Are Nofollow Links Worth It? What Google Actually Says

A lot of founders skip any link that comes with rel="nofollow". The thinking goes: if the link doesn't pass "link juice", why bother?

That thinking is out of date. Since 2019 Google no longer treats nofollow as a strict "ignore this link" rule. It treats it as a hint, it can use nofollow links to discover new pages, and those links still send real visitors who can turn into customers and into followed links later. Below is exactly what Google has said, what the data shows, and how to think about nofollow links as a startup.

What Changed in 2019

When nofollow was introduced in 2005, Google simply ignored any link marked with it. On September 10, 2019, Danny Sullivan and Gary Illyes from Google announced that this had changed.

Google Search Central blog: all link attributes, sponsored, ugc and nofollow, are treated as hints — Google's September 2019 announcement: nofollow went from a directive to a hint. Source: Google Search Central Blog

Google explained why it stopped ignoring these links completely: links carry useful information, like how the words in a link describe the page it points to, and looking at all links helps Google understand unnatural linking patterns.

The change happened in two steps. Nofollow became a hint for ranking right away, and a hint for crawling and indexing from March 1, 2020.

Google: link attributes work as hints for ranking now, and for crawling and indexing from March 1, 2020 — A hint for ranking from September 10, 2019, and for crawling and indexing from March 1, 2020. Source: Google Search Central Blog

What Google Did Not Promise

To be fair, the same announcement also says that in most cases nofollow links will be treated the way they always were, and not counted for ranking.

Google: in most cases we will generally not consider nofollow links for ranking purposes — The same post: in most cases nofollow links still won't count for ranking. Source: Google Search Central Blog

So the honest version is this. A nofollow link is not a guaranteed ranking boost. But it is no longer automatically worthless either. Google decides case by case, and it keeps the option to use the link.

What Google's Documentation Says Today

Google's current documentation on link attributes, last updated December 2025, says nofollowed links are "generally" not followed, and that the linked page can still be found and crawled through other means.

Google docs: links marked with these rel attributes will generally not be followed, and the linked pages may still be crawled — Source: Google Search Central, Qualify your outbound links to Google

Note the word "generally". That is not the same as "never".

What Google's Own People Have Said

In a 2020 interview with Marie Haynes, Google's John Mueller was asked whether nofollowed links can ever be used as signals. His answer: Google may use them to discover new content, but doesn't count them at full weight.

John Mueller: if we can use nofollow links to discover some new content, we try to use that — John Mueller on nofollow links and discovery. Source: Search Engine Roundtable, June 2020

Around the same time, Google's Danny Sullivan pushed back on the idea that the hint model has no ranking impact at all.

Danny Sullivan tweet: we never said these have no impact on ranking — Danny Sullivan on what the hint model means for ranking. Source: Search Engine Roundtable, June 2020

And in 2021 Mueller said Google might learn over time to treat nofollow, ugc and sponsored links slightly differently from each other. In other words, Google is still deciding how much these links matter, case by case. That is exactly why they are worth having.

What the Data Shows

Ahrefs looked at 44,589 search results and measured how well different backlink counts correlate with rankings. The total number of backlinks, followed plus nofollowed, correlated slightly better with rankings than followed links alone (0.2793 versus 0.2576).

Ahrefs chart: correlation of total backlinks versus dofollow backlinks with Google rankings — Total backlinks correlated slightly better with rankings than dofollow backlinks alone. Source: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is upfront that this needs "a large pinch of salt". The study wasn't designed to isolate nofollow links, and correlation is not proof. Still, it's the opposite of what you would expect if nofollow links were worthless.

Semrush looked at a newer question: what gets a brand mentioned in AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features. Across 1,000 domains, nofollow links correlated with AI mentions almost exactly as strongly as followed links.

Semrush study: nofollow links have nearly the same impact on AI visibility as follow links — Follow and nofollow links correlate almost identically with AI mentions. Source: Semrush, October 2025

This measures AI mentions, not Google rankings, and again it is a correlation. But as more people find products by asking AI assistants, it is a signal worth paying attention to.

Nofollow Links Still Send Real Visitors

Rankings are only one reason links matter. People click links. A nofollow link on a page that real people read sends real visitors, and some of those visitors become users.

The agency Teknicks documented a single nofollow link that drove 3,922 visits over nine months, with people staying almost four minutes on average.

Google Analytics screenshot: one nofollow link drove 3,922 referral sessions — One nofollow link, 3,922 referral visits. Source: Teknicks

Ahrefs earns nofollowed links on Quora on purpose for exactly this reason. One of those answers was later found by a writer, who then linked to Ahrefs from their own article with a normal, followed link.

Ahrefs: the nofollowed Quora link indirectly led to a followed link — A nofollow link that led to a followed one. Source: Ahrefs

This is how links usually work in practice. Visibility leads to visitors, and visitors who write about you lead to more links.

Where Startups Get Nofollow Links

Many of the places where early startups get noticed add nofollow to links, often by default:

Launch platforms and startup directories, where people browse new products every day

Communities and forums, like Reddit, Indie Hackers and Hacker News comment threads

Q&A sites, like Quora

Social profiles and posts, on X, LinkedIn and YouTube

Guest comments and user generated content on blogs and news sites

These are exactly the places where your first users are. Skipping them because the link is nofollow means skipping the traffic, the discovery and the follow on links that come from being seen.

How to Think About Nofollow Links

Judge a link by the page, not the attribute. A nofollow link on a page that people actually read is worth more than a followed link on a page nobody visits.

Go where your customers are. Relevance and real visitors matter more than link type.

Expect a natural mix. Real websites earn both kinds of links. A profile with only followed links can look less natural, not more.

Don't spam. Dropping nofollow links in comments everywhere won't help, and Google has said it uses these links partly to understand unnatural patterns.

Treat followed links as a bonus. They are still valuable when you can earn them, but they shouldn't be the only links you go after.

The Bottom Line

Nofollow links are not the "zero value" links many founders think they are. Since 2019 Google treats them as hints, it can use them to discover your pages, and they send real people to your product. They are not a guaranteed ranking boost, and Google says most of them still won't count for ranking. But for an early stage startup, the visibility, visitors and follow on links they bring are often worth more than the attribute on the link.