A nofollow link contains the nofollow (rel="nofollow") feature.

The nofollow attribute tells search engines not to send link equity (sometimes referred to as “link juice”) through the link. This means that the linking site does not want to transfer authority to the linked page.

Google introduced the nofollow feature (also called nofollow tag) in 2005 to prevent link manipulation. Namely comment spam. When a search engine bot sees a nofollow tag, it simply ignores the link for search ranking purposes.

please note: Nofollow links are links with the “nofollow” value in their “rel” attribute. So technically, neither “nofollow attribute” nor “nofollow tag” are correct terms. However, the terms are commonly used and understood, so we will use them interchangeably throughout this post.

Here’s what the HTML code of a standard link to Apple’s home page would look like:

<a href="https://apple.com/">Apple</a>

This link will transfer link equity to Apple’s home page.

And here is the same link with a nofollow tag:

<a href="https://apple.com/" rel="nofollow">Apple</a>

The nofollow tag in this link will help ensure that search engines will not count it as a ranking signal. In other words, it shouldn’t affect Apple’s search engine rankings.

please note: Although there is no “follow” or “dofollow” tag, the term “follow link” or “dofollow link” is often used to distinguish between nofollow links and links that pass link equity. We discuss this issue later in this post.

In 2019, Google introduced two new rel attribute values which do not pass link equity:

  • rel=”sponsored”: Used for sponsored links
  • rel=”ugc”: (UGC = User Generated Content) Used for links created by users, such as links in comments or forum posts

The nofollow value can be used as a replacement for both rel=”sponsored” and rel=”ugc”.

please note: When the general term “nofollow links” is used in this article, it includes links that do not pass link equity (rel=”nofollow”, rel=”sponsored”, and rel=”ugc”), unless otherwise noted.

The “noreferrer” and “noopener” rel values also exists. However, none have an impact on SEO. They are related to analytics and security.

Check the page source code to see if a particular link has a nofollow tag.

Hover over the link, right click and select “Inspect.” (This item may have different names in different browsers.)

If you see the word “nofollow” inside the rel attribute, that means the link is nofollow.

example of rel=“nofollow noopener” in source code

If you want to see the breakdown of follow and nofollow backlinks to your site (or a competitor’s site), try Semrush’s Backlink Analysis tools.

Just enter the domain you want to analyze and press “Analyze.”

Backlink Analysis Tool

Then go to the “Backlinks” tab.

Here, in the “Link Attributes” section, you will find a detailed breakdown of the attributes of the links pointing to the analyzed domain.

Additionally, you can use filters to see specific backlinks with a certain attribute.

For example, if you only want to see active sponsored backlinks for a domain, you would “Active” and “Sponsored“boundaries.

Selection of

The tool will list all the backlinks that meet these criteria.

list of all the filtered backlinks

This can be useful, for example, when inspecting the digital PR activities of your competitors.

Nofollow Best Practices

When to use Nofollow

Here are the most common use cases for nofollow links:

  • Link to a page you don’t want to endorse. If you do not want to be associated with the linked page (eg you need to link to a gambling site but do not want to “endorse” it), use rel="nofollow".
  • Sponsored/Paid Links. If the link is sponsored or purchased in any way, use rel="sponsored". This applies to both incoming and outgoing links.
  • Affiliate links. Likewise, for affiliate links pointing to or from your site, use rel="sponsored".
  • User Generated Content. For links created by users on your site, such as links in comments or forum discussions, use rel="ugc".

please note: A single link can have more than one value. Such a link with rel=”nofollow sponsored” is technically correct.

To learn more, check out Google’s detailed guidelines for when and how to use nofollow links.

When not to use Nofollow

In the past, the nofollow attribute was often used outside of its primary purpose of influencing how link equity goes from your page. For example, if you wanted to transfer more link equity through internal links to your own pages, you didn’t follow all the external links.

This technique (called PageRank sculpture) no longer works. Because Google changed the way to calculate nofollow links for PageRank.

However, some still think of the nofollow feature this way—and some bad practices prevail.

Here are two common examples of how not to use nofollow:

  • Nofollow for all external links. You should not use the nofollow tag for all links pointing away from your pages. It doesn’t help your website (and may even hurt it).
  • Nofollow for internal links. You should not use nofollow for internal links. If you don’t want a certain page to be crawled or indexed, there are better ways to achieve this, such as robots meta tags.

If you are unsure whether you are using nofollow correctly on your site, the Semrush Website audit tool can help.

Create a free account (no credit card needed) and set up your first crawl. (If you’re not sure how, follow this step-by-step setup guide.)

Once the audit is complete, go to the “Internal Linkage” thematic report.

why

On the right side you will see a list of all the possible issues related to internal linking.

In the “Warnings” section, look for “Nofollow attributes in outgoing internal links.”

why

If the tool has detected problems, you can click on the link with the number of problems.

This will lead you to a complete list of pages where nofollow internal links have been detected.

a complete list of pages with internal nofollow links

Go through the list and remove the nofollow attributes. Unless you have a compelling reason to keep the links nofollow. Which is not common.

Second, review all your external links with the nofollow attribute.

Just look for the “Nofollow attributes in outgoing external links” issue in the “Notifications” section.

Go through the links again and reconsider using nofollow attributes unless it’s really necessary.

Nofollow links (including rel=”sponsored” and rel=”ugc” links) do not pass link equity. Which means they won’t improve you PageRank and is not used by Google for ranking purposes.

This is why many people believe that nofollow links have no SEO value. However, there can still be some benefits to having nofollow backlinks.

Here are just a few:

  • Traffic. Some sites, like Forbes, only use nofollow attributes for external links. But it is still good to get a backlink from them because it will drive traffic to your website.
  • Exposure. Being mentioned on quality websites is great for brand awareness. And this can lead to more natural “follow” backlinks from other websites.
  • Backlink profile diversity. This is important, especially if you are actively building links. Getting too many “follow” links can appear unnatural. Nofollow links diversify your link profile.

Also in 2020, Google has changed how it treats nofollow links. It no longer completely ignores them, but can treat them as a clue for crawling and indexing purposes.

This includes noting “how the words within links describe content they point to” to help Google “better understand unnatural link patterns.”

While this doesn’t mean that nofollow links have suddenly started playing an important role in SEO, we know that Google is paying attention to it.

please note: If you want to learn more about this topic, read us nofollow links and SEO case study.

The terms “follow link” and “dofollow link” are often used to say that the link passes link equity. They simply refer to standard links as opposed to links with nofollow, sponsored or UGC parameters.

However, it should be clear: There is nothing like that as “follow” or “dofollow” link attribute.

So even if you see a link with rel=”dofollow” in it (that is not so unusual as you might think), the attribute is unnecessary and does not affect the link.

Next steps

Now that you know the difference between nofollow and “follow” links, you may want to dive deeper into how links affect SEO and how to get the best backlinks for your website.
Here are some helpful resources:

If you want to start building links right away, be sure to try our Backlink Gap tool. With a free accountyou can do up to 10 searches per day to discover your competitors best backlinks to replicate.





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