A nofollow link is a hyperlink with a rel='nofollow' attribute that signals to search engines not to pass ranking authority (link juice) through that link. Nofollow links were introduced in 2005 primarily to combat comment spam — allowing website owners to link out without endorsing the destination for ranking purposes. Common sources of nofollow links include blog comments, forum posts, Wikipedia external links, and many news site external links. Since 2019, Google has treated nofollow as a hint rather than a directive, meaning it may choose to follow and count some nofollow links.
The distinction between dofollow (standard links without nofollow) and nofollow links is central to link building strategy. SEO professionals typically prioritise earning dofollow links from authoritative sites because these pass ranking authority. However, dismissing nofollow links entirely is an oversimplification — they still drive referral traffic, contribute to brand visibility, and may be partially counted by Google's algorithms since the 2019 policy update.
Link attribute types and their meaning
- rel='dofollow' (no attribute) — standard link; passes full ranking authority; the goal of link building
- rel='nofollow' — does not pass ranking authority; may be partially counted by Google since 2019 hint policy
- rel='sponsored' — introduced 2019; marks paid or affiliate links; similar treatment to nofollow for ranking
- rel='ugc' — User Generated Content; marks links in user-submitted content (comments, forum posts); similar to nofollow
- Multiple attributes can be combined — rel='sponsored nofollow' for paid content with explicit nofollow
No. While nofollow links do not typically pass direct ranking authority, they have several indirect SEO benefits. Referral traffic from nofollow links on high-traffic sites drives visitors to your content — visitors who may link to or share your content from their own sites. A natural backlink profile includes a mixture of dofollow and nofollow links (a profile consisting entirely of dofollow links looks artificial). And Google's 2019 hint policy change means some nofollow links may be partially counted. The primary link building focus should remain on dofollow editorial links, but nofollow links are not without value.
Use nofollow on outgoing links in three situations: sponsored or paid content (required by Google's webmaster guidelines; now best implemented as rel='sponsored'), user-generated content you do not editorially endorse (forum posts, comments), and affiliate links (required under Google's guidelines; sponsored attribute preferred). Editorial links to authoritative external sources in your content should generally be left as standard dofollow links — nofollowing all external links is unnecessary and can look suspicious if all internal links remain dofollow.