nofollow is a link attribute or robots directive that tells search engines not to follow or count certain links in the usual way.
nofollow is a link attribute or robots directive that tells search engines not to follow or count certain links in the usual way. In technical SEO, this term gives marketers, designers, developers, and business owners a precise way to talk about work that affects visibility, user experience, measurement, and revenue. A strong understanding of nofollow prevents teams from optimizing isolated tasks without knowing what business result they are supposed to support. The concept should always be applied with context: who the audience is, what problem they have, what action matters, how success will be measured, and how the work connects to the broader customer journey.
Example of nofollow
During a website redesign or migration, nofollow can be the difference between preserving search visibility and losing rankings after launch. For example, a team may audit URLs, redirects, canonicals, sitemaps, internal links, structured data, and Core Web Vitals before moving the site to production.
Why nofollow matters
It matters because technical issues can prevent great content from being discovered, rendered, indexed, or trusted. Strong technical foundations protect rankings during redesigns, migrations, content expansion, and platform changes.
Related terms
redirect chain, noindex, redirect loop, sitemap index, broken link, XML sitemap
Frequently Asked Question
What does nofollow mean?
nofollow means a link attribute or robots directive that tells search engines not to follow or count certain links in the usual way. It matters in technical SEO because it helps teams make clearer decisions, measure the right outcomes, and connect marketing work to business goals.