Google announces new ways to identify "nofollow" links

The nofollow attribute was introduced 15 years ago by Google as a way to help fight comment spam.

It quickly became one of Google's recommended methods for flagging sponsored or advertising-related links too. The web has changed a great deal since nofollow was introduced in 2005, and the time has come for nofollow to change as well. Google is therefore announcing two new link attributes that give webmasters additional ways to signal the nature of specific links to Google Search.

These, along with nofollow, are listed and described below:

• rel="sponsored": use the sponsored attribute to identify links on your website that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other paid partnerships.
• rel="ugc": UGC stands for User Generated Content, and the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts.
• rel="nofollow": use this attribute in cases where you want to link to a page but imply no kind of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page.

Nofollow was originally introduced to tell Google that links marked with the attribute shouldn't be taken into account in its algorithm. That has now changed. All the link attributes — sponsored, ugc and nofollow — are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude in Search. Google will now use these hints — along with other signals — as a way to better understand how to analyse and appropriately use links within its systems. Why not ignore these links entirely, as had been the case with nofollow? Links contain valuable information that can help us improve search, such as how the words within the links describe the content they point to. Looking at all the links we encounter can also help us better understand unnatural linking patterns. By moving to a hint model, we no longer lose this important information, while still allowing site owners to indicate that some links shouldn't carry the weight of a third-party endorsement.

We know these new attributes will raise questions, so we've answered the most common ones below:

Do I need to change my existing nofollows?

No. If you currently use nofollow as a way to block sponsored links, or to signal that you don't want to pass credit to a page you link to, that will continue to be supported. So there's absolutely no need to change any nofollow links you already have.

Can I use more than one rel value on a link?

Yes, you can use more than one rel value on a link. For example, rel="ugc sponsored" is a perfectly valid attribute that indicates the link came from user-generated content and is sponsored. It's also valid to use nofollow alongside the new attributes, such as rel="nofollow ugc", if you want to remain compatible with services that don't support the new attributes.

If I use nofollow for ads or sponsored links, do I need to change those?

No. You can carry on using nofollow as a method for flagging such links to avoid possible link scheme penalties. You don't need to change any existing markup. If you have systems that append this attribute to new links, you can keep going. That said, we recommend switching to rel="sponsored" if or when it's convenient.

Do I still need to flag ads or sponsored links?

Yes. If you want to avoid a possible link scheme penalty, use rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" to flag these links. Google prefers the use of "sponsored", but either is fine and will be treated the same way for this purpose.

What happens if I use the wrong attribute on a link?

There is no wrong attribute, except in the case of sponsored links. If you flag a UGC link, or a link that isn't an ad, as "sponsored", Google will see that hint, but the impact (if any) would at most be that we don't count the link as credit for another page. In that sense, it's no different from the status of many UGC and non-ad links already marked as nofollow. It's an issue that runs the other way, though. Any link that is clearly an ad or sponsored should use "sponsored" or "nofollow" as described above. "Sponsored" is preferred, but "nofollow" is acceptable.

Why should I use any of these new attributes?

Using the new attributes allows us to process links better for web analysis. That can include your own content, if people linking to your website make use of these attributes.

Does the move to a "hint" approach encourage link spam in comments and UGC content?

Many websites that allow third parties to contribute content already deter link spam in a variety of ways, including moderation tools that can be integrated into many blogging platforms and human reviews. The "ugc" and "nofollow" link attributes will continue to be a further deterrent. In most cases, the move to a "hint" model won't change the nature of how Google treats such links. Generally, they'll be treated as nofollow was before, and won't be considered for ranking purposes. Google will continue to assess how to use links in Search, as it always has and as it has had to do in situations where no attribute was given at all.

When do these attributes and changes take effect?

All the link attributes — sponsored, ugc and nofollow — work today as hints for Google to consider for ranking purposes. For crawling and indexing purposes, nofollow will become a hint as of 1 March 2020. Those who rely on nofollow solely to prevent a page from being indexed (which was never recommended) should use one of the far more robust mechanisms listed in Learn how to block page URLs in Google's help pages.