Nofollow is a value of the rel attribute on a link, written rel="nofollow", that signals the site does not vouch for the destination. It can also be set page-wide with a robots meta tag.
Why it matters
Nofollow lets publishers link to content they do not control, such as comments or ads, without passing endorsement. Google also supports more specific values: rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content. Since 2019, Google treats all three as hints, so it may still use them for discovery.
Check your own outbound links periodically, because advertising, comment and affiliate links are the usual places where the right rel value gets forgotten.
Example
<a href="https://partner.example/offer" rel="sponsored nofollow">Partner offer</a>
<a href="https://example.org/" rel="ugc">Commenter's site</a>Common misconceptions
- Nofollow blocks indexing. It does not; use noindex or robots.txt rules for that.
- Nofollow links are worthless. They can still bring referral traffic and exposure.
- Nofollow hides a paid link. Paid links should be disclosed with sponsored or nofollow.
Related
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