A nofollow link is a normal link with a rel="nofollow" attribute that asks search engines not to pass ranking credit to the page it points to. In this post, you'll learn how nofollow links work today, how they differ from follow links and from the newer sponsored and ugc values, and when to use each.
What Is a Nofollow Link?
A nofollow link is a link that points from one website to another with the rel="nofollow" attribute. The attribute tells search engines that you don't want to vouch for the linked page, so the link should not pass link juice (or PageRank) to it.
Since 2020, Google has treated nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule. In Google's own words, links marked this way "will generally not be followed". In practice, a nofollow link usually passes little or no ranking credit, but Google can choose to use it.
Here is an example of a nofollow link:
A normal user will not notice any difference. The link works exactly like any other link; only search engines treat it differently.
Here is the same link written as a follow link, a nofollow link, and with the two newer values Google introduced in 2019:
<a href="https://www.example.com/">Follow link</a>
<a href="https://www.example.com/" rel="nofollow">Nofollow link</a>
<a href="https://www.example.com/" rel="sponsored">Paid or affiliate link</a>
<a href="https://www.example.com/" rel="ugc">Link in a comment or forum post</a>Nofollow vs. Sponsored vs. UGC
Google asks you to qualify outbound links with one of three values, and it treats all three as hints:
- rel="sponsored" - for paid links, adverts and affiliate links.
- rel="ugc" - for links in user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts.
- rel="nofollow" - for any other link you don't want to vouch for, when the other two values don't apply.
You can combine values, for example rel="nofollow sponsored", and nofollow is still accepted on paid links. Links without any of these values are normal dofollow links.
How Do You Check Nofollow Links?
The easiest way to check if a link is a nofollow link is to view the HTML code of a web page and look for the “<a href” HTML tag. If you can find the attribute “rel="nofollow" between the opening <a> and the closing </a>, then it means that the link is nofollow.
If you cannot find it (or sponsored or ugc), then the link is a dofollow link. Here is an example:
<a href="https://www.example.com">This is a follow link</a>Important: You need to understand that there is no attribute for do follow links. All links are ‘do follow’ unless the nofollow attribute is attached to the link properties.
Here are the steps to check any link using Google Chrome.
- Open the webpage with the links.
- Right-click anywhere on the page and select INSPECT or select VIEW > DEVELOPER> INSPECT ELEMENTS from the top menu.
- Click the SELECT ELEMENT icon and highlight a link to view the HTML Code.
How Do You Make a Link Nofollow?
You can make a link nofollow by adding the attribute rel="nofollow" in between the opening and closing tag of the <a href> element.
If you are writing a blog post, you can view the HTML code of a page, find the link, and add the attribute as shown below.
In WordPress: the block editor does not have a nofollow option by default. SEO plugins add one. With Yoast SEO, for example, the link box in the block editor shows toggles to mark a link as nofollow or sponsored, and marking a link sponsored also marks it nofollow. These toggles work in the block editor, not the classic editor. Without a plugin, switch the block to "Edit as HTML" and add the attribute yourself.
To make site-wide changes, i.e., to add the nofollow attribute to all outgoing links in a post or across a site, you will need a plugin or the help of a developer.
Follow (Dofollow) Links Vs. Nofollow Links
Dofollow and nofollow links differ in four ways:
- Dofollow links do NOT carry a rel="nofollow", "sponsored" or "ugc" value.
- Search engines generally don't follow nofollow links, although Google treats the attribute as a hint.
- Nofollow links usually pass little or no ranking credit, while dofollow links can pass authority.
- All links are follow links by default.
Nofollow Links And SEO
Should webmasters care about nofollow links? Yes, but for different reasons than dofollow links. Nofollow links usually pass little or no PageRank, so on their own they rarely help a website rank higher.
To understand this better, let me explain how the concept of links was born. The founders of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) developed a system (that’s the initial Google algorithm) to rank websites based on their importance.
They assumed that important websites are likely to have more backlinks from other websites than less important websites. Links were perceived as a ‘vote of trust’ of one website to the other. This concept is still one of the most important SEO ranking factors.
Over the years, Google realized that black hat SEOs could easily manipulate this model. People could build hundreds of links by publishing content on article directories, forums, and ads and rank higher on Google.
These links were not ‘votes of trust’ but were artificially created to increase link count.
To solve this problem, they did three things.
- First, they changed their algorithms to value links differently
- Second, they penalized link schemes such as paid links and link exchanges
- Third, they introduced the 'nofollow' attribute in 2005, and added 'sponsored' and 'ugc' in 2019.
In addition, they also instructed webmasters to add the ‘nofollow’ attribute to all outgoing links they don’t trust. A great example is links in the comments that are nofollow by default on all major platforms and CMS.
Another example is links in social media networks such as Facebook, X, Pinterest, and LinkedIn; these are nofollow links, too.
Are nofollow links useless for SEO?
So, if nofollow links don't usually pass PageRank, does this mean they are useless? No. Google says such links "will generally not be followed", and it treats the attribute as a hint, so sometimes they do count.
Nevertheless, even if nofollow links do not act as votes of trust, they are still useful for SEO.
For example, if you get an article published on Forbes or Entrepreneur, the links will be nofollow, but it’s still an important link to have.
Not only can it potentially drive traffic to your website, but it’s also good for branding. “Brand Mentions” and people talking about a brand are factors that Google considers, so nofollow links from trusted sources have value.
Nofollow Links Best Practices
As a webmaster or SEO Professional, you are responsible for your site’s overall SEO health. This means that you should ensure that it does not violate any Google guidelines, and how you deal with either incoming or outgoing links is part of it.
You cannot sell links, participate in link exchanges, or accept paid posts that include 'dofollow' links. Paid and affiliate links should carry rel="sponsored" (or nofollow).
In general, you should link out to only websites that you trust. If you have to link to a website and you are not 100% sure about its quality and authority, then to be on the safe side, nofollow the link.
Here are two examples to understand this better:
Example 1: You are writing an SEO article and want to link to a related study. The link can be dofollow since you know it’s from a trusted source.
Example 2: You are writing an article on SEO and you add a link to a download site (for your users to download an app or Chrome extension). Since you don’t trust the site 100% (download sites cannot easily be trusted), to be safe, you can nofollow the link.
Finally, as mentioned above, links in comments or other user-generated areas should carry rel="ugc" (or nofollow).
Recommended Reading: Google Guidelines on Link Building.
Should You Add Nofollow To Internal Links?
In general, no, you shouldn’t add the nofollow tag to any internal links, i.e., links on your website that point to pages within your domain.
The only valid exception is crawl prioritization, but you rarely have to do this. If, for example, you have pages not publicly available on the Internet (i.e., log-in or password-protected pages), then you can add the nofollow tag to any internal links pointing to those pages to optimize your crawl budget.
Of course, a better way would be to block access to those pages in your robots.txt or use a noindex tag.
Important Note: Even if a link is nofollow, that does NOT mean that Google will not index the target page. Google can still index the target page if it finds it another way.
How To Find Nofollow Links?
As explained above, for ranking purposes, you need SEO backlinks, i.e., links that point to your website from trusted sites and do not carry the nofollow tag.
Google Search Console Links Report (includes all links)
The LINKS report in Google Search Console lists ALL LINKS that Google knows about and does not differentiate between follow and nofollow links.
While it’s a useful report, it cannot help you distinguish between follow and nofollow, so we need the help of specialized tools.
Semrush Backlink Report
One of my favorite tools for link profile analysis is Semrush. You can use Semrush to analyze your link profile (or the link profile of any website) and find which links are dofollow and nofollow.
Recommended Reading: Who Links to My Site? - how to check the backlinks pointing to any website.
Key Learnings
The nofollow attribute was created so webmasters can tell search engines not to follow specific links. Google now treats it, and the newer sponsored and ugc values, as hints, so nofollow links usually pass little or no link juice to the target website.
Nevertheless, that does not make any incoming nofollow links useless for SEO. Links from high-authority websites can indirectly help with SEO.
As a webmaster, you should not only care about incoming links but also ensure that paid links are marked sponsored, user content ugc, and any other links you don't trust nofollow.
