Using rel=nofollow selectively on internal links can concentrate more PageRank on other followed internal links.

Cited by documentation

Sources

• PageRank sculpting

  Matt Cutts (Google, head of webspam team) · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “the nofollowed links didn’t count toward the denominator when dividing PageRank” — Section: nofollow flow example, para beginning "So what happens when you have a page"

  “Google changed how the PageRank flows” — Same section, following sentence

• SEO Link Best Practices for Google

  Google Search Central · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “Use nofollow only when you don’t trust the source” — Section: When to use nofollow

• Evolving "nofollow" – new ways to identify the nature of links

  Google Search Central · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “All the link attributes—sponsored, ugc, and nofollow—are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search.” — lines 966-968

• PageRank Sculpting Is Dead! Long Live PageRank Sculpting!

  Search Engine Land (Danny Sullivan) · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “Google looks at ALL the links (even the nofollow ones), divides PageRank equally” — Explanation of 2008 change ("$10" example)

• FEATURE: Matt Cutts on Nofollow and the Siloing Solution

  Bruce Clay, Inc. · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “You can almost think of it as just evaporating.” — You&A with Matt Cutts, SMX Advanced 2009 Q&A transcript

Related claims

• CONTRADICTS_ASSERTIONAfter Google changed nofollow PageRank handling, selectively nofollowing internal links no longer concentrates the withheld PageRank onto the remaining followed links.Under evaluation
• CONTRADICTS_ASSERTIONAfter Google changed nofollow PageRank handling, selectively nofollowing internal links no longer concentrates the withheld PageRank onto the remaining followed links.Under evaluation