For most of SEO's history, outbound links came in two kinds: normal links and nofollow links. Since 2019, Google has supported three rel attributes for qualifying outbound links: nofollow, sponsored, and ugc. Each one tells Google something different about why a link exists. Using the right one keeps you within Google's spam policies, and understanding them helps you judge the links pointing at your own site. This guide explains what each link attribute means, when to use which, how Google treats them, and the common myths that still cause confusion.
What Link Attributes Do
A link attribute is a value in a link's rel attribute that describes the relationship between your page and the page you're linking to. Here's what each looks like in HTML:
<a href="https://example.com/" rel="sponsored">for paid or advertising links<a href="https://example.com/" rel="ugc">for links in user-generated content<a href="https://example.com/" rel="nofollow">for links you don't want to vouch for, when the other two don't apply
Links matter in SEO because Google treats them as signals. A link from one page to another works like a recommendation, and those recommendations feed into how Google evaluates pages, the concept behind link building and PageRank. Link attributes let you say "this link isn't an editorial recommendation" when that's the truth.
The Three Attributes Explained
rel="sponsored"
Google's documentation says to mark links that are advertisements or paid placements with sponsored. That covers any link that exists because money, products, or another form of compensation changed hands:
- Paid banner and text ads
- Sponsored posts and paid reviews
- Affiliate links where you earn a commission
- Links included because you received a free product to review
Google says nofollow was previously recommended for these links and is still acceptable, but sponsored is preferred. On TopWebPositions, for example, every affiliate link to a recommended tool carries rel="sponsored noopener".
rel="ugc"
ugc stands for user-generated content. Google recommends it for links inside content your users create, such as blog comments, forum posts, and community answers. You didn't choose to link to those pages, your users did, and the attribute says so.
Google also notes you might remove the attribute for links from consistently high-quality contributors, which lets trusted community members' links count as normal links.
rel="nofollow"
nofollow is the general-purpose value. Google says to use it when the other values don't apply: when you link to a page but don't want to vouch for it or pass ranking credit to it. A common example is linking to a page you're criticizing or citing as an example of a bad practice.
Nofollow also exists as a robots meta tag, <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">, which applies to every link on the page. That page-level version is rarely what you want.
Combining values
You can use more than one value on the same link. Google's documentation says multiple rel values can be listed separated by spaces or commas, for example rel="ugc nofollow" or rel="sponsored nofollow". Combining sponsored with nofollow is a common choice for affiliate links, because some other search engines and tools only recognize nofollow.
The noopener value you often see alongside these, as in rel="sponsored noopener", is a browser security setting for links that open in a new tab. It has nothing to do with SEO.
How Google Treats These Links
Google's documentation says links marked with these attributes will generally not be followed, and that a linked page may still be crawled if Google discovers it another way, such as through a sitemap or a link from somewhere else. When Google introduced sponsored and ugc in 2019, it also announced that it would treat all three values as hints rather than strict directives. That's a meaningful change from the old behavior, where nofollow was treated as an absolute instruction.
In practice, this means:
- A nofollow link generally won't pass ranking credit. Treat it that way when planning.
- Google may still use the link for other purposes, such as discovering URLs or understanding how pages relate.
- Nofollow is not a way to hide or block a page. If you don't want a page indexed, use noindex, as covered in the crawling vs. indexing guide.
Why Getting This Right Matters
Google's spam policies treat buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam. If you sell a link, or publish a paid post, without qualifying the link as sponsored or nofollow, you're participating in a link scheme even if that wasn't your intent. The risk runs both ways. Sites that sell unqualified links and sites that buy them can both be affected.
The fix is simple: if a link exists because of compensation of any kind, qualify it. This doesn't hurt you. You still get the referral traffic, the partnership, and the revenue. What you don't get is a link that pretends to be editorial.
Which Attribute Should You Use? A Quick Guide
- You were paid to include the link, or you earn from clicks:
sponsored - A user wrote the content containing the link:
ugc - You're linking to something you don't want to endorse:
nofollow - You're citing a source you trust or recommending a resource on its merits: no attribute. A normal link.
- You're linking to another page on your own site: no attribute, almost always.
Common Myths About Link Attributes
Myth: You should nofollow all outbound links
Some site owners nofollow every outbound link to "keep PageRank on their site." This doesn't work the way they hope, and it makes your content less useful. Linking to genuinely good sources is a normal part of helpful content. Use attributes to describe links honestly, not to hoard authority.
Myth: Nofollow your internal links to sculpt PageRank
Nofollowing internal links, for example to login pages or policy pages, was once used to "sculpt" how PageRank flowed through a site. It isn't an effective way to concentrate authority. If you want to prioritize certain pages, link to them more prominently and more often. The internal linking strategy guide covers the approach that works.
Myth: "Dofollow" is an attribute
There's no rel="dofollow" value. A link with no rel attribute is simply a normal link. "Dofollow" is just shorthand people use for links without nofollow.
Myth: Nofollow links are worthless
A nofollow link from a relevant, high-traffic page can send real visitors, build brand awareness, and lead to editorial links later when other writers discover you. A healthy backlink profile naturally includes a mix of followed and nofollowed links. If every link you have is followed, that can itself look unnatural.
Link Attributes and Your Link Building
When you're earning links, knowing these attributes helps you set realistic expectations:
- Comments and forum posts almost always carry
ugcornofollow. They're for participation and visibility, not link equity. - Press releases and paid directories should carry
sponsoredornofollow, because they're paid placements. - Guest posts are editorial if the publisher chose to publish your work without payment. If you paid for placement, the link should be qualified.
- Editorial links earned through digital PR, original research, and genuinely useful content are the ones that carry full value.
The guide to building backlinks without paying covers eight tactics that earn editorial links. The upcoming guides to anchor text optimization and toxic backlinks and the disavow tool cover the rest of what you need to evaluate a link profile.
How to Check the Links on Your Site
To check how your outbound links are qualified, view a page's source and search for rel=, or use your browser's developer tools to inspect individual links. Pay particular attention to templates that generate many links at once, such as comment sections, author bios, sidebar widgets, and affiliate blocks. One template fix can correct hundreds of links.
To see which links point at your site and how they're qualified, you need a backlink tool. Google Search Console's Links report shows your top linking sites but doesn't show rel attributes. Serpstat's backlink analysis shows referring domains and whether links are followed or nofollowed, which is useful for judging how much of your link profile actually passes value. Disclosure: TopWebPositions may earn a commission if you sign up through this link, at no extra cost to you. The free backlink checker guide covers what you can learn without a paid tool.