# Nofollow Attribute | SEO Glossary

> Nofollow Attribute explained in plain English. Understand what nofollow attribute means, why it matters for SEO, and how it works.

**Source:** https://www.lawrencehitches.com/glossary/nofollow-attribute/

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Breadcrumb Category tag Technical Seo H1

# Nofollow Attribute

Definition block A link attribute (rel="nofollow") that tells search engines not to pass ranking signals (link equity) through a specific link. Google treats it as a hint rather than a strict directive.

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Expanded explanation

## Why Nofollow Attribute Matters for SEO

Nofollow is used to flag links you don't want to vouch for editorially, like user-generated comments, paid placements, or untrusted external links. It doesn't sculpt PageRank the way people think; Google still crawls nofollow links, they just discount the ranking signal.

## How Nofollow Attribute Works

You add rel="nofollow" to individual anchor tags, or use the related values rel="sponsored" (for paid links) and rel="ugc" (for user-generated content). Google may or may not follow the link for discovery purposes, but it treats the link equity signal as a hint to discount.

## Common Mistakes

- Using nofollow for internal PageRank sculpting, which hasn't worked for years
- Nofollowing all external links as a blanket policy
- Not using rel="sponsored" for paid or affiliate links as Google recommends

Video (if available) Article link (if exists) External sources Sources & Further Reading:

- [Google: Qualify Outbound Links for SEO](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links)
- [Google Blog: Evolving nofollow](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify)

Related articles Related articles:

- [What is a robots.txt file?](https://www.lawrencehitches.com/robotstxt/)

Related terms Author bio About the Author

Lawrence Hitches is an [AI SEO consultant based in Melbourne](https://www.lawrencehitches.com/) and Chief of Staff at StudioHawk. He specialises in AI search visibility, technical SEO, and organic growth strategy. [Book a free consultation →](https://www.lawrencehitches.com/contact/)

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*Lawrence Hitches is an AI SEO consultant in Melbourne and Chief of Staff at StudioHawk, Australia's most awarded SEO agency. Agent edition of this site: https://www.lawrencehitches.com/md/index.md*