External Links & PHP Redirect Script: Is this OK?

I have recently read this v. good article

http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html

on PageRank and discovered that external links on my Homepage will drain it's PR.

If I do the following will I be OK?



and my external_direct.php is



Appreciate the advice!

Let's clear this up:

Having out going links will not reduce the PR for your homepage, it will however drain on the the PR that is sent ot OTHER pages within your site. The PR of any given page does not depend on the outbound links, it is calculated using only inbound links (at least that is the concept of the original PR algo)..

To hide links, I'd prefer to use a javascript document.write - for example:

<SCRIPT Languague="Javascript">
document.write('<a href="http://server.com">Link Text</a>');
</SCRIPT>

Thanks for sorting that out - wrong end of the stick.

I will use javascript so as it looks quicker.

Regards

So, doing the above will essentially make the outbound links 'invisible' to google (hence hoarding your PR for your own links; be they internal or external), BUT still show up when viewed in good old IE by the general public?

That's exactly the purpose Amy

Those who have javascript enabled (a huge %) will see the links, but Google will be incapable of following them....

In saying that, some day they might enable java to some degree. It may have already happened but we just don't know about it yet.

This is a rather common trick used to fool engines, and you can take it a step further. Use an external .js file and ban it in the robots.txt file - that would ensure that even with javascript support you've be well hidden from the bots!!

I've also used other methods of keeping the PR inside of a site in my time, all of which work well if used correctly!

Thought so... naughty but nice ;)

Nice, that there are people who have been thinking along the same lines. As usual I have been trying to be over-complicated and done a

<form onSubmit="return goto('/url.php')">
<input type="image" src="/myLink.gif">
</form>"

with a js-redirect in the goto(URL). This is because I thought the bot might just be doing a simple regExp match on the string "href", but I might be wrong (can anyone tell me, whether I am?).

Another possiblity is to do the redirect in the action property of the form, of cause.