SEO Tip #19: Should I use nofollow in links to my disclaimer and privacy policy?
Matt Cutts: The reason I would use NOFOLLOW is if you truly don’t want a page indexed at all.
Take a log-in page for example, Googlebot doesn’t know how to log in and that’s not of any value for users to have. I can imagine that a disclaimer or a privacy statement could be kind of useful.
So you can put those links on. It’s not like it’s going to cause you a spam penalty, but truthfully I would tend to worry more about having enough good links because you have enough great content that you tend to get a lot of people linking to you and you tend to get a lot of good coverage in Google’s Index.
It’s a second order effect at best. I really wouldn’t spend a lot of time saying, “I’m going to NOFOLLOW all my links to my stuff that I don’t care about.” Typically you’d do better by maybe linking or not linking to stuff.
You might link to a privacy policy once, but you don’t have to link it on every page of your site or something like that. But really I would only use it for the pages that you really don’t want to be in Google at all.
Don’t worry so much about sculpting. That tends to take a lot more time and not really be as big a bang for your buck compared to just putting your efforts in on making great content that will attract links.
About the Author
Andy Johnson has been on the Internet since the its dawn(ie his first computer program was recorded on cassette tape) and his first hard drive cost about as much his current MacBook. His first byline was in 1993 for a local newspaper rag he eventually helmed, and his last “real job” was at a computer start up which ended when it ended. Throughout it all he’s freelanced and blogged. Now he is mesmerized by Search Engine Optimization forever trying to “rise to the top” for the right reasons. He’s been married to his wife Julia for as long as he can remember and has two lovely, wonderful children. He looks forward to sharing the latest in the technical best for all the online entrepreneurs.