A nofollow link is a hyperlink with a rel="nofollow" HTML attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking credit (sometimes called "link equity") to the linked page through that particular link.
Introduced by Google in 2005 originally to fight comment-spam link manipulation, the nofollow attribute is added to a link's HTML to signal that the linking site isn't vouching for the destination in a way that should influence rankings. Common uses include blog comments, forum posts, paid or sponsored links (where Google specifically requires a rel="sponsored" or nofollow-family tag to stay compliant with its guidelines), and user-generated content generally. Google has since introduced related attributes — rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content — as more specific alternatives to a blanket nofollow, though nofollow itself remains valid and widely used. Since 2020, Google has treated these as "hints" rather than strict directives, meaning it may still choose to consider a nofollowed link as a ranking signal in some contexts, a change from its earlier stricter treatment. The opposite, an ordinary link with no rel attribute, is sometimes informally called a "dofollow" link, though that's not an official HTML term — it's just the default behaviour of a normal link.
Understanding nofollow matters mainly for two situations: correctly marking your own outbound paid or user-generated links to stay compliant with Google's guidelines, and understanding that not every backlink pointing at your site carries equal ranking weight when evaluating your own backlink profile.
backlink checker shows domain authority and spam-risk banding for backlinks pointing at your site, helping you see which links are likely carrying real ranking value versus which might be lower-impact or risk-flagged — though it doesn't currently distinguish follow from nofollow status on individual links.
No — nofollowing every outbound link, including genuinely editorial ones you're vouching for, is generally not recommended and can look manipulative. Nofollow is meant for specific cases: paid/sponsored links, user-generated content, and links you genuinely don't want to endorse.
Yes — Google's guidelines require paid or sponsored links to carry a rel="sponsored" or nofollow attribute; failing to mark them can be treated as a violation of Google's link scheme guidelines, potentially leading to a manual action.
Not necessarily zero, though its direct ranking-credit contribution is limited by design. Google has said it may still use nofollowed links as a signal in some contexts since 2020's policy shift, and a nofollow link can still drive real referral traffic and brand visibility regardless of its ranking impact.
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