Guide
What the four link labels mean, what Google does with each, and which one to use.
Written by AxelonLast updated
The short answer
A normal link passes ranking value. Nofollow asks Google not to pass it, though since 2019 Google treats that as a hint it can ignore. Sponsored marks a paid link. UGC marks a link added by a visitor, like a comment. A straight link swap between relevant sites is normally left as a plain link.
| Label | Use it for | Passes ranking value? |
|---|---|---|
| None ("dofollow") | Links you chose to give, including relevant swaps | Yes |
| nofollow | Anything you do not want to vouch for | Usually not, but Google may count it |
| sponsored | Paid links, adverts, affiliate links | Usually not |
| ugc | Comments and forum posts by visitors | Usually not |
A normal link, with nothing added, passes ranking signals to the page it points at. People call that a dofollow link, but there is no such attribute: dofollow just means the link has not been marked otherwise. A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", which asks Google not to associate your site with the page, or crawl it from your link.
Not necessarily. Since September 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a rule for ranking, and from March 2020 for crawling and indexing too. That means Google may count a nofollow link if it decides to. It has never said how often it does, so the honest position is that a nofollow link is worth less than a normal one, but not always nothing.
Source: Google: evolving nofollow (2019)
The label for a link that was paid for: an advert, a sponsored post, an affiliate link, or any placement where money or something else of value changed hands. Google introduced it in 2019 so paid links could be marked honestly and specifically. Plain nofollow is still accepted for paid links, but sponsored is now the preferred label.
Sources: Google: qualify your outbound linksGoogle: evolving nofollow (2019)
UGC stands for user-generated content. It marks links that visitors added rather than the site owner, such as blog comments and forum posts. Google suggests you can remove it for members who have made consistently good contributions over time, which is a way of trusting regulars without trusting every drive-by comment.
Yes. Values can be combined in one rel attribute, separated by a space or a comma, for example rel="ugc nofollow". Combining them is useful for older search engines that only understand nofollow, while still giving Google the more specific label.
Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit is listed as link spam in Google’s spam policies. Google has said it works to ignore links it does not trust, so the usual result is that the link is worth nothing. A site that sells unmarked links at scale, or buys them at scale, is the kind of pattern that can lead to a manual action.
Sources: Google: spam policies (link spam)Google: link spam update (2021)
Google has not said a straight link-for-link swap between two sites must be marked, and it lists excessive exchanges separately from paid links. A relevant swap is normally left as a plain link. If money is added to the arrangement, it becomes a paid link and should be marked sponsored. If you want no ranking risk at all, nofollow is always allowed, but you give up most of the value.
Sources: Google: spam policies (link spam)Google: qualify your outbound links
Yes, from the right sites. A nofollow link from a relevant page with real readers still sends visitors, still gets your name in front of people who might link to you properly, and may be counted by Google as a hint anyway. A natural link profile always includes plenty of them. Turning down a good placement because it is nofollow is one of the most common mistakes in link building.
Source: Google: evolving nofollow (2019)
Right-click the link in your browser and choose Inspect. The link’s code opens, and if it contains rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc", it is marked. If there is no rel attribute, or it only says something like noopener, it is a normal link. Browser extensions can highlight nofollow links across a whole page if you check a lot of them.
AnyBacklink matches you with verified site owners covering the same topics, and every swap is agreed directly between the two of you, including which label the links carry. Free, and nothing is bought or sold.