rel="nofollow"
A link attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking credit through a link; since 2019 Google treats it as a hint rather than a…
Crawling IndexingSponsored link attribute
rel="sponsored"
A link attribute introduced by Google in 2019 to identify links created as part of advertising, sponsorships or other compensation agreements.
In full
rel=sponsored is the correct qualification for any link where money, product or other consideration changed hands, including affiliate links and paid placements. Using it — or nofollow — keeps the link inside Google's link spam policy; leaving paid links unqualified is what triggers link spam enforcement. Combining values is allowed, e.g. `rel="sponsored nofollow"`.
Example
An affiliate review site marks every outbound merchant link `rel="sponsored"`.
Related terms
rel="ugc"
A link attribute marking links that originate in user-generated content such as comments, forum posts and profile fields.
Link spam
Google's spam policy category covering links intended to manipulate rankings: buying or selling links, excessive exchanges, automated link…
Affiliate SEO
Earning search traffic for content monetised through affiliate commissions; permitted by Google when the content adds substantial original…
Digital PR
Earning editorial coverage and links from media outlets through newsworthy assets — original data, expert commentary, campaigns — rather…