Are Backlinks to Robots.txt Blocked Pages Beneficial for the Entire Domain?

[bijutoha]

Specifically, does the domain root or other pages receive any indirect boost, or does the PageRank effectively evaporate at the blocked URL level?

 

[hipcat]

Interesting question....

I would think when Google follows the link to a blocked page it would either penalize the linking site as going to a "broken" link or dismiss it entirely.

But maybe not....anyone else??

 

[bijutoha]

bijutoha

Your point about the possibility of penalties is an interesting one. As far as I know, Google typically doesn’t penalize for linking to a robots.txt-blocked page since it's not necessarily indicative of bad behavior or a broken link. But it might treat those links with less weight because the content isn’t accessible for verification.

I’d love to hear more thoughts from others, especially if there’s evidence or testing to support one interpretation over the other.

 

[onespy04]

Backlinks to pages that are blocked by robots.txt generally do not provide direct SEO benefit to the page itself or the overall domain. Here’s why:

1. Robots.txt Blocks Crawling: The primary function of the robots.txt file is to tell search engine bots not to crawl or index specific pages. When a page is blocked by robots.txt, search engines won’t be able to access or index that page, meaning that backlinks to those pages won’t be counted for ranking purposes.
2. Link Value: While the link might still be passing some value (such as referral traffic), Google and other search engines won’t consider the link for ranking because they can’t crawl the page. So, it doesn’t contribute to the domain's link profile or SEO performance in the way that a non-blocked, crawled page would.
3. Link Equity to Entire Domain: If a page is blocked but still receives backlinks, those links can still pass some link equity to the domain as a whole, but the value is much lower compared to links pointing to indexed pages that are actively crawled. Essentially, the benefit is diluted, and it's not as effective as a direct, crawled link.

Key Takeaway:
While backlinks to blocked pages might still bring traffic, they won’t provide significant SEO benefits. To maximize the value of backlinks, it’s best to ensure important pages are not blocked by robots.txt and are accessible to search engines for crawling and indexing.