SEO Term Definition
Nofollow
Nofollow is a link attribute (rel="nofollow") that signals to search engines not to follow the link or pass link equity (PageRank) to the destination URL.
Reviewed by Alexander Yarovenko · Updated: 2026-09-18
What is Nofollow?
The nofollow attribute is added to a hyperlink to signal that the linking page does not endorse the linked page. Google treats nofollow as a "hint" rather than a strict directive — it generally does not pass PageRank through nofollow links.
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Link text</a>When to Use Nofollow
- User-generated content (comments, forum posts) — prevents spam links from passing equity
- Paid or sponsored links (use
rel="sponsored"specifically) - Untrusted external links you don't want to vouch for
- Login pages, internal search results, or other low-value internal links
Nofollow vs Sponsored vs UGC
| Attribute | Use Case |
|---|---|
rel="nofollow" | General-purpose: untrusted or unendorsed links |
rel="sponsored" | Paid links, affiliate links, advertisements |
rel="ugc" | User-generated content: comments, forum posts |
Page-Level Nofollow
Adding <meta name="robots" content="nofollow"> in the page's <head> tells crawlers not to follow any links on that page — useful for thank-you pages or checkout pages.
Decision guide
| Use when | Use rel="nofollow" when you do not want to associate your site with a destination; use sponsored or ugc when those relationships describe the link more precisely. It is not a substitute for noindex. |
|---|---|
| How to verify | Inspect generated HTML rather than the editor view, verify the relation on the actual anchor, and distinguish outbound qualification from crawl control. Keep ordinary editorial links crawlable when endorsement is intended. |