Nofollow links get argued about more than almost anything else in link building. Some SEOs call them worthless. Others claim they secretly move rankings. Google’s own documentation settles most of the argument, and this guide sticks to it.
The short answer: a nofollow link will not improve your rankings in any way you can count on, because Google treats the attribute as a hint and says it generally does not consider these links for ranking purposes. What a nofollow link can still do is send you real visitors, help Google find a page, and take its natural place in a backlink profile that grew honestly. Below you will find the four link attributes side by side, six common claims checked against Google’s wording, and a short audit you can run on your own profile.
Key takeaways
- Google treats nofollow, sponsored, and ugc as hints, not orders, and in most cases it does not count them for ranking.
- Judge a nofollow link by the visitors and visibility it brings, never by ranking power.
- Paid links must be marked sponsored or nofollow. That is Google’s written rule, not a style choice.
- No fixed follow to nofollow ratio exists in any Google document. Any source quoting one is guessing.
The short answer: what Google actually says
Google introduced nofollow in 2005 as a way to fight comment spam, and it soon became Google’s recommended way to flag advertising related links. Under the original rules, Google would not count a link marked this way as a signal in its search algorithms at all.
That changed with Google’s September 2019 announcement. Google added two new attributes, sponsored and ugc, and said all three would be treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. The hint model applied to ranking straight away, and to crawling and indexing from 1 March 2020.
A hint is not a promise in either direction, and Google is blunt about the practical effect. In the same announcement, Google wrote: “In most cases, the move to a hint model won’t change the nature of how we treat such links. We’ll generally treat them as we did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes.” Plan around that sentence. Treat any nofollow link as worth zero ranking credit, and value it only for what else it brings.
What a nofollow link is
A nofollow link is a normal link with one extra piece of code: rel=”nofollow” inside the link tag.
<a href="https://example.com">Example link</a> <a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Example link</a>
To a visitor, the two links look and behave exactly the same. The attribute is invisible on the page and only exists for search engines. It tells Google: this link is here, but do not treat it as an endorsement, and do not pass ranking credit through it.
One term needs clearing up. “Dofollow” is SEO slang, not a real attribute. There is no rel=”dofollow” value in Google’s documentation. A followed link is simply a link with no qualifying attribute, because regular links need no rel attribute at all.
The four link attributes, and what to do with each
Site owners now have four ways to publish a link, and the right choice depends on why the link exists. The same attributes appear on links pointing at your site, which is why they matter when you judge your own profile. For the wider picture, see our guide to the types of backlinks a site can earn.
| Attribute | What it tells Google | When Google documented it | What you should do |
|---|---|---|---|
| No attribute (a normal followed link) | This is an editorial endorsement, and the link can pass ranking credit | The default. Google’s qualifying guidance says regular links need no rel attribute | Use for links you genuinely recommend: sources you cite, partners you trust, and your own internal links |
| rel=”nofollow” | You link to the page but do not endorse it, and you do not pass ranking credit | Introduced in 2005 to fight comment spam; treated as a hint since 2019 | Use when you cannot vouch for a page and neither sponsored nor ugc fits. Also accepted for paid links, though sponsored is preferred |
| rel=”sponsored” | The link exists because of advertising, a sponsorship, or another compensation agreement | Announced 10 September 2019 | Use for every paid placement on your site: ads, sponsored posts, and affiliate links. Google prefers this value for paid links |
| rel=”ugc” | The link sits inside user generated content, such as a comment or a forum post | Announced 10 September 2019 | Use on links your visitors add. Google notes you may drop the attribute for members who contribute high quality content over time |
Values can be combined. A link in a sponsored forum post can carry rel=”ugc sponsored”, and rel=”nofollow ugc” is also valid. The full details are in Google’s guide to qualifying outbound links. And if your site already carries plain nofollow links in these spots, Google says there is no need to change them. The newer values add detail; they do not replace a working setup.
Where nofollow links genuinely help
Strip away the ranking claims and four real benefits remain.
Referral traffic
A nofollow link is still a link. Readers click it, land on your page, and can buy, sign up, or share it further. A marked link on a busy, relevant page can be worth more than an unmarked link on a page nobody reads. Those visits are real traffic, the same kind you work for with every other plan to get traffic to your website. Measure marked links in your analytics referral report, where the attribute makes no difference at all.
Follow on coverage
The reader of a marked link is not always your customer. Sometimes it is another writer researching the same topic. Editors and bloggers follow the links in pieces they respect, and a resource they find that way can earn an unmarked, editorial link in their own work later. You cannot schedule this, and you should never count it in a forecast, but it is a real pattern in how coverage spreads: the first mention is often marked, and the mentions it causes are not.
Discovery and indexing
Marked links do not hide a page from Google. Links with these attributes will generally not be followed, but Google’s qualifying guide notes that the linked pages may still be found through sitemaps or links from other sites, and may still be crawled. Since March 2020 the attributes also work as hints for crawling and indexing, so a marked link gives Google a possible path to a new page rather than a guaranteed block.
A profile that matches the real web
Real backlink profiles are mixed, because the web itself is mixed. Platforms mark the links inside profiles, comments, and social posts. Publishers mark paid placements. A profile with no marked links at all usually means a young site, not a suspicious one, but as coverage grows, marked links arrive on their own. Their share of your profile is not a target to manage, and the next section shows why chasing a set percentage is a mistake.
Myth vs fact: six claims checked against Google’s documentation
Six claims circulate in almost every discussion of this topic. Here is each one against what Google has actually published.
| Claim | What Google’s documentation says |
|---|---|
| Nofollow links are invisible to Google | False. Google reads them as hints and uses link data to understand how words in links describe content, and to spot unnatural linking patterns. It simply does not count them as an endorsement |
| Since 2020, nofollow links pass PageRank like normal links | No. Google said the hint model would in most cases not change how it treats such links, and that it would generally not consider them for ranking purposes |
| A healthy profile needs a fixed ratio, such as 80% followed and 20% nofollow | No Google document states any ratio. The figure is repeated across SEO blogs without a source. Google’s published concern is unnatural linking patterns, not percentages |
| Every old nofollow link must be relabelled sponsored or ugc | No. In the announcement FAQ, Google said there is absolutely no need to change existing nofollow links |
| A nofollow link stops Google crawling or indexing the target page | No. Marked links are generally not followed, but Google says the page can still be found through sitemaps or other links. Blocking uses robots rules or noindex, not nofollow |
| Buying a link is always against Google’s rules | Not as advertising. Google’s spam policies say buying and selling links is a normal part of the web economy, and is not a violation when the links are qualified with sponsored or nofollow. Buying links that pass ranking credit is link spam |
Notice the pattern: the myths fail in both directions. Nofollow is neither a dead signal nor a hidden ranking lever. It is a label, and Google uses it as one.
How to check whether a link is nofollow
Checking a link takes under a minute, and you do not need a paid tool for a single page.
Inspect the link. Right click the link in your browser and choose Inspect. The browser highlights the link’s code. If you see rel=”nofollow”, rel=”sponsored”, or rel=”ugc” inside the tag, the link is marked. No rel attribute means a normal followed link.
Search the page source. Open the page source and search for the link’s address. This is faster when a page carries many links, and it shows the code exactly as published.
Check for a page wide rule. A page can also mark every link on it at once with a robots meta tag, and Google’s documentation notes nofollow is available in that form too. If individual links look clean but the page head carries a nofollow rule, treat the link as marked.
For a whole profile rather than one page, export your backlinks from the Links report in Google Search Console, or from your usual link tool, and sort by attribute.
Audit your own backlink profile in about 30 minutes
Run this audit twice a year, or whenever a new agency or freelancer starts building links for you. It covers both directions: the links pointing at you, and the links you publish.
- Export and split. Export your backlinks and divide them into followed links and marked links (nofollow, sponsored, ugc). Note the totals for each group.
- Find the marked links that send people. In your analytics referral report, list the marked links that actually send visits. These earn their place through traffic.
- Check paid placements pointing at you. Every placement you paid for should be marked sponsored or nofollow. An unmarked paid link is the exact pattern Google’s spam policies call link spam.
- Scan followed links for spam patterns. Look for the practices Google lists: excessive link exchanges, large guest post campaigns built around keyword rich anchor text, and links created by automated programs or services.
- Read your anchor texts. A natural profile mixes brand names, page titles, and plain web addresses. A stack of identical money keywords is a warning sign.
- Audit your own outbound links. Paid and affiliate links on your site get sponsored. Links inside comments and forum posts get ugc. Links you cannot vouch for get nofollow. Ordinary editorial links need no attribute.
- Fix, then log. Correct the marks you control, ask partners to correct theirs, and record the date and the result next to each link.
Example (illustrative, not a real client case): BrightLedger is a fictional bookkeeping software company with a small marketing team. Its audit export showed 132 referring domains. The team found two paid newsletter placements whose links carried no attribute at all, and asked both publishers to mark them sponsored, which both did. One product directory link marked nofollow turned out to send a steady trickle of trial signups, so it stayed on the keep list despite having no ranking value. The audit also surfaced a set of forum signature links with exact match anchors, left over from a freelancer two years earlier. The team stopped counting them as an asset and removed the ones it controlled. Nothing in the example is exotic. That is the point: the audit is housekeeping, and it takes an afternoon, not a project.
Should you ever chase a nofollow link?
Yes, when the placement works as advertising or coverage rather than as a ranking play. A marked link on a page your buyers actually read can send customers today, and it puts your name in front of writers who may cite you, unmarked, later. Judge it the way you would judge any advertisement: audience, placement, and likely visits.
A simple weighing test keeps this honest. Before you spend time or money on a marked placement, write down the audience it reaches, how many of them are plausible buyers, and what the placement costs in hours or cash. If the likely visits alone justify the cost, take it, and treat any later benefit as a bonus. If the numbers only work when you assume a ranking boost, the placement does not work, because that boost is the one thing Google says not to expect.
Walk away when the pitch is about rankings. A seller who promises that a nofollow link will boost your positions is selling something Google says it generally does not count. And a seller who offers to leave a paid link unmarked is offering you the risk, not the reward: under Google’s spam policies, the unmarked paid link is the violation, and it sits in your profile, not theirs.
The bottom line
Nofollow links help SEO the way a shop sign helps a shop: they do not change what is inside, but they put you in front of people and help you get found. Earn them as a by product of real coverage, mark your own links the way Google asks, and spend your ranking effort on links that are genuine endorsements. If you are still building the foundations, our explainer on what link building is shows where each link type fits.
Frequently asked questions
Do nofollow links help SEO?
Not for rankings, in any way you can plan on. Google treats nofollow as a hint and says it generally does not consider these links for ranking purposes. They help through referral traffic, visibility with real readers, and page discovery, which is why a strong marked link can still be worth having.
Can nofollow links hurt my site?
The risk described in Google’s spam policies sits with links built to manipulate rankings, such as paid links left unmarked or large scale link schemes. A link already marked nofollow is declared as not passing ranking credit, and marked links arriving from coverage, profiles, and comments are a normal part of the web.
Do I need to change my existing nofollow links to sponsored or ugc?
No. Google’s announcement FAQ says there is absolutely no need to change any nofollow links you already have. For new paid links, Google prefers sponsored when it is convenient, but nofollow remains acceptable.
Can Google still find and index a page linked with nofollow?
Yes. Marked links will generally not be followed, but Google says the page may be found through sitemaps or links from other sites, and since 1 March 2020 nofollow also works as a hint for crawling and indexing. Never rely on nofollow to keep a page out of Google; use noindex or robots rules for that.
Should I pay for a nofollow link?
Only as advertising, judged on the audience and the visits it is likely to send. A paid link must be marked sponsored or nofollow under Google’s spam policies, so it cannot honestly be sold as a ranking boost. If the pitch promises rankings, walk away.
