How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress

 

Want to add nofollow links to your WordPress website? Or not sure what nofollow links are or if you should be using them? If so, then you’re in the right place!

In this article, we discuss all you need to know about nofollow links — what they are, why and when you need to use them, and how to add nofollow links to your site. Importantly, we run you through four different methods for adding nofollow links including…

1. Manually adding nofollow links in the Gutenberg editor.
2. Manually adding nofollow links in the classic editor.
3. Adding nofollow links in Gutenberg using the EditorsKit plugin.
4. Adding nofollow links in the classic editor using the Ultimate Nofollow plugin.

By the end of reading this tutorial, you will have a good understanding of the numerous ways to add nofollow links to your WordPress website, and which one is best for your skillset and workflow. Let’s get started…

What is a Nofollow Link?

When you link from your website to another site you have the option of making the link a ‘nofollow’ link. By adding a nofollow attribute to a link on your website or blog, you are telling search engines that you don’t want them to follow the link.

In its simplest form, a nofollow link uses the rel="nofollow" attribute inside the <a> anchor element that represents a link in the HTML language. For example, a nofollow link will look something like this…

<a href="https://jonesblogs.com/" rel="nofollow">jonesblogs</a>

So why add a nofollow link to your website? Let’s find out…

Why Use Nofollow Links?

Google bots (and other search engine bots) crawl your website to help them learn what your content is about, who the target audience is, and more. They then use these findings to help them index your website and display it in relevant searches.

One of the key strategies of the search engine bots is to follow your site’s links to see what websites you associate with. This, of course, mainly works in your favor, especially when you link to sites with authority in your niche, as it adds extra credibility to your website.

However, there are a few instances where you will not want Google to follow your links — it is in these cases that you will want to add a nofollow attribute…

• Affiliate links and sponsored links – You don’t want these influencing your search rankings, especially as too many may give the impression that your site is spammy.

• User-submitted links – These may not be relevant to your site’s niche, or lead to malicious sites. (Usefully, WordPress nofollows these links by default).

• Links to dubious sources – Not sure if a website is a desirable site to link to but still want to share some content from it with your users? Then nofollow the link, so the search engines don’t group you in with untrustworthy websites.

By adding nofollow attributes to certain links on your site, you help to protect your site’s rankings in the search engines. So how do we add nofollow links?

Manually Add Nofollow Links Using the Gutenberg Editor

Manually creating nofollow links in the Gutenberg editor is a quick and easy process that simply involves adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to each link.

For example, here is a default link that search engines will follow…

<a href="https://jonesblogs.com/">blogging</a>

And here is a nofollow link…

<a href="https://jonesblogs.com/" rel="nofollow">blogging</a>

To add a rel="nofollow" attribute to a link within the Gutenberg editor, click directly onto the block containing the link. Then click on the More Options icon (the three dots) and select Edit as HTML.

You can now add rel="nofollow" into the link text.

Then click Save Draft or Publish to confirm the changes — the link will now be a nofollow link.

Manually Add Nofollow Links in WordPress Classic Editor

If you are still using the WordPress classic editor, then creating nofollow links is a similar process to the Gutenberg editor — you just need to add the rel="nofollow" attribute into the HTML of your link.

To do so, within the classic editor, open the Text editor.

Find the link you want to alter, and then add the rel="nofollow" attribute within the text. (Look carefully below to see exactly where it needs to be added).

Then click Save Changes or Publish.

Add Nofollow Links in the Gutenberg Editor Using the EditorsKit Plugin

As with everything WordPress, there is, of course, a plugin to assist you with adding nofollow links, if you wish to use it. For those using the Gutenberg editor, you will need to install the free plugin EditorsKit.

This plugin is a page building toolkit that offers a range of block options that will give you better control over text formats, styling, and workflow. Importantly, one of the features of EditorsKit is that it will enable nofollow links on your website.

To get started with EditorsKit, open your WordPress dashboard and select Plugins > Add New.

Then type EditorsKit into the search bar. Once the plugin has been retrieved, click on Install Now > Activate.

After installing EditorsKit, open the page or post that you want to edit. Click on the link that you want to add a nofollow attribute to and then select Link Settings.

You will see here that an option for Nofollow is now available. Simply activate this feature by toggling the switch.

The link will now automatically become nofollow. Don’t forget to Save.

Add Nofollow Links in the Classic Editor Using the Ultimate Nofollow Plugin

If you use the classic WordPress editor, you will need to install the popular free plugin Ultimate Nofollow. This plugin can undertake a number of tasks which include…

• Adding a nofollow checkbox that is displayed when you add links to posts and pages.
• Providing a number of nofollow shortcodes.
• Giving a nofollow option for either individual or all blogroll links.
• Adding or removing the nofollow tag from all links in comments.

To install the Ultimate Nofollow plugin, follow the instructions that walk you through the installation of EditorsKit, or check out our step-by-step guide on how to install a plugin.

Once the plugin is installed on your WordPress website, open the necessary post or page and then click directly on the link that you would like to alter. A link popup will now appear — select Edit > Link Options.

You will see an option for adding a rel="nofollow" tag to the link is now present. Click on the Add rel=”nofollow” to Link checkbox to automatically implement the nofollow attribute and then select Add Link.

Once you have finished adding your nofollow links for that post or page, select Save Draft or Publish the page.

Final Thoughts on How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress

Adding nofollow links to your website is a quick and easy process, whichever method you choose. However, making sure that the appropriate links are made into nofollow links is important, as ignoring this task could greatly affect your SEO rankings in the search engines. So are you ready to add nofollow links to your WordPress website?

Which method will you use to add nofollow links to your WordPress site? Please share your thoughts in the comments below…