Nofollow

Nofollow is a link attribute or meta directive that tells search engines not to pass link equity through a specific hyperlink or any links on a page. Originally introduced by Google in 2005 to combat comment spam, it has become a standard tool for controlling how authority flows through your site and to external destinations. When applied to a link, it signals that the linking page does not endorse or vouch for the destination.

Why It Matters for SEO

Every link on your website is a potential conduit for link equity. Without nofollow, links to low-quality external sites, paid placements, or user-generated content could dilute your authority or associate your site with untrustworthy destinations. The nofollow attribute gives you control over which links pass ranking signals and which do not, helping you maintain a clean link profile and comply with search engine guidelines around paid and sponsored links.

How to Use Nofollow

Apply nofollow at the individual link level by adding rel=“nofollow” to the anchor tag. For links that are advertisements or paid placements, Google recommends using rel=“sponsored” instead. For user-generated content like comments or forum posts, use rel=“ugc”. These more specific attributes help search engines better understand the nature of the link.

You can also apply nofollow at the page level using a meta robots tag with content=“nofollow”, which tells search engines not to follow any links on the page. This is useful for pages entirely composed of user-generated or untrusted content.

Note that since 2019, Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a directive, meaning it may choose to follow and count nofollow links if it believes they provide useful signals.

Common Mistakes

• Nofollowing internal links for sculpting: Using nofollow on internal links to shape PageRank flow is an outdated tactic that Google has explicitly discouraged. The link equity is simply lost rather than redistributed.
• Not marking paid links: Search engine guidelines require that paid or sponsored links use nofollow or sponsored attributes. Failure to do so can result in manual penalties.
• Applying nofollow to all external links: Linking to high-quality external resources without nofollow is natural and expected. Over-using nofollow on legitimate editorial links can appear manipulative.
• Confusing nofollow with noindex: Noindex prevents a page from appearing in search results. Nofollow prevents link equity from flowing through links. They serve entirely different purposes.
• Ignoring rel=“ugc” and rel=“sponsored”: These newer, more specific attributes provide clearer signals to search engines than a generic nofollow.

Understanding nofollow and its related attributes is essential for managing your link profile and maintaining compliance with search engine guidelines.