A nofollow link carries a special HTML attribute (`rel="nofollow"`) telling search engines not to pass along any ranking value to the page it points to. Google originally introduced this to help combat comment spam, and it's since expanded into a standard, widely used part of link management.
When Nofollow Is Typically Used
- Paid links and sponsored content, as required by Google's own guidelines
- User-generated content, such as blog comments, where links can't be fully vetted
- Links to sources that haven't been fully verified or aren't fully trusted
- Links included purely for reference, not intended as a genuine endorsement
Related Link Attributes
- rel="sponsored" — specifically identifies paid or sponsored links
- rel="ugc" — specifically identifies user-generated content, like comments
- rel="nofollow" — the original, more general "don't pass ranking value" attribute
Managing Nofollow Links in WordPress
WordPress automatically applies nofollow to links posted in comments by default. For content within posts and pages, SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast make it simple to manually mark any specific link as nofollow when needed, without touching raw HTML directly.
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