Links can carry attributes that tell search engines how to treat them. A normal link, often called “dofollow”, passes ranking signals. A link with rel=”nofollow” asks search engines not to count it as an endorsement. Understanding the difference matters for link building and for linking out from your own site.
The four link types
- Followed (default):
<a href="...">. No attribute. Passes signals. - rel=”nofollow”: you do not want to vouch for the page.
- rel=”sponsored”: the link is paid, an advert or part of a sponsorship or affiliate deal.
- rel=”ugc”: user-generated content such as comments and forum posts.
You can combine them, for example rel=”sponsored nofollow”.
Hints, not commands
Since 2020 Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints, as described in its guide to qualifying outbound links. It may still use them for discovery or ranking in some cases. That change made the attributes less of an absolute block but did not make paid links acceptable.
When you must use them
- Any link you were paid for, or received a free product in exchange for: rel=”sponsored”.
- Affiliate links: rel=”sponsored”.
- Links in blog comments and forums: rel=”ugc” (WordPress adds nofollow ugc by default).
- Links to sites you do not trust but need to reference: rel=”nofollow”.
Failing to mark paid links is a breach of Google’s spam policies and can lead to a manual action against the linking site, the linked site or both. See black hat SEO.
Do nofollow links help SEO?
Indirectly, yes. They can bring traffic, brand awareness and further followed links from people who see them. A natural backlink profile includes a mix of followed and nofollowed links; a profile that is 100% followed can look engineered. Links from Wikipedia, Reddit and most news sites’ sponsored sections are nofollowed but still valuable.
Should internal links be nofollow?
No. Nofollowing internal links does not “sculpt” PageRank as people once believed; the value simply evaporates. Use normal links internally and control indexing with noindex or canonicals instead. Our internal linking guide covers this.
How to check link attributes
Right-click a link and choose Inspect to see the rel attribute. Browser extensions can highlight nofollow links on any page, and backlink tools show the split across your profile.
Frequently asked questions
Is “dofollow” an actual attribute?
No. It is shorthand for a link without nofollow, sponsored or ugc.
Should I nofollow all external links?
No. Linking normally to helpful sources is good practice.
Related terms
See anchor text, guest posting and the SEO encyclopedia.
Mr. SEO
Mr. SEO is the webmaster at SEO TT - SEO tips and tricks, a publication about all things SEO related.