Learn · Technical SEO · Beginner
Learn what Google says each link qualifier is for, how to decide which one an outbound link needs, and how to check that it is in your page.
By Dean Cruddace · 30 minutes to do · Updated · Last reviewed
An outbound link is a link on your page that points to another website. By default, a link has no extra label. Google lets you add a rel attribute to a link to describe your relationship to the page you are linking to. This is called qualifying a link.
There are three values: sponsored, ugc and nofollow. Google says links you expect it to fetch and parse without qualification need no rel attribute at all.
Google says that linking to other sites is nothing to be scared of, and that citing your sources can help establish trustworthiness. It also says buying and selling links is a normal part of the web for advertising and sponsorship, and is not a spam policy violation as long as the links are qualified with nofollow or sponsored. If you were paid for a link, or users can post links on your site, Google asks you to qualify them. See Google's guide to qualifying outbound links and the spam policies.
Open the page and note each link that leads to another website: the words that carry the link (the anchor text) and where it goes. Start with pages that carry advertising, comments, forums or reviews.
You will know it worked when You have a list pairing each outbound link with its destination address.
If a link is an advertisement or a paid placement, Google says to mark it sponsored. Google says nofollow was previously recommended for these and is still acceptable, though sponsored is preferred. Its spam policies count exchanging money, goods or services for links as link spam unless the links are qualified. Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it with a link is listed too.
You will know it worked when Every paid, sponsored or exchanged link on your list is marked sponsored.
Google recommends marking user-generated content links, such as comments and forum posts, with ugc. It also suggests that you might remove the attribute from links posted by members who have consistently made high-quality contributions. Its guide to preventing user-generated spam suggests nofollow or ugc on all links in untrusted content.
You will know it worked when Every visitor-posted link on your list is marked ugc.
Google says to use nofollow when the other values do not apply and you would rather Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from, your site. Its link guidance gives an example: you write a response to a story that badmouths something you like, and do not want to give that site some of your reputation. It adds that nofollow should not go on every external link. A link you are happy to stand behind, such as a cited source, needs no attribute.
You will know it worked when Each remaining link is marked either plain or nofollow, with a reason.
Add rel="sponsored", rel="ugc" or rel="nofollow" inside the link tag. You can combine values with a space or comma, for example rel="ugc nofollow". In a content management system, look for a link setting or checkbox when you edit the link.
You will know it worked when The link's code now contains the chosen value.
Google says good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both the page it is on and the page it links to. Read the sentence around the link too, because the words before and after matter, and avoid chaining links together. Replace anchor text like "click here" with words that say what the reader will find. See Google's link best practices.
You will know it worked when Reading only the anchor text, you can tell what the destination is about.
Publish, then right-click the page, choose View page source, and press Ctrl+F to search for rel=. Google says these attributes apply to links in a elements that Google can crawl, and that linked pages may still be found by other routes such as sitemaps or links from other sites.
You will know it worked when The source shows each qualified link with its value. Remember Google says qualified links will generally not be followed, not that they never are.
Go deeper
Describe the kinds of outbound links the site carries. Link analysis is part of the authority and link building work.
