Nofollow attribute

The nofollow attribute is a value added to a link in HTML (rel="nofollow") that asks search engines not to follow that link for the purpose of passing ranking power and not to treat it as a vote of confidence for the destination page. It was originally introduced to fight comment spam, and today it is a standard tool for shaping a link profile and signalling relationships a site owner does not want to vouch for.

How the nofollow attribute works

By default every link is "dofollow" and can pass a share of the source page's authority — the so-called link juice. Adding the nofollow attribute changes that signal, telling the algorithm the relationship is not an endorsement. Since 2019 Google has treated nofollow as a hint rather than an absolute directive, and may in selected cases still consider such links for indexing. More precise variants have also appeared: rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content.

Practical application

The nofollow attribute is used wherever a link exists for practical reasons but should not be read as an endorsement: in paid sponsored articles, in affiliate links, in comment sections and forums, and on links to sites whose credibility you do not want to underwrite. In an off-page SEO strategy a healthy profile contains a mix of dofollow and nofollow links — a profile made up entirely of strong dofollow links looks unnatural and can raise algorithmic suspicion. In link building it is therefore worth deliberately earning nofollow links too, since they often carry real traffic and build brand recognition regardless of authority flow.

In day-to-day work on a site, it pays to approach the nofollow attribute sensibly: do not tag everything out of caution, because internal links and valuable editorial links should stay dofollow so authority flows through the site. On the other hand, any link you are paid for, or that you do not want to back with your own reputation, should carry nofollow or sponsored. Managing these attributes deliberately is part of both SEO hygiene and compliance with search engine guidelines on paid links.