What Is a Nofollow Link?
A nofollow link is a link that contains the rel=”nofollow” tag. Nofollow links inform search engine spiders not to crawl the hyperlink or count it as an endorsement for page ranking calculations that affect a web page’s placement in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Nofollow link attributes in HTML are a machine-readable way for publishers to tag links so they do not pass PageRank (or link equity) to the target URL. It also allows websites to link externally to other sites without vouching for or being associated with the content (i.e., the website owner is completely sure of the trustworthiness of the destination page).
However, search engines like Google treat the nofollow tag as a hint and not a directive; meaning the search engine spider may choose to crawl the backlink and transfer link equity from the origin site to the hyperlinked web page.
Visit the SEO Glossary
Go to the SEO Glossary to find more terms and definitions that relate to the field of search engine optimization.
The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
