Ask ten SEOs whether nofollow links help and you will get answers ranging from “completely worthless” to “just as good as follow links.” Both are wrong, and the gap between them has widened since Google changed how it treats the attribute in 2019. The honest answer requires separating two different questions: does a nofollow link pass ranking signal directly, and does acquiring one help your search performance? Those have different answers.
What Nofollow Actually Is
The rel="nofollow" attribute is a piece of HTML added to a link:
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Example</a>Google introduced it in 2005, primarily to fight comment spam. Blog comment sections were being flooded with links purely to manipulate PageRank. Nofollow gave site owners a way to publish a link while telling search engines not to count it as an endorsement.
For roughly fourteen years, the instruction was treated as a directive. A nofollow link passed no PageRank, full stop.
What Changed in 2019
In September 2019, Google announced two significant changes.
First, new attributes. Alongside nofollow, Google introduced:
rel="sponsored"— for paid or advertising linksrel="ugc"— for user-generated content such as comments and forum posts
These are more specific, and Google prefers them where they apply. Using plain nofollow remains acceptable and is not penalized.
Second, and far more important: all three became hints rather than directives.
That is the change most people missed. Google now says it may choose to consider a nofollow link for ranking purposes. It is no longer a guaranteed instruction to ignore the link — it is a signal Google factors into its own judgment.
Google has been deliberately vague about when it follows a nofollow link and when it does not. The practical reading is that a nofollow from a highly authoritative, editorially controlled source carries more weight than one from an open comment section. That is a reasonable inference, but it is an inference — nobody outside Google has the details.
The Honest Answer
Do nofollow links pass PageRank the way follow links do? Generally no, and you should not plan on it.
Do nofollow links help your SEO? Frequently yes — through several mechanisms that have nothing to do with PageRank.
Both statements are true simultaneously, which is why the debate persists.
What Nofollow Links Actually Do for You
They Drive Referral Traffic
A nofollow link from a well-read publication or a busy subreddit can send real visitors. Those visitors read your content, sign up, and sometimes link to you from their own sites — which does pass PageRank. The nofollow link becomes the first step in a chain that ends with follow links.
They Build Brand Signals
Google increasingly appears to weigh brand mentions, branded search volume, and entity recognition. Being mentioned and linked across authoritative sites — even with nofollow — contributes to being recognized as a real, established entity in your space.
They Create a Natural Link Profile
This one matters more than it gets credit for. Every natural backlink profile contains nofollow links. Wikipedia, most major news sites, social platforms, Reddit, Quora, YouTube, and most comment systems apply nofollow by default.
A site with a hundred backlinks and not one nofollow among them does not look like a site that earned its links. It looks like a site that bought them. A healthy mix is a trust signal in itself, and chasing a 100% follow ratio is actively counterproductive.
They Get You Discovered
Crawlers still follow nofollow links for discovery purposes in many cases. A nofollow link from a frequently crawled page can help a new URL get found faster than waiting on a sitemap.
They May Pass Some Value
Since the hint change, a nofollow from a genuinely authoritative editorial source may pass ranking signal. Treat this as an upside you do not plan around rather than a reason to pursue nofollow links specifically.
Where You Will Encounter Nofollow
| Source | Typical attribute |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | nofollow |
| Major news outlets | Varies — many nofollow external links by default |
| Reddit, Quora, forums | nofollow or ugc |
| Blog comments | nofollow or ugc |
| Social media profiles and posts | nofollow |
| YouTube descriptions | nofollow |
| Press release distribution | nofollow |
| Sponsored posts and paid placements | sponsored (required) |
| Job boards and directories | Mixed |
Notice how many of the highest-authority sites on the web are on this list. If you refuse to pursue nofollow links, you are refusing to be mentioned on most of the internet’s most trusted properties.
When You Should Use Nofollow on Your Own Links
The attribute cuts both ways. On your own site, apply it to:
- Paid links and affiliate links — use
rel="sponsored". This is not optional; undisclosed paid links are a link scheme violation. - User-generated content — comments, forum posts, profile fields. Use
rel="ugc". - Untrusted destinations — anything you cannot vouch for editorially.
- Login, cart, and account URLs — though
noindexor robots directives are usually the better tool here.
Do not nofollow your internal links. There was a period when “PageRank sculpting” was popular — nofollowing internal links to funnel equity toward important pages. Google closed that loophole many years ago, and the practice now simply wastes the signal rather than redirecting it.
Also, do not reflexively nofollow every external link. Linking out to good sources is normal editorial behavior, and we cover why it is not the risk people assume in are external links good for SEO.
How to Weight Nofollow in Link Building
The practical approach is straightforward:
Do not filter opportunities by attribute. If a placement would be valuable for traffic, brand, or credibility, pursue it regardless of whether the link will be nofollow. Turning down a mention in a major publication because the link is nofollow is a bad trade.
Do prioritize follow links when everything else is equal. Between two comparable opportunities, take the one that passes PageRank.
Do not pay extra for follow attributes. If a site is charging more to remove the nofollow, that is a paid link, and it should carry rel="sponsored" anyway. Paying to have the attribute removed is buying a link scheme.
Do track the ratio loosely. A profile that is 60–80% follow is unremarkable. A profile that is 98% follow on a site with no brand presence invites scrutiny.
For the methods that reliably earn links in the first place — follow or otherwise — see our guide to link building strategies. And if you want to understand how link equity translates into the authority scores tools report, what Domain Authority is and how to improve it covers that relationship.
Stop Sorting Links Into Two Buckets
The follow/nofollow binary was always a simplification, and since 2019 it has been a poor one. A nofollow mention on a publication your customers actually read is worth more than a follow link from a directory nobody visits. Attribute is one variable among several — relevance, authority, traffic, and editorial context all matter more.
The useful question is not “will this pass PageRank.” It is “would I want this link if search engines did not exist.” Links that pass that test tend to help your rankings anyway, and the ones that fail it tend to be the ones that eventually cause problems.
If you want a link building program judged on business impact rather than attribute counts, our SEO services take exactly that approach. Get in touch with the team at blogthememachine.com, and subscribe to our newsletter below for more evidence-based SEO guidance.
