Nofollow link, n.

What is a nofollow link?

A link with rel="nofollow", which tells search engines not to treat it as an endorsement or pass ranking credit through it.

Filed under links in the SEO glossary

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What a nofollow link is

A nofollow link is a normal link with the attribute rel="nofollow". It still works for visitors, but it tells search engines you do not vouch for the target. Google introduced it in 2005 to fight comment spam.

Since 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule, and it added two more specific values: rel="sponsored" for paid and affiliate links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content such as comments and forum posts.

When to use nofollow, sponsored or ugc

Use sponsored for any link that was paid for, including affiliate links and sponsored posts; failing to qualify paid links breaks Google's spam policies. Use ugc for links added by users. Use nofollow for other links you do not want to endorse.

Values can be combined, such as rel="ugc nofollow". Do not nofollow your own internal links to "sculpt" PageRank; that has not worked for years and can stop pages being discovered.

Are nofollow links worthless for SEO?

No. They can still send referral traffic, brand searches and discovery, and Google may choose to use them as a signal. A natural backlink profile always contains some. Clear, descriptive anchor text matters on these links too.

Example

Link attribute examples:

<a href="https://partner.example" rel="sponsored">Partner offer</a>
<a href="https://user-site.example" rel="ugc nofollow">Commenter's site</a>
<a href="https://unvetted.example" rel="nofollow">Source</a>

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Questions

Frequently asked questions

Does Google follow nofollow links?

Google treats nofollow as a hint, so it may crawl and use the link for discovery, but it generally does not pass ranking credit.

What is the difference between nofollow and sponsored?

Sponsored is specifically for paid, affiliate or otherwise compensated links. Nofollow is the general-purpose value for any link you do not endorse.

How do I check if a link is nofollow?

Inspect the link in your browser and look at the rel attribute, or use a link checker that reports each link's attributes.

Related terms

Keep learning

Anchor textThe visible, clickable words of a hyperlink, which tell users and search engines what the linked page is about.Read Broken linkA link that points to a page or file that no longer loads, typically returning a 404, 410 or server error.Read Meta robots tagAn HTML meta tag in the page head that tells search engines whether to index the page, follow its links and how to show its snippet.Read NoindexA directive, set in a robots meta tag or HTTP header, that tells search engines not to include a page in their results.Read

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