External Links, Nofollow, Sponsored, and UGC

Use External to review destinations outside the crawled site. Nofollow shows link uses with a nofollow relationship; Dofollow identifies destinations with at least one regular link use. “Dofollow” is a reporting label—normal crawlable links do not require a dofollow attribute.

Understand relationship values

<a href="https://source.example/report">Original research</a>
<a href="https://partner.example" rel="sponsored">Partner offer</a>
<a href="https://user.example" rel="ugc">User profile</a>
<a href="https://untrusted.example" rel="nofollow">Unverified source</a>

• Use a regular link for editorial references you are comfortable associating with.
• Use sponsored for paid placements; nofollow remains acceptable.
• Use ugc for user-generated links.
• Use nofollow when other values do not apply and you do not want association.

Google advises against automatically applying nofollow to every external link. See outbound link qualification.

Analyze outbound links

1. Verify the destination, ownership, and current content.
2. Review the source-page context and reason for linking.
3. Group repeated links by template, author field, advertising block, and user content.
4. Confirm paid and user-generated links have appropriate relationships.
5. Check for redirects, broken responses, protocol changes, and unexpected domains.
6. Distinguish editorial policy from technical defaults.

An external link is not an SEO leak. Relevant citations can help visitors verify claims. Conversely, nofollow does not make a harmful destination safe for users.

Example decision

All editorial citations receive nofollow because of a site-wide component default, while affiliate links are unqualified. Remove the default from trusted editorial sources and mark commercial placements sponsored. Review the component rather than editing articles individually.

Verify the change

Inspect rendered rel values on representative pages, confirm destinations remain accurate, and recrawl. Validate regular, sponsored, UGC, and untrusted-content states separately.

Choose link relationships by intent

External links can strengthen a guide when they point to original research, standards, official documentation, or a necessary next step. They are not inherently harmful, and a high external-link count is not automatically an SEO problem.

These values can be combined when more than one relationship applies. Do not add nofollow to every external link as a blanket link-equity tactic.

How audit counts can change

A rise in External links may follow a research update or new partner directory. Review whether the destinations are authoritative and maintained. A rise in Nofollow may reflect a policy change, a CMS plugin, or sponsored content, not necessarily a defect.

If Dofollow drops sharply after a template release, inspect whether a component added nofollow to ordinary editorial references. If Nofollow drops, confirm that paid and user-generated links did not lose their required attributes.

Review checklist

Check the destination, relationship, anchor, source page, and commercial context together. For frequently used domains, sample several URLs rather than approving the domain blindly. Remove links that no longer support the reader even if they still return 200.

Google documents how these values communicate link relationships in its qualify outbound links guidance. Screpy provides the inventory; your publishing policy determines which relationship is correct.

Frequently asked questions

Should all external links be nofollow?

No. Use a normal link for genuine editorial references. Apply sponsored, ugc, or nofollow when the relationship calls for it, not simply because the destination is external.

Does a broken external link require a redirect?

You do not control the external server. Replace the reference with a current authoritative source, remove it if it no longer helps, or contact the publisher. Do not redirect your own URL to mask the failure.

Should I remove external links to keep visitors on my site?

Remove a link only when it is irrelevant, unreliable, or unnecessary. A well-chosen source can help readers verify a claim or complete a task. User value is a better decision rule than trying to eliminate every exit.

Related guidance

Return to the Links overview to compare external, followed, and qualified links. MDN's rel attribute reference documents the underlying relationship values independently of search-engine guidance.