dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc: Which to Use When
Dofollow vs nofollow vs sponsored vs ugc: what each link attribute discloses to Google, and a simple decision framework for which to use.
Use dofollow — meaning no rel attribute at all — for a genuine editorial link you’d stand behind. Use rel="nofollow" for a link you don’t want to vouch for. Use rel="sponsored" for anything tied to money — an ad, an affiliate placement, a paid guest post. And use rel="ugc" for links buried inside content someone else submitted, like a blog comment or a forum reply. Google introduced sponsored and ugc in September 2019 as more specific versions of nofollow, and at the same time changed how it treats all three: they became “hints” rather than absolute directives, which matters more than most people realize when they’re deciding which one to slap on a link.
Key takeaway
- Dofollow (no attribute) is reserved for links you’d endorse as genuine, uncompensated citations.
rel="sponsored"isn’t optional flavor text — Google’s guidelines require it on paid links, affiliate links, and sponsorship placements.rel="ugc"belongs on links inside content a user submitted, not content your team wrote.- Since September 2019, all three nofollow variants are hints, not hard rules — Google can still crawl through them or use them as a signal, even though they typically won’t pass ranking credit.
What each attribute is actually telling Google
Rel=”nofollow” has been around since 2005, invented specifically to stop comment-spam bots from farming PageRank out of blog comment sections. For fourteen years it did one job: tell Google not to pass ranking credit through that link, full stop. In September 2019, Google split that single attribute into three, each disclosing a different reason the link shouldn’t be read as a full editorial endorsement. The split didn’t loosen anything about paid or user-generated links — it made the disclosure more precise, which is also closer to what Google’s own link spam guidance was already asking site owners to do.
The practical difference between the three newer attributes is about origin and intent, not strength. A nofollow link says “I’m not vouching for this.” A sponsored link says “money changed hands for this placement.” A ugc link says “someone other than my editorial team put this here.” You can also combine values on the same link — rel="sponsored ugc" is valid and correct for something like a paid product review left in a comment section.
Dofollow vs nofollow vs sponsored vs ugc, side by side
| Attribute | What it discloses | Typical example | Passes ranking signal? |
|---|---|---|---|
| None (dofollow) | A genuine editorial citation you’d stand behind | Linking to a source you actually cited in research | Yes — full signal |
rel="nofollow" | General-purpose “I’m not endorsing this” | A link to a site you reference but don’t fully trust | Hint only — Google usually doesn’t pass credit |
rel="sponsored" | A commercial relationship: paid, affiliate, or sponsorship-based | An affiliate link, a paid guest-post link, a sponsored review | Hint only — treated as a disclosure signal |
rel="ugc" | Content submitted by a user, not your editorial staff | A link inside a blog comment, forum post, or public review | Hint only — Google usually doesn’t pass credit |
Why “hint” is a different promise than “directive”
Before September 2019, nofollow was absolute: Google’s crawler would never pass PageRank through a nofollowed link, and site owners used that guarantee for things like sculpting internal link equity toward priority pages. When Google moved to the hints model, that guarantee went away. Google now says it may use nofollow, sponsored, and ugc links as a signal for crawling and indexing decisions, and reserves the option to consider them in ranking in specific circumstances, even though in ordinary practice these links still don’t carry meaningful ranking weight. The upshot for site owners: don’t build a strategy around “nofollow guarantees zero effect.” It doesn’t guarantee that anymore — it just makes zero effect the overwhelmingly likely outcome.
This distinction also killed off internal link sculpting as a reliable tactic. Site owners used to nofollow low-value internal pages (login screens, terms of service) to try to concentrate crawl budget and link equity on money pages. Since nofollow no longer blocks the crawl path with certainty, that specific use case is largely obsolete — Google may still crawl through it regardless of the attribute.
Hint, not directive
Since the September 2019 update, Google treats nofollow, sponsored, and ugc as hints it can weigh alongside other signals, not commands it must obey. The attribute still communicates intent clearly to Google and to anyone auditing your link profile — it just no longer functions as an ironclad switch.
Source — Google Search Central, “A quick word about Googlebot crawl budget,” and Google’s qualifying outbound links documentation
A quick decision framework for your own outbound links
Most sites overthink this. Run every outbound link through four questions in order, and stop at the first one that fits:
- Did money, product, or a formal sponsorship arrangement change hands for this link? If yes, use
rel="sponsored". - Is the link inside content a user submitted — a comment, a forum post, a guest review you didn’t write or edit? If yes, use
rel="ugc"(addsponsoredtoo if it’s also paid). - Do you want to reference something without formally vouching for it — a competitor mention, an unverified source, a login or account page? If yes, use
rel="nofollow". - None of the above? Leave it dofollow. That’s the default state for a real editorial citation, and stripping it out “just to be safe” only weakens the value of links you actually want to count.
Getting your own outbound attribution right is one half of the equation — the other half is understanding how the links pointing at you get evaluated, which is where a natural anchor text distribution and the source of the link both start to matter more than the attribute sitting on it.
Where site owners get this wrong
The most common mistake is blanket nofollow — setting every single outbound link on a site to nofollow “to be safe” or to preserve link equity. This doesn’t meaningfully help crawl budget on a small-to-medium site, and it strips away a normal signal of editorial trust that Google’s systems use to understand what a page is actually citing. A page that nofollows every source it references reads as either overly cautious or, worse, as if it’s hiding something.
The second common mistake is skipping sponsored on paid placements entirely. This shows up constantly in guest posting that isn’t disclosed properly — a site accepts payment for a guest post slot and links it as a plain dofollow editorial link. That’s a disclosure problem as much as an SEO one: Google’s link spam policies treat undisclosed paid links as a spam signal, and in aggressive cases it’s part of what triggers a manual action tied to the real risk of paid links done without proper attribution.
The third mistake is treating attribute choice as a ranking lever at all. None of these four options will move your rankings up. They’re disclosure tools. The actual ranking lever is whether the underlying link comes from a relevant, trustworthy source and whether the content around it is something Google’s systems read as genuine.
There’s a fourth, quieter mistake: inconsistency across a site. Some CMS themes and plugins apply nofollow to every outbound link in comments but leave sponsored placements untouched, or vice versa. If you’re auditing a site you inherited, check the actual rendered HTML on a sample of pages rather than trusting a plugin setting — theme updates and plugin conflicts routinely change link attributes without anyone noticing. A quick way to spot this: view source on a page with a paid placement and a genuine citation side by side, and confirm each carries the attribute that honestly describes it. If they’re identical, something in your publishing workflow is applying a blanket rule instead of a case-by-case one.
Frequently asked questions
Is nofollow still used by Google in 2026?
Yes. Google still reads and respects the nofollow, sponsored, and ugc attributes as disclosure signals. What changed in 2019 is that Google treats them as hints it can weigh, rather than absolute rules it must always obey when deciding whether to crawl or credit a link.
Do nofollow links help SEO at all?
Rarely in a direct ranking sense, but they’re not worthless. A nofollow link from a high-traffic, relevant page can still send real referral visitors, build brand visibility, and occasionally gets crawled and factored into how Google understands your site’s topical footprint.
What’s the actual difference between rel=”sponsored” and rel=”nofollow”?
Both are hints that tell Google not to treat the link as a full endorsement, but sponsored specifically discloses a commercial relationship — payment, product exchange, or a sponsorship deal. Nofollow is the general-purpose option for links you’re not fully vouching for that aren’t commercially motivated.
Can I combine rel=”ugc” and rel=”sponsored” on one link?
Yes. Multiple rel values can sit on the same link, written as rel="ugc sponsored". Use this when a paid link appears inside user-submitted content, such as a compensated review left in a comments section.
Do affiliate links legally need rel=”sponsored”?
Google’s guidelines require it as an SEO disclosure practice for any link tied to compensation, which includes affiliate links. Separately, many regions also have consumer-protection disclosure rules for affiliate and sponsored content — check what applies where your audience is based.
Should I go back and fix nofollow attributes on old posts?
It’s worth an audit if you inherited a site or suspect wholesale nofollowing was applied by a previous developer or plugin default. Correcting genuine editorial citations back to dofollow restores a normal trust signal; it won’t move rankings on its own, but it removes an unnecessary red flag.
The bottom line
Dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, and ugc are disclosure tools, not ranking dials. Pick the one that honestly describes the relationship behind the link — genuine citation, general non-endorsement, paid placement, or user-submitted content — and Google’s systems, and anyone auditing your site later, will read your link profile as trustworthy instead of manufactured. For the fuller picture of how these attributes fit into a real link acquisition strategy, see our complete link building guide.
If you’re not sure your site’s current link attribution is doing you any favors, we run link audits as part of our one-time SEO services.
