Nofollow Link
A link with rel='nofollow' that instructs search engines not to pass authority to the destination URL.
Quick Answer
A link with rel='nofollow' that instructs search engines not to pass authority to the destination URL.
What is Nofollow Link?
A nofollow link includes the rel='nofollow' attribute, which tells search engine crawlers not to pass PageRank or link equity to the linked page. Google introduced nofollow in 2005 to combat comment spam. If bloggers could mark user-submitted links as nofollow, spammers had less incentive to flood comment sections with links. Nofollow links are everywhere: Wikipedia links, most social media links, press release sites, forums, and many news publications add nofollow to external links. This doesn't mean they're worthless; they can drive real referral traffic and contribute to a natural link profile. In 2019, Google refined the system by adding rel='sponsored' for paid links and rel='ugc' for user-generated content, treating nofollow as a 'hint' rather than a hard directive. In practice, Google may still count some nofollow links as signals. For SEO strategy: pursue dofollow links primarily, but don't dismiss nofollow opportunities from high-traffic, authoritative sites. A nofollow link from a major publication still builds brand awareness, drives traffic, and contributes to a natural-looking link profile that's harder to penalize.
Key Takeaways
- Nofollow Link is a seo & domain rating concept in B2B sales
- Understanding nofollow link helps sales teams improve performance
- Real-world example: Wikipedia adds nofollow to all external links
- Related concepts: Dofollow Link, Backlink, Link Building
Examples in Practice
- 1Wikipedia adds nofollow to all external links
- 2Twitter and LinkedIn links are nofollow by default
Related Terms
More SEO & Domain Rating Terms
Domain Rating (DR)
Ahrefs' proprietary metric scoring a website's backlink profile strength on a 0-100 scale.
Backlink
A hyperlink from one website pointing to another, acting as a vote of authority in Google's eyes.
Dofollow Link
A standard hyperlink that passes SEO authority (link equity) from the linking site to the destination.
Domain Authority (DA)
Moz's metric predicting how likely a domain is to rank in search engine results, scored 0-100.
Keyword Difficulty (KD)
An SEO metric estimating how hard it is to rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword.
Search Intent
The underlying goal or purpose behind a user's search query.
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