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Qualify your outbound links to Google
For certain links on your site, you might want to tell Google your relationship with the
linked page. In order to do that, use one of the following rel
attribute values in the <a> tag.
For regular links that you expect Google to fetch and parse without any qualifications, you don't need
to add a rel attribute. For example:
<p>My favorite horse is the <a href="https://horses.example.com/Palomino">palomino</a>.</p>
For other links, use one or more of the following values:
rel values
rel="sponsored"
Mark links that are advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid
links) with the sponsored value. Read more about Google's stance on paid links.
If you want to recognize and reward trustworthy contributors, you might remove this
attribute from links posted by members or users who have consistently made
high-quality contributions over time. Read more about how to
prevent user-generated spam your site and platform.
rel="nofollow"
Use the nofollow value when other values don't apply, and you'd rather
Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from, your site. For
links within your own site, use the
robots.txt disallow rule.
You may specify multiple rel values as a space- or comma-separated
list. Examples:
<p>I love <a rel="ugc nofollow" href="https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese">Appenzeller</a> cheese.</p>
<p>I hate <a rel="ugc,nofollow" href="https://cheese.example.com/blue_cheese">Blue</a> cheese.</p>
Links marked with these rel attributes will generally not be followed. Remember
that the linked pages may be found through other means, such as sitemaps or links from other
sites, and thus they may still be crawled. These rel attributes are used only in
<a> elements that Google can crawl,
except nofollow, which is also available as
robots meta tag.
If you need to prevent Google from fetching a link to a page on your own site, use the
robots.txt disallow rule.
To prevent Google from indexing a page, allow crawling and use the
noindex robots rule.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-02-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eUse \u003ccode\u003erel\u003c/code\u003e attributes in \u003ccode\u003e<a>\u003c/code\u003e tags to specify your relationship with outbound links, guiding how Google interacts with them.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003esponsored\u003c/code\u003e attribute should be used for paid or advertisement links, while \u003ccode\u003eugc\u003c/code\u003e is designated for user-generated content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEmploy the \u003ccode\u003enofollow\u003c/code\u003e attribute when you prefer Google to not associate or crawl a linked page from your site, especially when other attributes are not applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMultiple \u003ccode\u003erel\u003c/code\u003e attribute values can be used for the same link by separating them with spaces or commas.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle might still find and crawl the linked pages even with these attributes through other sources like sitemaps.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["To manage how Google interacts with outbound links, use `rel` attributes within `\u003ca\u003e` tags. `rel=\"sponsored\"` marks paid links; `rel=\"ugc\"` designates user-generated content. `rel=\"nofollow\"` signals that Google should not associate your site with the linked page or crawl it. Multiple `rel` values can be used together. Links with these attributes generally won't be followed, but can still be found through other sources. For links on your site, use the `robots.txt disallow` rule.\n"],null,["# Qualify Outbound Links for SEO | Google Search Central\n\nQualify your outbound links to Google\n=====================================\n\nFor certain links on your site, you might want to tell Google your relationship with the\nlinked page. In order to do that, use one of the following `rel`\nattribute values in the `\u003ca\u003e` tag.\n\nFor regular links that you expect Google to fetch and parse without any qualifications, you don't need\nto add a `rel` attribute. For example: \n\n```text\n\u003cp\u003eMy favorite horse is the \u003ca href=\"https://horses.example.com/Palomino\"\u003epalomino\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n```\n\nFor other links, use one or more of the following values:\n\n| `rel` values ||\n|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|\n| ### `rel=\"sponsored\"` | Mark links that are advertisements or paid placements (commonly called *paid links* ) with the `sponsored` value. Read more about [Google's stance on paid links](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam). ```scdoc \u003ca rel=\"sponsored\" href=\"https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese\"\u003eAppenzeller\u003c/a\u003e ``` | **Note:** The `nofollow` attribute was [previously recommended](/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify) for these types of links and is still an acceptable way to flag them, though `sponsored` is preferred. |\n| ### `rel=\"ugc\"` | We recommend marking user-generated content (UGC) links, such as comments and forum posts, with the `ugc` value. ```scdoc \u003ca rel=\"ugc\" href=\"https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese\"\u003eAppenzeller\u003c/a\u003e ``` If you want to recognize and reward trustworthy contributors, you might remove this attribute from links posted by members or users who have consistently made high-quality contributions over time. Read more about how to [prevent user-generated spam your site and platform](/search/docs/monitor-debug/prevent-abuse). |\n| ### `rel=\"nofollow\"` | Use the `nofollow` value when other values don't apply, and you'd rather Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from, your site. For links within your own site, use the [robots.txt `disallow` rule](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/robots_txt#disallow). ```scdoc \u003ca rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese\"\u003eAppenzeller\u003c/a\u003e ``` |\n| ### *Multiple values* | You may specify multiple `rel` values as a space- or comma-separated list. **Examples:** ```scdoc \u003cp\u003eI love \u003ca rel=\"ugc nofollow\" href=\"https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese\"\u003eAppenzeller\u003c/a\u003e cheese.\u003c/p\u003e ``` ```scdoc \u003cp\u003eI hate \u003ca rel=\"ugc,nofollow\" href=\"https://cheese.example.com/blue_cheese\"\u003eBlue\u003c/a\u003e cheese.\u003c/p\u003e ``` |\n\nLinks marked with these `rel` attributes will generally not be followed. Remember\nthat the linked pages may be found through other means, such as sitemaps or links from other\nsites, and thus they may still be crawled. These `rel` attributes are used only in\n[`\u003ca\u003e` elements that Google can crawl](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable#crawlable-links),\nexcept `nofollow`, which is also available as\n[robots `meta` tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags).\n\nIf you need to prevent Google from fetching a link to a page on your own site, use the\n[robots.txt `disallow` rule](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/robots_txt#disallow).\n\nTo prevent Google from indexing a page, allow crawling and use the\n[`noindex` robots rule](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing)."]]
