Can PageRank Sculpting Get You Penalized in Google?

Apr 21, 2008 - 8:08 am 4 by

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks if PageRank sculpting, be it through the nofollow attribute, JavaScript or robots.txt file, can it penalize you in Google? Will Google ever look at that to penalize your site? And so on.

I am 99% sure Matt Cutts of Google said you will not be penalized for using the nofollow attribute to flow your internal PageRank, as you see fit. We have some more conversation on quotes from Matt on that over here.

But will it ever raise a red flag? I would be lying if I said no. I would think it could be used as a measure to see which sites are overly optimized for search engines. Heck, what normal webmaster would nofollow their internal links? Most webmasters have no idea what a nofollow attribute is, let alone use it for internal links.

So to say it will never raise a red flag and possibly lead to Google reviewing your site and then penalizing it for reasons outside of the realm of PR Sculpting, is not possible to say. In my mind, it seems like a natural step for some Googlers to look for, when bored.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Note: This post was written last week and scheduled to go live on April 21st.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Ads

Google Local Service Ads Advertisers Console Down All Day

Apr 2, 2025 - 1:48 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 2, 2025

Apr 2, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: We Don't Have A Brand-Ranking System But...

Apr 2, 2025 - 7:51 am
Bing Search

Microsoft Bing Copilot Search Now Live

Apr 2, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Search Tests Indent Vertical Bars By Title & Descriptions

Apr 2, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Local Questions & Answers Feature Gone?

Apr 2, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google AdSense Publishers Report: Clicks Not Being Counted