Google Killed The Knol Page

When Google introduced its Knol pages to the public in July 2008, I was skeptical that it would become anything worth writing home about. Three years later, I only know one person (other than myself) who even uses it. An SEO who swears by it.

I’ve wondered why other SEOs haven’t sung the praises of Google Knol. Usually, when there’s something good that will provide untold SEO benefits, every SEO in the world is talking about it. But it’s like Google Knol pages haven’t even existed. Today I found out why.

Apparently, they provide no link building benefit.

Knol employs “nofollow” outgoing links, using an HTML directive to prevent links in its articles from influencing search engine rankings.

The Wikipedia article on Google Knol cites this website as the source for that information. Here’s what the author has to say about Knol pages and SEO:

But you will see the following meta directive on top of the HTML page:

<meta name="robots" content="index,nofollow" />

So nofollow, originally introduced with a focus of preventing comment spam, continues its expansion into other Google areas.

Of course, that was written in 2008, shortly after the launch of Google Knol. I recently visited one of the most popular Knols and clicked on View Source and saw this:

<meta name=”robots” content=”index,follow,noodp” />

That means that Knol pages can be indexed by the search engines, but not listed in the Open Directory Project.

So if Google Knol pages do provide some link building benefit, why haven’t SEOs been singing its praises? Probably because there is a lot of repetitive information on Google Knol and because much of the content that you’ll find there can also be found on other pages around the Web that gets better rankings. Despite what many people believe, Google does not always favor its own content in the search engines.

Why Google is killing its Knol pages I don’t know. But I do know that Taylor and Associates will stop providing this as a service. Going forward, we’ll recommend Squidoo Lenses, HubPages, and other avenues for article marketing. But Google Knol pages are out.

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