Using Nofollow, Sponsored and UGC Attributes on Your Website Links

Every link on a website says something about the page it points to. Most of the time that message is simple. You are pointing readers at something useful and you are happy to stand behind it. Some links are different, though, and Google gives site owners a way to say so.

That is what the nofollow, sponsored and ugc link attributes are for. They are small pieces of code added to a link. They tell search engines a little more about your relationship with the page on the other end. Getting them right keeps your site honest in the eyes of Google and protects your own reputation.

What a link attribute actually does

A link attribute is a value placed inside the rel part of a link tag. Readers never see it. It sits in the code and is read by search engines as they crawl your pages. Google calls this process qualifying your outbound links.

For ordinary links you do not need to add anything at all. Google’s own guidance says a normal link that you want crawled and understood needs no rel value. So you only reach for these attributes when a link has a special story behind it. That keeps things simple for most of your content.

Google publishes the rules in its Search Central documentation on how to qualify your outbound links to Google. It is short and worth reading in full. The sections below explain each value in plain terms. They also cover the most common situations on a small business website.

The sponsored attribute for paid links

Use sponsored on any link that is an advertisement or a paid placement. That covers banner ads that link out to another site. It also covers links inside a post that someone paid for, or that you included as part of a deal. If money or something of value changed hands for the link, it belongs here.

Google’s guidance on paid links sits within its spam policies, so this is not a minor detail. Marking them as sponsored tells Google the link was bought rather than earned. That protects your site from looking as though it is selling influence. It also keeps you clear with readers about what is advertising.

Paid search is a separate matter. Ads you run on Google itself, such as those described in our post on using AdWords to market a law firm, are handled by the ad platform. The sponsored value is about paid links placed on your own website. Keep the two ideas apart and the rules are easy to follow.

The ugc attribute for comments and forums

UGC stands for user generated content. It covers links that your visitors add rather than links you add yourself. Blog comments are the most common example. Forum posts and community pages fall under it too.

Google recommends marking these links with ugc. The reason is practical. You cannot vouch for every link a stranger drops into a comment box. Open comment sections can also attract spam, and Google publishes separate advice on preventing it.

There is a sensible exception. Google says you may remove the attribute for members who have posted good quality content over time. That rewards trustworthy contributors who have earned a place on your site. It is worth checking how your own comment settings handle links before you change anything.

The nofollow attribute as a fallback

Nofollow is the oldest of the three values. Google now describes it as the one to use when the other two do not apply. You would use it when you do not want your site linked with the page you are pointing to. You would also use it when you do not want Google to crawl that page from your site.

Nofollow used to be the recommended way to mark paid links. Google still accepts it for that purpose. However, it says sponsored is now the preferred choice for ads and paid placements. If your older posts use nofollow on paid links, they are not wrong, but new paid links should use sponsored.

You might use nofollow when you cite a page as an example of something poor. A link to a scam warning or a badly built site could be one case. You want readers to see it without passing any endorsement. That is the kind of situation the fallback was built for.

Combining values on one link

Google allows more than one value on the same link. You can list them with a space or a comma between them. The documentation gives ugc and nofollow together as an example. That combination is common on comment sections where the site wants to be extra careful.

A paid link that also sits inside user content could carry both sponsored and ugc. In most cases one value is enough. Pick the one that best describes the reason for the link. Add a second only when both reasons genuinely apply.

What these attributes do and do not promise

Google says links with these values will generally not be followed. The word generally matters here. These are hints rather than hard commands. Google decides how to treat each link in the end.

A page you link with nofollow can still be crawled and indexed. Google may find it through a sitemap or through links on other websites. So a rel value on your link is not a way to hide a page from search. It only describes the link on your own page.

The attributes also only work on standard anchor links that Google can crawl. Links built in unusual ways may not be read at all. If your site uses scripts to create links, test how they appear to search engines. This is one of the common web design mistakes that can quietly hurt a site.

Internal links need a different approach

It can be tempting to add nofollow to links between your own pages. Some site owners do this to stop Google spending time on login pages or filtered views. Google’s guidance points elsewhere for this job. It suggests using a disallow rule in robots.txt if you want to stop Google fetching those pages.

If your goal is to keep a page out of search results altogether, the advice is different again. Google says to let the page be crawled and add a noindex rule instead. Stopping a crawl and keeping a page out of results are two separate jobs. Choose the tool that matches the goal.

For most internal links, the best approach is to leave them as normal links. Clear links between related pages help readers and help search engines understand your site. Content that explains a topic well, such as a guide to voice search SEO, is worth linking to freely. Save rel values for links with a genuine reason behind them.

A quick check for your own website

Most small business sites can review their links in an afternoon. Start with the pages most likely to contain special links. The list below covers the usual places to look.

• Sponsored posts, guest posts and paid reviews that link to other businesses
• Banner ads or affiliate links in sidebars and footers
• Blog comment sections and any forum or community area
• Old posts where nofollow was used on paid links
• Links to pages you mention as poor examples

Work through each one and decide whether it needs sponsored, ugc, nofollow or nothing. Ordinary editorial links to helpful sources should stay as they are. Honest linking is part of how you build your website’s authority over time. A site that links clearly and openly is easier for readers and search engines to trust.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to add nofollow to every external link?

No, you do not. Google says normal links need no rel value at all. Linking to helpful sources without any attribute is perfectly fine.

Is nofollow still acceptable for paid links?

Yes, Google still accepts it. It says nofollow was the earlier recommendation for paid links. Sponsored is now the preferred value for new ones.

Will nofollow stop a page from appearing in Google?

No, it will not. Google may still find the page through sitemaps or other websites. To keep a page out of results, Google points to the noindex rule instead.

Can I use more than one value on a link?

Yes, you can list several values on the same link. Separate them with a space or a comma. Only add a second value when both reasons apply.