Nofollow: What a Nofollow Link Is and When to Use It in 2026

Nofollow is a value added to a link with the attribute rel="nofollow", for example <a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">. It tells search engines that the site placing the link does not vouch for the destination and does not want to pass ranking credit to it. A link without this attribute is commonly called a "dofollow" link, although no dofollow attribute exists: it is simply a normal link.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft introduced nofollow in 2005 to fight comment spam, when blogs were flooded with links posted only to manipulate PageRank. In 2019, Google added two more precise values, sponsored and ugc, and announced that all three would be treated as hints rather than strict directives. Understanding them matters both for the links you publish and for the backlinks you receive.

What is a nofollow link?

A nofollow link is a hyperlink whose rel attribute contains nofollow. Visitors see no difference: the link works and can be clicked. The difference is for crawlers. Historically, Google did not follow these links and did not count them in its link graph. Today, Google may use them as signals to understand the web, but it generally does not pass ranking credit through them.

Nofollow is set per link. A whole page can also declare nofollow for all its links with the robots meta tag, but this is rarely a good idea, as it cuts the internal circulation of authority described in our page on internal linking.

Nofollow, sponsored and ugc: what is the difference?

rel="sponsored" marks links that result from a commercial agreement: advertising, paid placements, affiliate links, sponsored articles. Google asks that every paid link carry sponsored or nofollow. rel="ugc" marks links in user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts, which the site owner does not control. rel="nofollow" covers the remaining cases where you do not want to endorse the destination.

The values can be combined, for example rel="ugc nofollow". Using nofollow instead of sponsored for a paid link remains acceptable, but sponsored is more precise. Google has said that none of these attributes will trigger a penalty when used on legitimate links.

Do nofollow links help SEO?

Directly, they pass little or no ranking value, so they do not build authority the way an editorial link does. Indirectly, they can be useful. A nofollow link from a major media outlet, a Wikipedia reference or a popular forum thread brings qualified visitors, makes your brand known and can lead journalists or bloggers to cite you with a normal link. A natural link profile also contains a share of nofollow links: a profile made only of followed links on exact anchors looks artificial.

Third-party tools such as Ahrefs or Moz count nofollow and followed links separately. When you analyse a profile with Sorank's backlink analysis tool, look at both: the followed links tell you about authority, the nofollow links about visibility and mentions.

When should you use nofollow on your own site?

Add sponsored to every link you are paid for or that results from a partnership with compensation. Add ugc, or nofollow, to links posted by users in comments, reviews or forums, especially if moderation is light. Use nofollow for links you have to include but do not recommend, for example a source you criticise. Keep normal links for everything you cite because it is useful: good sources, partners you trust, your own pages.

Common nofollow mistakes

The first mistake is putting nofollow on all outbound links "to keep PageRank". This brings no benefit and makes your content look less trustworthy, since citing quality sources is a sign of serious work. The second is nofollowing internal links to sculpt PageRank: Google stopped redistributing the credit of nofollowed links around 2009, so the value is lost rather than saved. The third is selling or buying followed links disguised as editorial content, which Google's spam policies target directly.

Why nofollow matters for SEO and GEO

For SEO, the rel attributes are how you keep your outbound linking compliant and how you read the real value of the links you earn. For GEO, the boundary is less strict. AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Perplexity do not apply nofollow when they read a page: a mention of your brand in a forum thread or a review site counts as a citation even if the link is nofollow. Being present in the sources the AIs read matters as much as the attribute on the link.

Sorank helps you obtain natural backlinks automatically: its backlinks acquisition feature places one-way editorial links between sites of its network, in articles related to your topic.

Conclusion

Nofollow is a rel value that tells search engines not to endorse a link. With sponsored for paid links and ugc for user content, it lets you describe your links honestly. Nofollow links pass little ranking value, yet they still bring traffic, mentions and a natural profile, and they count as citations in the eyes of the AIs.

To go further, read our pages on link building and anchor text. Reference sources: Google on qualifying outbound links and Google's 2019 announcement on the evolution of nofollow.