If you've spent any time in SEO forums or Slack groups over the past year, you've heard the refrain: "Profile links don't work anymore." After Google's December 2024 and March 2025 core updates aggressively deindexed thin content, this became the dominant narrative.
And on the surface, it's partly true. Run a site: search on most profile platforms and you'll see indexation rates have cratered. Reddit user profiles, Medium author pages, community forum bios — most of these pages no longer appear in Google's index.
But the narrative has two opposing camps, and both are overclaiming. One says profile links are completely dead. The other still pitches them as PageRank conduits. The reality sits in the middle, and it's worth being honest about what we know, what we don't, and what's actually observable.
The Honest Debate: What the Industry Disagrees On
Let's start with what Google has actually said. The Search Relations team — John Mueller, Gary Illyes, Martin Splitt — have repeatedly confirmed that crawling and indexing are separate processes, and that Google crawls far more pages than it indexes. That part is factual and uncontested.
What they have not confirmed is whether links from crawled-but-not-indexed pages still pass PageRank. Google has never made a direct public statement on this.
The prevailing expert view — supported by practitioners who specialize in Google's indexing behavior — is that direct PageRank transfer likely requires the source page to be indexed. Google's Nearest Seed PageRank system, which evaluates page quality based on proximity to trusted seed pages, logically operates on the indexed web. If Google doesn't consider a page worth keeping in its index, it's unlikely to let that page transfer ranking authority.
So if direct link equity from profile pages is likely minimal or absent, why do we still build them? Because PageRank is only one of several mechanisms Google uses to evaluate trust — and it's not the mechanism profile links primarily serve.
What Changed in 2024/2025
Google's recent core updates didn't change how links are crawled — they changed which pages are surfaced in search results. The updates specifically targeted thin, template-generated content with limited editorial value. Most profile pages fit this description: auto-generated layouts with a username, a bio field, and a link.
The practical effect is that Googlebot still visits these pages on its regular crawl cycles (especially on high-authority domains it crawls daily), still follows outbound links, and still encounters your brand name and anchor text. It just no longer considers the profile page itself worthy of a search result.
The Three Signals That Are Verifiable
Rather than claiming unproven PageRank transfer, here are the three mechanisms where profile links deliver measurable, observable value.
1. Anchor Text Diversity
Google's algorithms evaluate the distribution of anchor text across your entire backlink profile. An unnatural skew — where 60%+ of your links use the same keyword — is a clear manipulation signal. Profile links let you build a natural distribution across brand name, brand + geo, brand + service, naked domain, and full URL anchors.
A well-structured campaign splits anchor text evenly: roughly 20% per category. This creates organic-looking distribution that editorial links alone rarely achieve, because journalists and bloggers tend to link with whatever anchor text feels natural to them (usually your brand name). Regardless of whether the profile page is indexed, the anchor text is visible to Googlebot at crawl time and shapes how your inbound link profile is categorized.
| Anchor Category | Distribution | Example | Signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand Name | 20% | "Acme Construction" | Entity recognition |
| Brand + Geo | 20% | "Acme Construction FL" | Local relevance |
| Brand + Service | 20% | "Acme Construction Fort Myers" | Service + geo intent |
| Naked URL | 20% | "acmeconstruction.com" | Natural linking pattern |
| Full URL | 20% | "https://acmeconstruction.com" | Direct URL signal |
2. Referring Domain Diversity
One of the clearest trust signals in Google's link evaluation is the variety of unique domains linking to your site. Profile campaigns place your domain across 75 unique platforms spanning developer tools, creative communities, educational sites, and professional networks.
Here's what's directly observable: referring domain counts in Google Search Console reflect links Google has crawled, not exclusively links from indexed pages. You can verify this yourself — run a profile campaign, then check GSC's links report 4-6 weeks later. The referring domain count increases. This is measurable, repeatable, and not subject to the PageRank debate.
3. Brand Entity Signals
Google's Knowledge Graph builds entity profiles by aggregating brand mentions across the web. When your business name appears consistently across 75 platforms — each with your domain link and consistent naming — Google develops a stronger entity understanding of your brand.
Entity recognition doesn't depend on the profile page being indexed. Google encounters your brand name during the crawl, and that data feeds into entity-level systems that operate independently of the page index. This contributes to branded search visibility, Knowledge Panel eligibility, and E-E-A-T signals.
What a Typical Campaign Looks Like
To make this concrete, here's the anatomy of a standard 75-link profile campaign:
| DA Range | Links | Example Platforms | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| DA 80–95 | ~32 | Medium, Reddit, TED, Coursera, TripAdvisor, Cisco, Pexels, Goodreads | Google crawls these domains daily. High frequency of brand encounter. |
| DA 60–79 | ~34 | LeetCode, Letterboxd, Wakelet, Hodinkee, MindMeister, Mixcloud | Adds diversity across industries and platform types. |
| DA 54–59 | ~9 | Niche communities and forums | Natural variety. A real brand has presence across all tiers. |
The Overclaims on Both Sides
There are two narratives in the industry right now, and both miss the mark.
Overclaim #1
"Profile links are dead. No index = no value."
Reality
Likely true for direct PageRank. But anchor text diversity, referring domain counts, and entity signals don't require indexation and are directly observable in GSC.
Overclaim #2
"Profile links still pass full PageRank from non-indexed pages."
Reality
No evidence supports this. The prevailing expert view is that Nearest Seed PageRank operates on the indexed web. We don't sell profile links on this basis.
Overclaim #3
"Only editorial links matter now."
Reality
Editorial links are the strongest for direct ranking. But Google evaluates the overall shape of your link profile. A domain with only guest post links looks just as unnatural as one with only profile links.
Where Profile Links Fit in the Stack
Profile links aren't a ranking shortcut. They're the widest layer of a structured link building pyramid — and they serve a fundamentally different function than the layers above them.
Direct PageRank transfer lives in the Authority and Peak layers. Profile links serve the Foundation layer: diversity, entity reinforcement, and natural backlink profile shaping.
Realistic Timeline
Here's what's actually measurable after a profile campaign:
The Bottom Line
We don't sell profile links as a ranking shortcut or claim they pass direct PageRank from non-indexed pages. We sell them for what they verifiably do: diversify your anchor text profile, expand your referring domain footprint, strengthen your brand entity signals, and create the foundation that makes your editorial link building more effective. In an industry full of overclaims on both sides, we'd rather give you the honest case.
The industry's mistake was measuring profile links by the wrong metric. If you're judging them purely by indexation rates and PageRank, they look dead. If you're measuring referring domain diversity, anchor text distribution, entity recognition, and the downstream effectiveness of your editorial strategy, the picture is different — and it's backed by observable data.
Google still crawls what it won't index. What value that carries is debated. What we can measure, we do.
Read next: Crawled But Not Indexed — What Google Actually Knows About Your Backlinks →