What is a nofollow link, and when should I use one?
What a nofollow link tells Google, and when to use sponsored or ugc instead
A nofollow link is a link with rel="nofollow" in its a tag, which tells Google you'd rather it not associate your site with the linked page or crawl that page from your site. Google says to use it when its other values, sponsored for paid links and ugc for user-generated content, don't apply. It isn't a way to hide a page, since nofollowed pages can still be crawled if Google finds them through sitemaps or links from other sites.
What the attribute does
Nofollow is a value of the rel attribute on an a tag, written as rel="nofollow". It tells Google two things about the link. You'd rather Google not associate your site with the page it points to, and you'd rather it not crawl that page from your site.
Most links need nothing. Google's guidance is that a regular link you expect Google to fetch and parse without any qualification should carry no rel attribute at all.
Nofollow, sponsored and ugc
Google now offers three values for qualifying outbound links, and nofollow is the fallback. Use sponsored for advertisements and paid placements. Nofollow used to be the recommendation for paid links and is still accepted, but Google says sponsored is preferred. Use ugc for links in comments, forum posts and other user-generated content.
Nofollow is for the cases left over, where neither label fits and you still don't want the link to vouch for the page. The values can be combined in a space or comma separated list, so a link in a forum post you also don't want to endorse can be marked rel="ugc nofollow".
Hiding pages and controlling your own URLs
Nofollow doesn't hide a page from Google. Links marked this way will generally not be followed, but Google says the linked page may still be crawled if it turns up through a sitemap or a link from another site.
It's also the wrong tool for pages on your own site. To stop Google fetching one of your own URLs, Google points to a disallow rule in robots.txt. To keep a page out of search results, let Google crawl it and add a noindex robots rule.
Where it can be set
Sponsored and ugc work only on a elements that Google can crawl. Nofollow is the exception. Besides the link attribute, it's also available as a robots meta tag, which applies it at the page level instead of link by link.
Sources
Each was read on October 11, 2026.
Questions
Should paid links use nofollow or sponsored?
Sponsored. Google says nofollow is still an acceptable way to flag paid links and advertisements, but sponsored is the preferred value.
Does nofollow stop Google from indexing a page?
No. Nofollowed links are generally not followed, but the page can still be found and crawled through sitemaps or links from other sites. To keep a page out of the index, allow crawling and use the noindex robots rule.
Can I use nofollow and ugc on the same link?
Yes. Google accepts multiple rel values as a space or comma separated list, for example rel="ugc nofollow" or rel="ugc,nofollow".
Should I nofollow links to my own pages?
Google's guidance is to use a robots.txt disallow rule for links within your own site, not nofollow.
Work with us
Let the agents bring you the leads.
Tell us about your business and who buys from you. On a short call we'll show you the searches your buyers make where you don't show up yet, and what the agents would do about them in their first month.
On the call, for your site
- The searches your buyers makeMeasured, with how many people make each one
- Where you show up, and where you don'tOn Google and in ChatGPT's answers
- The agents' first monthThe pages, fixes and links they would start with