Does Google follow links on noindex pages?

Dennis Wilson · 03-14-2010, 09:40 AM

I'm trying to work out the best internal linking strategy for my wordpress blogs.

So if i have all my category pages set as "no index" (to avoid dup content) am I then preventing the posts within this category from being crawled by google?

The posts can be reached through the sitemap and I have 10 or so of the most important ones in a menu on the homepage however there are hundreds of posts that are not getting crawled too often.

Hope I made this clear, any help appreciated

Thanks

ps: from now on il be using pages for my most important posts to avoid this issue.

paulgl · 03-14-2010, 10:41 AM

There's no dup content penalty for what you
are using it for.

As far as noindex, it probably will not be indexed.
At least by google. The problem is, nothing is a sure
thing. If it exists, and google chooses, it may be indexed.
You can limit what is crawled by using robots.txt.

But here's the thing. 99.99% of the time, for normal
internet people like you and me, we don't really have
a need to noindex anything. Google is smart enough to
know what is important and to include in SERPS.

Don't worry about any dup penalty in regard to your scenario.

Paul

Dennis Wilson · 03-14-2010, 10:46 AM

Thanks Paul, I was thinking along similar lines as the majority of wordpress users would have no idea about this type of thing so google would have to make allowances.

So is there any advantage to allowing category pages to be indexed or tag pages?, will it help google crawl my site better?

03-14-2010, 09:40 AM	#1
Dennis Wilson Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 64 Thanks: 8 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Does Google follow links on noindex pages? I'm trying to work out the best internal linking strategy for my wordpress blogs. So if i have all my category pages set as "no index" (to avoid dup content) am I then preventing the posts within this category from being crawled by google? The posts can be reached through the sitemap and I have 10 or so of the most important ones in a menu on the homepage however there are hundreds of posts that are not getting crawled too often. Hope I made this clear, any help appreciated Thanks ps: from now on il be using pages for my most important posts to avoid this issue.

03-14-2010, 10:41 AM	#2
paulgl Plundering the Web War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 4,849 Thanks: 804 Thanked 1,199 Times in 886 Posts	Re: Does Google follow links on noindex pages? There's no dup content penalty for what you are using it for. As far as noindex, it probably will not be indexed. At least by google. The problem is, nothing is a sure thing. If it exists, and google chooses, it may be indexed. You can limit what is crawled by using robots.txt. But here's the thing. 99.99% of the time, for normal internet people like you and me, we don't really have a need to noindex anything. Google is smart enough to know what is important and to include in SERPS. Don't worry about any dup penalty in regard to your scenario. Paul
	How to Make Money off Facebook: Login to your account. Deactivate your account. Get your butt to work.

03-14-2010, 10:46 AM	#3
Dennis Wilson Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 64 Thanks: 8 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Does Google follow links on noindex pages? Thanks Paul, I was thinking along similar lines as the majority of wordpress users would have no idea about this type of thing so google would have to make allowances. So is there any advantage to allowing category pages to be indexed or tag pages?, will it help google crawl my site better?