Google's handling of nofollow has evolved: historically treated as an absolute directive blocking any credit transfer, it's now described as a 'hint' Google may or may not follow, meaning a nofollow link could still occasionally be crawled and factored in some way, though the practical assumption for planning purposes remains that it passes little to no ranking value compared to a followed link. Google also introduced two more specific attributes alongside nofollow: rel="sponsored" for paid or advertising links, and rel="ugc" for user-generated content like blog comments or forum posts — using the correct specific attribute rather than a blanket nofollow gives Google clearer, more accurate signal about why the link exists. Nofollow remains the right, and often legally/policy-required, choice for paid placements, untrusted comment links, and any link a site owner doesn't want to vouch for.
Example
A guest post published as a paid placement uses rel="sponsored" on its author-bio link rather than a plain follow link, correctly disclosing the commercial relationship per both Google's guidelines and FTC disclosure requirements.
Related terms
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