Dofollow, nofollow and sponsored links explained

Every link on a web page is an anchor element with an address. It can also carry a rel attribute that describes the relationship between the linking page and the page it points to. Search engines read that attribute to understand whether the link is an editorial vote, a paid arrangement or something a user added.

There is no attribute called dofollow. People use the word for a plain link with no rel value that limits it, which search engines treat as a normal editorial reference. Everything else is a qualifier added on top of that default.

The qualifiers that matter for SEO are nofollow, sponsored and ugc. They can be combined, for example rel="sponsored nofollow", and a search engine will read any of them as a signal that the link should not be treated as a plain editorial endorsement.

• A plain link with no qualifying rel value, commonly called dofollow, is an editorial reference that the site chose to make on its own.
• rel="nofollow" tells search engines that the site does not want to vouch for the target, for example a link to a source it cites but does not endorse.
• rel="sponsored" marks a link that exists because of payment, sponsorship, an affiliate deal or another commercial arrangement.
• rel="ugc" marks links inside user generated content, such as comments, forum posts and community answers.

The rule of thumb is simple: if money or another form of compensation was involved, the link is sponsored. If a user wrote it, it is ugc. If the site wants to reference something without endorsing it, nofollow fits. If it is a genuine editorial choice, no qualifier is needed.

Nofollow has existed since 2005, when search engines introduced it to fight comment spam. For many years it was treated as a strict instruction: a nofollow link passed no ranking signal and was usually not used for discovery either.

In September 2019 Google introduced two new values, sponsored and ugc, and announced that all three would be treated as hints rather than directives. From March 2020 that change extended to crawling and indexing. In practice it means Google may still choose to use a nofollow, sponsored or ugc link as a signal, for example to discover a page or understand its topic, even though the attribute says the link is not an editorial endorsement.

That shift matters because it removed the old idea that a qualified link is worthless. Google gets more information about the web, site owners get a clear way to label different kinds of links, and nobody is penalized for labeling correctly. What has not changed is that paid links must be labeled.

Google's spam policies list buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as a link scheme. A paid link without sponsored or nofollow is exactly that. If a search engine spots the pattern, it can ignore the links, take manual action against the site that sells them, or devalue the site that buys them. Bing's webmaster guidance takes a similar position.

The risk lands on both sides. A publisher that sells unlabeled links can lose trust for its whole site, which means every buyer who appeared there loses value at the same time. A buyer who collects many unlabeled paid links can face action against their own site. Labeling removes that risk because the arrangement is out in the open.

That is why every paid placement we arrange carries rel="sponsored" on the client link, and the publishing page shows a short "Partner content" label so the reader sees the paid relationship at a glance. We do not sell links as dofollow, and any provider that does is asking you to take a risk on their behalf. Our buy backlinks page explains how this works in practice.

A sponsored link inside a relevant article still does real work. Readers of that article can click through, and they arrive with context, which tends to make them better visitors than a cold search click. Your brand appears in front of an audience that already cares about the topic.

Because Google treats the attribute as a hint, a sponsored link can still help with discovery of new pages and with understanding what your page is about. The surrounding text, the topic of the publishing site and the anchor all describe your page. Over time, a steady presence on relevant sites also leads to unprompted mentions and links when writers come across your brand.

What a sponsored link does not do is promise a ranking change. Nobody honest can promise that, with or without the attribute. Judge placements by topic fit, readership and referral visits, and treat ranking movement as a possible result of a broader program rather than a guaranteed outcome of any single link.

For site owners, the decision is usually straightforward once you ask why the link exists.

• You wrote an article and linked to a study because it supports your point: a plain link is right.
• You link to a site you mention but do not want to vouch for: use nofollow.
• A brand paid for the article, sent a free product for review or pays a commission: use sponsored.
• A reader posted a link in a comment or forum thread: use ugc, and many platforms add it automatically.
• You are unsure whether compensation was involved: lean toward sponsored, because it is never wrong to label a commercial link.

For buyers, the question is easier still. If you paid in any form for the placement, expect rel="sponsored", and be wary of anyone who offers to leave it off. If you want to learn more about safe ways to earn links, read our white hat link building guide.

Open the page, right click the link and choose to inspect it in your browser. The anchor element shows the address and any rel value. Check that the target address is the one you agreed and that the attribute matches the arrangement.

Do this more than once. Pages get edited, templates change and links get removed or rewritten. A link that was correct on publish day can lose its target or gain a different attribute months later. That is why we check every placement every 7 days for the link, the target, the attribute and indexability, and alert you by email when something changes. See how it works on our backlink monitor page.