Most of us generally have an understanding of the nofollow attribute when we think about spammers using the commenting system to embed links and anchor text based links to rank higher for their sites.  This debate around the nofollow has been most effective with blogs since blogs encourages readership with extended conversations about the post within the commenting system, however Joomla does not necessarily follow this theme.  

Although we are can now see Joomla used as a blog or having a commenting system, however the framework of Joomla is more then just a blog and many sites are still developed to serve a wider purpose i.e e-commerce using virtuemart. 

Although the discussion about nofollow attribute is a lengthy one I want to draw on a simple factor that should make you wonder why there should be a need to use the attribute for certain links.  

Simply, when you apply a nofollow link the search engine(s) especially Google will not follow that link.  If a comment is placed and the attribute is assigned then this link will not be followed, this should deter spammers from coming back; however this attribute should also be applied to 'low-value' links i.e. links to pages that are internal and will not necessarily have value to the search engines.  

Stephan Spencer cites many examples:

So whip out the scalpel and nofollow your links to low-value internal pages such as: Legal Notices, Privacy Policy, Order Status, Customer Help Center, Testimonials, Email Us, View Shopping Cart, My Account, FAQ, About Us, and Shipping Info. This technique is valid for low-value outbound links too, such as “Click to Verify” VeriSign and HackerSafe seals. Doing so will save a larger share of PageRank for the remaining links to your more important pages (e.g., category pages).

The main reason for this would be that you do not want any of these pages to rank above 'primary pages' within a search engine for a specific keyword.  Imagine that you have your a page that looks like this www.mysite.com/category/keyword_related_title.html that ranks 7/8 in search engine and www.mysite.com/privacy_policy.html that ranks 3/4 for the same keyword.  A visitor goes to the privacy policy page, sees all the jargon and within in seconds leaves the site and goes back to the search engine.  You could argue that is it not better to at least have that ranking in the first place, well no; if you could get there in the first place you should certainly be able to get there with an appropriate page.  

However you could take another approach by rewriting the content on the policy page that does not make it look to boring or jargon orientated.  You could have a key message as soon as a visitor comes to the page.  A powerful statement that draws them in.  Use a tool like SELanding page  that will actually state 'You have come from Google using xxxx keyword, you maybe interested in the following articles, and a list of articles is presented.  If it is an 'about me' or 'contact us' you could modify to express the quality of service that you offer or draw on the strong points about the service/site and the level of quality of service you offer.  

Now for those of you who would like to insert the nofollow attribute to menu links Alledia has developed a module by modifying the Joomla menu module to allow no-following of links. To use the module:

1. Upload the new module
2. Publish this in place of mod_mainmenu
3. Whenever you want to use no-follow, simply select "On Click, Open in: New Window in Browser Navigation"

Click here  to download the module and also get support via the commenting.

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Finally, the new and much more powerful version of LoginBox has been released and is available at our website. We called it "PRO", because it's really a pro tool compared to our good old Joomla loginBox.

I have implemented all those many features that people asked about in the forum. LoginBox can now be used with Community Builder. It includes great anti-bot protection, displaying a captcha with curly symbols. The most unique feature of the Joomla LoginBox PRO is that you can add as many custom HTML-coded login buttons to your website as you wish! Then insert them in any article, or create custom menus. Installation is smooth and easy, and LoginBox PRO automatically installs and configures two accompanied plugins. Try it yourself at our demo site. And here's a link to the backend

Only a few of copies left for the price of $11, then the price will go up to $16 (which is still too low for such a great product!). Click here to get your copy of LoginBox PRO at the reduced rate since there is only 3 remaining! Sorry, but the price has reverted to $16

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A new product released from the wowjoomla team aims to get your site indexed fast in the search engines at the same time create a surge of traffic visitors, Digg Motivator is the tool for the job. You can read more thoroughly about the plugin here.

It simply allows you to hide a url that contains either exciting content or a freebie like an e-book, audio, video, etc. Heres the snag :), in order for the visitor/reader to your site to get hold of the content they have to digg a story over at digg.com. Once they have dugg your site they need to come back and 'insert' their Digg username which undergoes validation and automagically takes them to the content url page, if the Digg username does not match it takes them to a failure page.

To get a better and clearer understanding of how this all works just click here.

Want a chance to win a FREE copy of the basic version of Digg Motivator that allows a maximum of one URL redirect at a time?

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