Why and how to create nofollow links in WordPress

Why and how to create nofollow links in WordPress

Have you decided to monetize your blog by selling links? Would you like to earn money with affiliate programs? Or do you plan to use another strategy that involves putting links to your blog in exchange for a payment? Then you should know what the nofollow attribute is for and how to add it to your links.

What are nofollow links

Years ago, Google introduced the nofollow attribute. While normal links work as a vote in favor of the sites they point to and, therefore, improve their position in the search results, nofollow links are ignored by search engines.

When you should use the nofollow attribute

It is usually used in 2 cases:

  • If you get paid to put the link to your blog. It is logical – Google does not want these ads to influence search results. As an example let’s mention selling links or affiliate links.
  • If you do not have control over the quality of the links. For example, links in comments. Linking to websites of very poor quality (such as casino pages, illegal content or phishing websites) can have a negative impact on your Google ranking. However, by adding the nofollow attribute to these links, you will be safe.

What is the difference between normal and nofollow links

This is the code for a normal link (some call it dofollow link):

<a href="http://www.example.com/">Link Text</a>

And this looks like a nofollow link:

<a href="http://www.example.com/" rel="nofollow">Link text</a>

As you can see, just add rel=”nofollow” and that’s it.

2 ways to make nofollow links on WordPress

There are two ways to add the nofollow attribute:

  • Manually
  • Installing a plugin

How to create nofollow links manually

To create them manually, the first thing to do is to change the tab in the post editor. Instead of using the visual mode, click on the Text (or HTML) tab. Now find the link in question and add the nofollow attribute.

Tabs - visual and text

How to create nofollow links by installing a plugin

Another option is to install a plugin. There are some, for example Ultimate nofollow, that add a nofollow checkbox when inserting links in posts.

Ultimate nofollow plugin

Others, such as Nofollow for external link, allow you to define a list of exceptions. All external links, except those in the exceptions list, will carry the nofollow attribute.

Nofollow for external link plugin

What about the links in the comments?

If you have created your blog with WordPress, you do not have to worry about the links in the comments. WordPress will add the nofollow attribute automatically. So, even if you have not noticed some low quality links, Google will not penalize your blog.

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