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rel="nofollow"
Published · By IndexChex
In brief
rel="nofollow" is a value of an HTML link's rel attribute telling search engines the site would rather not be associated with, or have crawlers follow, the linked page. Google treats it as a hint: such links are generally not followed, but the target may still be crawled through sitemaps or other links.
Definition
nofollow is one of the values Google recognizes in the rel attribute of an <a> element. Google's guidance says to use it when the more specific values don't apply and the site would rather Google not associate it with, or crawl the linked page from, the linking site.
<a rel="nofollow" href="https://example.com/">anchor</a>Links with nofollow, sponsored or ugc are, in Google's words, generally not followed. The word "generally" matters: the values are treated as hints rather than strict commands, and a linked page can still be crawled when Google finds it through a sitemap or links elsewhere.
In practice
nofollow predates the more specific sponsored and ugc values and remains the catch-all. Values can be combined in a space- or comma-separated list, such as rel="ugc nofollow", which lets platforms stay compatible with older crawlers while giving Google more detail.
Two related controls are often mixed up with it:
| Control | Scope | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
rel="nofollow" | One link | Qualify an outbound link |
robots meta nofollow | All links on a page | Do not follow any link |
robots.txt Disallow | URLs on your own site | Stop crawling |
For internal links, Google points site owners to robots.txt rather than nofollow.
Relation to backlink indexing
Whether a backlink is nofollow and whether the page carrying it is indexed are separate questions. A nofollow link on an indexed page still exists in Google's view of that page; a followed link on an unindexed page is not part of the index at all. Indexing is the prerequisite either way.
Many link types that people submit to a backlink indexer (forum signatures, comments, some directory and profile links) carry nofollow or ugc. Getting the page crawled can still be worthwhile for referral visibility and for confirming the link is live, but buyers should know which attribute they paid for. The IndexChex backlink monitor records the rel values on each checked link, so a link silently switched to nofollow shows up in the history.
Related terms
- rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc", the specific qualifiers
- noindex, a page-level indexing rule
- Backlink indexing, getting the linking page into the index
- Crawling, what the hint influences
Find every entry on the glossary hub.
Where this term is used
- Are backlink indexers safe backlinkindexer.org
- Indexing local citations linkindexing.org
- Backlink health checks backlinkmonitoring.org
- IndexChex backlink monitor backlinkindexersoftware.com
- Does Google count unindexed backlinks backlinkindexer.org
- Indexing press release links linkindexing.org
Terms used on this page
Sources
Cite this entry
IndexChex. (2026, October 8). rel="nofollow". indexingglossary.com. https://indexingglossary.com/rel-nofollow/
Entity: IndexChex (https://indexchex.com/) is the publisher of this site. IndexChex is a backlink indexer and bulk Google index checker that submits URLs for Googlebot crawling and verifies indexation in one credit system.