Nofollow Link: Definition & Use

What is a nofollow link?

A nofollow link is a perfectly normal, clickable link—but is it really? In fact, it has a technical attribute that’s directed at search engines and says: This link should not be interpreted as a recommendation and, in principle, does not pass any ranking power.

A normal link can represent a kind of recommendation to search engines that boosts the linked page’s ranking. The rel="nofollow" attribute limits this effect. For visitors, the link works perfectly fine, but the search engine should not treat it as a regular trust signal.

Google treats this specification more as a suggestion than as a strict instruction. The search engine decides for itself how to handle it.

Where did the nofollow link originate?

Google introduced the nofollow attribute in 2005 to combat spam in comment sections. Anyone who was bold enough to post countless links on other people’s blogs and forums to boost their site’s ranking was supposed to come up empty-handed.

Over the years, additional uses have emerged. In 2019, Google also introduced “sponsored” for paid links and “ugc” for user-generated content, clarifying that these attributes—just like “nofollow”—would be treated as guidelines rather than strict commands going forward.

Why are nofollow links important?

The purpose of a nofollow link is to tell search engines which links should not be interpreted as regular recommendations and might otherwise be considered manipulative references.

Properly labeling paid or sponsored links helps ensure compliance with Google’s guidelines for paid links. And when evaluating external links pointing to your own site, understanding “nofollow” helps you assess which links can be treated as regular recommendations and which, above all, drive traffic.

Advantages

The “nofollow” attribute helps prevent manipulative link signals.
It ensures that links are handled in compliance with guidelines.
It allows you to link to other sites without signaling the link as an explicit recommendation to search engines.
And nofollow links still drive genuine traffic—the benefit to users remains fully intact.

Challenges

Knowing when to use which attribute for paid, user-generated, or other types of links requires a certain level of expertise.

Failure to include the appropriate attribute may be considered a violation. Conversely, excessive or incorrect use of the attribute can result in regular links being unnecessarily excluded from normal ranking.

Furthermore, the exact effect cannot be precisely predicted, as Google interprets the attribute as a suggestion rather than a command.

Example

A company places a paid post, including a link to its own website, on an industry portal. To ensure this is not considered a purchase of ranking power, the link is marked with rel="sponsored".

For visitors, everything remains the same. However, it is transparently indicated to Google that this is a paid link. The company remains compliant with the rules and avoids the risk of a penalty.