From September 2019, nofollow, sponsored, and ugc link attributes were described as hints about which links Google may consider or exclude for ranking.

Cited by documentation

Sources

• Evolving "nofollow" - new ways to identify the nature of links

  Google Search Central Blog (Google for Developers) · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search” — Paragraph following the three attribute definitions (2019-09-10 post)

• Evolving "nofollow" – new ways to identify the nature of links

  Google Search Central · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search” — lines 960-994

• Everything Google Has Said On The Nofollow Link Attribute Change

  Search Engine Roundtable · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “The change went live yesterday (re hint for ranking with nofollow)” — Tweet compilation, Gary Illyes quote (2019-09-11)

• Nofollow, Sponsored, And UGC Links Explained

  Botify · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “Google has already begun to use nofollow, UGC, and sponsored link attributes as hints for ranking.” — 'Hint' section

• Google to treat nofollow link attribute as a ‘hint’

  Search Engine Land · retrieved 2026-08-20

  “All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow — are treated as hints” — lines 206-236

Related claims

• CONTRADICTS_ASSERTIONWhen Google recognizes rel=nofollow on a hyperlink, the target link receives no positive ranking credit from that link.Under evaluation
• SUPERSEDES_WORDINGWhen Google recognizes rel=nofollow on a hyperlink, the target link receives no positive ranking credit from that link.Under evaluation
• CONTRADICTS_ASSERTIONWhen Google recognizes rel=nofollow on a hyperlink, the target link receives no positive ranking credit from that link.Under evaluation