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Difference between rel=”sponsored” and rel=”nofollow”

When you add a link in the content of your website, you need to decide whether it is a dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, or UGC link.

It will help Google and other search engines understand what type of link it is and whether to consider it for passing PageRank.

This blog post will explain when to use the “nofollow” rel attribute and when to use the “sponsored” rel attribute, as well as the differences between the two.

What is rel attribute?

In HTML, the rel attribute is used to define the relationship between the current document and the linked page.

By default, links that you add to your content are dofollow, and search engines will pass link juice to the linked page.

If you don’t want search engines to pass link juice to the linked page, you need to mark the linked page as a nofollow link.

For many years, Google suggested that website owners denote affiliate links, sponsored links, and paid links as nofollow links so that link juice is not shared with the linked page.

Entry of rel=”sponsored”

In 2019, Google introduced the rel attribute “sponsored” to specifically indicate affiliate links or sponsored links.

It makes it easy for search engines to identify affiliate and sponsored links. In the content of your website, if you are adding links to other affiliate sites, you need to add the rel=”sponsored” attribute.

The same applies to sponsored and paid links.

With the introduction of the rel=”sponsored” attribute, it has become easier for website owners to indicate paid links, so that search engines won’t pass link juice to these paid links.

What is rel=”nofollow”?

Until the introduction of the rel=”sponsored” attribute, Google used the rel=”nofollow” attribute to indicate a sponsored link or an affiliate link.

As a website owner, if you didn’t want Google to pass link juice to a link in your content, you could use rel=”nofollow”.

This worked fine since 2005 when Google introduced the rel=”nofollow” attribute.

However, later, website owners began including the rel=”nofollow” attribute on almost all their links for fear of being penalized by Google.

This made it difficult for Google to identify important links versus unimportant, sponsored, paid, or affiliate links.

This is why Google introduced the rel=”sponsored” attribute to indicate sponsored and paid links.

Which one to use: rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”?

If you are confused about whether to use rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”, here are some pointers to help you:

• You can use either of the rel attributes to indicate sponsored/paid or affiliate links.
• rel=”sponsored” is more specific and clearly indicates to the search engine that the link is sponsored.
• If you have been using rel=”nofollow” in your website content to indicate sponsored links, there is no need to change them now.
• However, from now onwards, you can start using rel=”sponsored” to indicate affiliate or sponsored links.
• As long as you are using either of the two rel attributes, you are not violating Google’s spam guidelines.

Benefits of using the correct rel attribute

One of the main benefits of using the correct rel attribute to indicate your sponsored or paid links is search engine compliance.

You can confidently move forward with your SEO efforts without worrying about penalties.

By indicating that a link is sponsored, you increase the trustworthiness of your website. Visitors will feel that your website is reliable.

Conclusion

Website owners must ensure that they are using the right rel attribute to show the type of links they are using in the content.

Following search engine guidelines and implementing the correct rel attributes will go a long way in building user trust in your website.