# nofollow

Category: [Crawling & Indexing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/crawling-indexing/) › [robots.txt & robots directives](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/crawling-indexing/robots-txt-directives/) · Also known as: rel=nofollow, nofollow link, nofollow attribute

**nofollow** is a value that tells search engines not to follow a link or all links on a page. It can be set on a single link with the `rel` attribute or for a whole page with the meta robots tag. Google says links with these attributes will generally not be followed, and the linked page may still be found and crawled through other links or sitemaps.

## How do you use nofollow?

On a single link:

```html
<a href="https://example.com/" rel="nofollow">Example</a>
```

On a whole page:

```html
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
```

In September 2019, Google announced two more values, `sponsored` and `ugc`, that describe why a link is marked. They became effective for crawling and indexing on March 1, 2020. Google describes the new values as hints about how to process links, as opposed to directives.

Values can be combined, for example `rel="ugc nofollow"`. Google still accepts `nofollow` for paid links. Site owners may remove `ugc` from links of trusted contributors who have a record of high-quality contributions.

## Does "dofollow" exist?

Google's documentation lists no value called `dofollow`. A link without a nofollow, sponsored or ugc value is a normal link.

## Example

A blog allows comments. Links in comments are rendered as `<a href="..." rel="ugc nofollow">`. A sponsored product review links to the shop with `rel="sponsored"`.

## Common mistakes

- **Marking all outbound links nofollow.** Only links that fit the cases above need it.
- **Setting nofollow in the page-level tag by accident.** All links on the page are affected, including internal ones.
- **Expecting nofollow to hide a page.** The target can still be crawled if other links or sitemaps point to it.

## Link attributes compared

| Value | Purpose according to Google | Required? | How Google treats it |
|---|---|---|---|
| no rel value (often called "dofollow") | regular link that Google is expected to fetch and parse without qualification | –; Google has no dofollow value | Google can follow and parse the link |
| rel="sponsored" | advertisements and paid placements | for paid links, sponsored (preferred) or nofollow; otherwise link spam under the spam policies | hint; links with this value are generally not followed |
| rel="ugc" | links in user-generated content such as comments and forum posts | recommended; can be removed for members with a consistent record of high-quality contributions | hint; links with this value are generally not followed |
| rel="nofollow" | when no other value applies and you'd rather Google not associate your site with the target or crawl it from your site | no; still acceptable for paid links | hint, for ranking since 10 Sept 2019 and for crawling and indexing since 1 March 2020 |
| nofollow as a robots meta rule | don't follow the links on this page | no | applies to every link on the page |

Sources: [Google Search Central: Qualify your outbound links to Google (last updated 2025-12-10)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links); [Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search, link spam (last updated 2026-08-28)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam); [Google Search Central Blog: Evolving "nofollow" – new ways to identify the nature of links (2019-09-10)](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify); [Google Search Central: Robots meta tag specifications, nofollow](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag). Last checked: October 8, 2026

## Not to be confused with

- [rel="sponsored"](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rel-sponsored/index.md): marks links that are advertisements or paid placements. nofollow is the more general value for links that neither sponsored nor ugc fits.

## Related terms

- [rel="sponsored"](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rel-sponsored/index.md)
- [rel="ugc"](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rel-ugc/index.md)
- [Link attributes](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-attributes/index.md)
- [Meta robots tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-robots-tag/index.md)
- [noindex](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/noindex/index.md)
- [Buying links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/buying-links/index.md)

## Sources

- [Qualify your outbound links to Google – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links)
- [Evolving nofollow – new ways to identify the nature of links – Google Search Central Blog (Sep 2019)](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify)
- [Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag)
- [Spam policies for Google web search – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nofollow/