Nofollow
01 Definition
Nofollow meaning: A link attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking credit through a link.
Nofollow is the rel=nofollow attribute added to a link to tell search engines you do not vouch for the destination and do not want to pass ranking signals. Since 2019 Google treats it as a hint rather than a strict rule. It is common on user comments and paid links.
Also called
Why it matters
How Nofollow fits the work
It lets you link to a page without appearing to endorse it, which matters for user-generated content, paid placements, and untrusted destinations.
In context
The forum automatically added rel=nofollow to every link in user posts so spammers could not gain ranking credit from the site.
Practical note
Google now treats nofollow as a hint and may use those links for crawling and ranking; for paid or user content, prefer the sponsored or ugc values.