How to Use rel=sponsored and rel=ugc

On September 10, 2019, Google announced new ways to identify the nature of links. In this article I will walk you through these attributes and what changed. Where we previously had only two options for qualifying links, this Google update introduced two more: they are called the "sponsored" and "ugc" attributes. As with most updates, I think a few topics and terms deserve a brief explanation here first, so the rest of the article reads more clearly.

How do search engines use links?

Links help search engines crawl the other websites and web pages that make up the internet. As you know, Google needs to crawl websites before it can surface them in the SERP. As Google's search bots visit websites, they can use these links to discover other pages, much like a user landing on a site and clicking a link to discover a new one.

At the same time, these links help search engine bots understand the content and importance of the linked page. Links do more than help bots find pages and sites; they also give Google valuable information about a web page.

To interpret the content and value of a given link, Google looks at the link text, meaning the anchor text, the content and page the link is placed in, the website it comes from, and the attribute it was added with.

Links also carry weight as a signal in Google's search algorithms. Link evaluation traces back to PageRank, one of Google's earliest algorithms. Today, however, Google uses hundreds of different signals and relies heavily on semantic evaluation; a link's value no longer depends on a single metric but on the source's authority, topical relevance, and trustworthiness. In AI search, that authority increasingly rests on citations in trusted sources rather than on links.

Links help people navigate the web

And let's not overlook the end user. Your real human visitors use these links to move around your website, which makes it easier for them to find what they are looking for. You can also use links to invite the users on your site to explore another site or page you want them to see or find useful.

What to pay attention to here:

• Use descriptive anchor text
• Link only to pages you find useful and appropriate
• Link to trustworthy websites

What is the nofollow attribute and why is it used?

The nofollow attribute is used to instruct search engine bots not to follow a given link on your website. If you use this attribute on the links you place, search engine bots will not pass value to the linked site. Google first introduced the nofollow attribute in 2005 to curb comment spam. Its usage evolved over time, one example being sites adding nofollow when linking out to other sites. With the September 10 update, Google changed this a little further.

As of September 10, 2019, nofollow attributes began to be treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude in Search.

Example nofollow usage:

Without the attribute: <a href=”http://www.siteadi.com.tr”>link</a>
With the attribute: <a href=”http://www.siteadi.tr/” rel=”nofollow”>link</a>

What is the sponsored attribute?

rel="sponsored" is a new link attribute that arrived with the update Google published on September 10. If you previously marked your sponsored links with nofollow, you do not need to re-tag them with the sponsored attribute.

When should I use rel = “sponsored”?

• For links placed as advertising
• For links placed under a sponsorship form, contract, or agreement
• When money is paid in return for a link on your site

You should use the sponsored attribute to identify links created in these situations.

Doing so gives Google far more context about your links. Instead of only telling Google "I used nofollow so you would not follow or associate this link, because that is what John Mueller told us to do," you can combine the two attributes and say "do not follow this and do not use it for ranking; I used sponsored and nofollow together so you can interpret it correctly, because Danny and Gary said this would help you understand us better." That is all it takes.

Example sponsored usage

<a href=”http://www.siteadresi.com.tr/” rel=”sponsored”>link</a>

What is the ugc attribute?

rel="ugc" is the second new type of link attribute Google offered us in the update. The ugc attribute stands for "user-generated content."

When should I use rel = “ugc”?

• For links inside blog or article comments
• For links inside forum posts
• For the content creation and link submission areas you offer users on your site

Example ugc usage

<a href=”http://www.siteadresi.com.tr/” rel=”ugc”>link</a>

You can use this link designation in those cases.

For users and contributors who consistently post high-quality comments on your site, you may choose not to use this attribute. That decision rests entirely with the site owner. On managing comment spam, you can review Google's article on ways to prevent comment spam.

Do I have to change all of my existing link attributes?

Google delivered good news here. The update does not require you to restructure the link attributes you have used until now, so there is no need to take on that workload. The core aim of the update is to give Google more options and designations so it can better understand your site and its relationship with the pages you link to.

Should I still mark advertising or sponsored links?

I am not sure how much you will like this answer, but yes: if you want to avoid a potential "link schemes" action, you should mark these links with rel = "sponsored" or rel = "nofollow". Google has clearly stated that it prefers the use of the "sponsored" attribute.

Can I use more than one attribute on a single link?

This time the answer is a pleasant one. "Yes, you can use multiple rel values on a link. For example, rel = “ugc sponsored” is a perfectly valid attribute that signals the link came from user-generated content and is sponsored, and it will help us understand you better," says Google.

What does it mean for link attributes to carry "hint" value?

The way I see it, there are two ways Google can use these link attributes as hints:

• Ranking
• Crawling and indexing

This actually echoes statements Google has made in the past; Google's systems are genuinely good at ignoring manipulative links on their own, even without these attributes.

Google does not seem to need much help deciding which links count as positive or negative signals for the SERP, but these new attributes will help Google interpret links far better than before.

According to Google's Danny Sullivan, links carrying these attributes became a hint for crawling and indexing starting March 1, 2020.

We’ll consider any links with these attributes within our *ranking* systems now — understanding how people link to each other, etc, deciding how to analyze those. But nofollow also had another purpose, which was to block crawling and indexing. That continues thru 2020…
- Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 10, 2019
Anyone currently using nofollow to block a page from being crawled or indexed should switch to robots.txt, meta tags, or password protection before March 1, 2020.
So why is Google changing this role of nofollow? According to Google's Danny Sullivan, the change helps Google see links it previously could not process.

What helps us more is just being able to see links that previously we couldn’t process. Maybe down the line, the granularity itself might also be useful. But since we were making the change, offering the granularity for the two main use cases we’ve seen just seemed helpful.
- Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 11, 2019
With the statement above, Danny Sullivan makes it clear that Google has moved to a new hint-based model.