are well linked from the menu or other internal hubs.

Analyze your server logs to spot crawl patterns: Is Googlebot spending more time on useless pages than on your SEO landing pages? If so, the problem is likely not solved by nofollow, but by restructuring your architecture (pagination, facets, canonical tags).

• Remove unnecessary nofollow from menu links — keep it only for ultra-specific cases (infinite facets, toxic crawl).
• Apply noindex on pages you want to exclude from indexing, not nofollow on the links leading to them.
• Regularly audit your crawl with Search Console and server logs to detect inefficiencies.
• Monitor crawled but non-indexed pages — a signal that your linking structure or content may be problematic.
• Don’t multiply contradictory directives: a page with noindex + canonical to another URL + incoming nofollow = confusion for Google.
• Test any nofollow changes on a sample before generalizing — measure the impact on crawl and rankings.