Google’s John Mueller stated it’s doable that Google Search Console’s URL inspection device can present a nofollowed hyperlink because the referring web page however he additionally stated it’s uncommon. It does make you query if Google holds by the nofollow as a really strict trace or not however John stated we’re “too centered on hyperlinks.”
This got here up once I requested on Twitter if anybody has any examples of the referring URL within the Google Search Console URL Inspection device exhibits Twitter or YouTube? I acquired quite a few responses together with this one from James Singleton:
So I’ve one underneath “Redirect error” that exhibits the referring web page as Twitter. Undecided why it’s an error however that’s apart from the purpose right here pic.twitter.com/O7HrB3TBZQ
— James Singleton (@ThisIsSingleton) December 30, 2022
Sure, Google is displaying right here a hyperlink that needs to be nofollowed because the referring web page for this URL that Google found. Right here is one other screenshot:
I ought to add that I acquired a ton of examples of Google displaying nofollowed hyperlinks on this referring web page part.
I requested John Mueller of Google about this and he replied on Mastodon saying, “First off, I think people are as soon as once more too centered on hyperlinks.” “I do not suppose it is unimaginable, however I would count on it to be uncommon. Search Console lists hyperlinks even when they’re nofollow, even when the hyperlink “worth” is zero. It may occur that we all know of a web page from a supply, however solely crawl & index it once we know extra a couple of web page. Then theoretically, the primary point out is there, even when irrelevant, and it isn’t the rationale why the web page is listed,” he added.
Now, Praveen Sharma was attending to my level, which is why John replied with the hyperlinks remark. Praveen Sharma wrote earlier that thread, “I may very well be unsuitable however there’s a risk that since Google treats nofollow tag as a touch and never an instruction, it has crawled this Twitter hyperlink (anticipating some helpful URL is offered to crawl) and consequently it’s talked about within the inspection report.”
This goes again to 2019 when Google change the nofollow attribute from a directive to a touch. However then in 2020 we have been informed this was only a coverage change and nothing technically modified with this coverage change, i.e. Google nonetheless assist it as a directive regardless of saying in any other case. So we suspected this was not a rating change however Danny Sullivan stated it was.
Anyway, we all know Google Search Console’s hyperlink report exhibits all hyperlinks, even nofollowed hyperlinks. At one level, Google requested if we would like a filter for nofollow hyperlinks in that report – it by no means occurred. However for the URL Inspection Device referring web page to indicate it makes you scratch your head.
Here’s a screenshot of the Mastodon thread:
Discussion board dialogue at Mastodon.
