Should you really banish nofollow on your site's internal links?

Why does this statement challenge a still-common practice?

Many SEOs still apply internal nofollow on pages they deem 'worthless' — legal notices, terms and conditions, login pages, forms. The idea: concentrate PageRank on strategic pages by blocking its leakage to unnecessary URLs.

However, this logic is from 2009. Since the update of the algorithm governing PageRank sculpting, Google no longer counts nofollow links in its juice distribution calculation. The result: adding nofollow to an internal link does not redirect PageRank elsewhere; it simply wastes it.

What does Google really mean by 'natural link structure'?

An architecture where each page receives internal links proportional to its importance within the site's ecosystem. Google expects you to prioritize your content through click depth, the volume of internal incoming links, and the semantics of your anchors — not through technical attributes that distort the graph's reading.

The engine wants to understand your site as a user navigates it. If you artificially block certain paths with nofollow, you cloud the understanding of your own structure. This is counterproductive.

Does this recommendation actually apply to ALL internal links?

Google indeed refers to 'all internal links' without exception. Even for legal pages, facet filters, or pagination. The nuance: if a page truly should not be indexed, the solution is not nofollow but robots.txt or noindex.

Internal nofollow does not solve any crawl budget or dilution problems — it creates them. By preventing Googlebot from following certain paths, you fragment your mesh and complicate the discovery of deep pages.

• Internal nofollow does not redirect PageRank — it destroys it
• A natural structure relies on click depth and link volume, not on attributes
• To exclude a page from the index, prefer noindex or robots.txt over nofollow
• Google reads your internal linking as a semantic map of your site — don’t sabotage it
• Utility pages (terms, mentions) can receive normal links without diluting the rest

Is this statement consistent with real-world observations?

Yes, and audits have confirmed this for years. Sites that have cleaned up their internal nofollow typically notice better PageRank circulation, quicker indexing of deep pages, and sometimes an improvement in positions on long-tail queries.

Conversely, sites that aggressively sculpt their mesh with nofollow often show inconsistencies in Search Console: strategically important pages poorly crawled, wasted crawl budgets on irrelevant URLs, and contradictory signals between linking and the actual structure. Google ends up ignoring some of these directives — but the damage is done.

What nuances should be added to this recommendation?

Mueller's statement is clear, but it glosses over one point: not all internal links have the same weight. A link from the footer has less impact than a contextual editorial link. If you want to limit PageRank transmission to a given page, reduce the number of links pointing to it or place them in low-visibility areas — but do not nofollow them.

Another nuance: nofollow can still serve in marginal cases — for example, to prevent Googlebot from triggering user actions via a link (logout, emptying the cart). But these are edge cases, not the norm. [To verify]: Google has never specified whether internal nofollow could penalize a site — we rather observe a neutralization than a sanction.

In which cases does this rule not apply?

It applies everywhere, except if you manage a multi-domain site or a UGC platform where some internal links point to external or uncontrolled content. In this case, nofollow remains relevant — but we step outside the strict framework of 'internal link' as Google defines it.

Be cautious of WordPress plugins and themes that automatically add nofollow to certain types of links (login, cart, filters). Check your source code: you may have internal nofollow without realizing it.

What should you concretely do if your site uses internal nofollow?

Start with an audit: crawl your site with Screaming Frog or Oncrawl, filter internal links with the nofollow attribute, and categorize them by type (navigation, footer, editorial). Identify the patterns: some CMS or themes add nofollow by default to entire areas.

Next, gradually remove these attributes, prioritizing editorial and main navigation links. Leave footer and utility links for last — their impact is lesser, but it’s good to clean up completely.

What mistakes to avoid during the cleanup?

Do not confuse nofollow and noindex. If a page should not appear in the index, noindex (or robots.txt) is the right solution — not nofollow on the links leading to it. One manages indexing; the other manages PageRank transmission.

Also, avoid removing all nofollow at once without a crawl plan. Google will re-crawl your site massively, which can saturate your server or trigger 5xx errors if the infrastructure is not adequately sized. Proceed in waves, by site sections.

How to verify that your internal linking is now compliant?

Relaunch a crawl after cleaning and check that all internal links are dofollow (except for justified edge cases). Consult Search Console: the rate of discovered vs. crawled pages should improve, a sign that Googlebot is navigating better.

Also analyze the internal PageRank distribution with a tool like OnCrawl or Botify. Strategic pages should show a high internal popularity score, without artificial blockages in the link graph.

• Crawl the site to identify all internal links in nofollow
• Gradually remove these attributes, prioritizing editorial links
• Ensure that pages excluded from the index use noindex, not nofollow
• Monitor the crawl budget in Search Console after cleanup
• Analyze internal PageRank distribution to validate improvement
• Document exceptions (if legitimate edge cases persist)