schema
nofollow
Link attribute telling crawlers not to pass authority through this link — used for sponsored/user-generated links.
Definition
rel='nofollow' is an HTML attribute on <a> tags that hints crawlers not to use the link for ranking/authority transfer. Originally introduced to fight comment-spam SEO. Google now treats it as a hint, not a directive. AI engines mostly ignore nofollow when building their citation graph — they still crawl and read nofollowed pages.
Example
<a href='https://sponsor.com' rel='nofollow sponsored'>Our partner</a> — the link works but doesn't transfer SEO authority.How to optimize
Use rel='sponsored' for paid links (replaces nofollow for ads). Use rel='ugc' for user-generated content. Use nofollow only when you want to disclaim editorial endorsement.