nofollow Attribute

The nofollow attributeThe nofollow attribute is a hint to search engines not to follow a link as an endorsement. On internal links it should be used selectively and not as a default.Open glossary entry → is added to a link via rel="nofollow" and signals to search engines not to treat the link as an endorsement. Originally it served mainly to avoid actively supporting external or user-generated links.

In internal linkingInternal linking refers to links that connect pages within the same website. They control how search engines and users find and thematically classify content.Open glossary entry →, nofollow should be used sparingly. Internal links should generally be crawlableCrawling is the process by which a search engine bot fetches a URL and downloads its content. It is the first step before a page can be indexed.Open glossary entry → and followed so that crawling and signal flow within the website are not made unnecessarily difficult.

nofollow is therefore not a suitable default tool for steering internal links. Using it to exclude important pages from evaluation or to redirectA redirect forwards users and search engines from one URL to another. It can be permanent (301) or temporary (302) and transfers signals to the target URL.Open glossary entry → link equity tends to weaken structure and crawlability. If pages should not rank, other solutions such as noindex are usually more appropriate. Indiscriminately applying nofollow to internal links is one of the common internal-linking mistakes.