Definition
rel="nofollow" is a value of the rel attribute on an HTML link that tells search engines the linking site does not want to pass ranking signal to, or vouch for, the target. It was introduced to combat comment spam and later became the standard way to mark links a site could not fully endorse — user-generated links, untrusted content, and paid or affiliate links.
Since 2019, search engines treat nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule and may still use nofollowed links for discovery and, in some cases, for ranking context.
Alongside nofollow, two more specific values now exist: rel="sponsored" for links that are advertisements, paid placements or affiliate links, and rel="ugc" for links within user-generated content such as comments and forum posts. A site can use one or combine them (rel="sponsored nofollow").
The point of the more specific values is to give search engines accurate information about why a link is qualified, rather than lumping all non-editorial links under one label.
In context
For iGaming affiliates, the practical rule is that every monetised link to an operator should be marked, ideally with rel="sponsored" (nofollow is an acceptable fallback). A large affiliate site with thousands of followed, unmarked commercial links to gambling operators presents a pattern search engines associate with link schemes and paid endorsement, and the risk is a site-wide devaluation or a manual action, not just a per-link discount.
Marking the links removes that risk and costs nothing.
The reverse mistake is over-nofollowing. Some sites reflexively nofollow every outbound link, including citations to regulators, official documents and genuine references.
This throws away the mild quality signal that linking to authoritative sources provides and makes the page look less like a real resource. The correct approach is selective: sponsored or nofollow for anything paid or affiliate, ugc for comments and user posts, and normal followed links for editorial citations the page genuinely stands behind.
Worked example
An affiliate migrates its link handling: all affiliate outbound links become rel="sponsored", comment links become rel="ugc", and citations to regulator registers and official terms are left as normal followed links. A previous site-wide ranking suppression, which had followed a period of thousands of unmarked commercial links, lifts over the following months.
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