nofollow link
Also called: rel=nofollow, nofollow
A nofollow link is a link carrying the rel="nofollow" attribute, which tells Google not to associate your site with the linked page or crawl it. Since 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule, so it passes little to no ranking signal but can still send referral traffic.
Google introduced rel="nofollow" in 2005 to fight blog comment spam. For years it acted as a directive: a nofollow link passed no PageRank, and any authority aimed at it was simply lost, which is why the old trick of “link sculpting” stopped working. Google changed the model on September 10, 2019, when nofollow became a hint for ranking purposes. It extended to crawling and indexing on March 1, 2020, so Google can now still follow the link or use it as a signal when other signals suggest it is worth trusting.
nofollow, sponsored, and ugc
Google now recommends three link attributes, and you can combine them:
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">link you don't vouch for</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="sponsored">paid or affiliate link</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="ugc">comment or forum link</a>Existing nofollow links do not need changing. You meet nofollow links everywhere: blog comments, forum posts, most social profiles, Wikipedia, and large publishers that nofollow every outbound link by default. A nofollowed link is not worthless. It still sends referral traffic, puts your brand in front of readers and AI answer engines, and high-quality nofollow coverage often snowballs into followed editorial links later.
How it affects your traffic
A healthy backlink profile is a natural mix of followed and nofollow links, not 100% of either. Our Link Building work chases followed editorial links for ranking power, but we also pursue high-authority nofollow placements because they drive qualified referral traffic, get your brand cited by AI answer engines, and frequently pull in followed links afterward. Optimizing only for a "dofollow" count leaves easy visibility and pipeline on the table.
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