What are sponsored and UGC links?
Sponsored and UGC links are links marked with one of two rel values Google introduced in 2019. rel="sponsored" identifies links that exist because of payment or another compensation, such as ads, affiliate links, and paid placements. rel="ugc" identifies links inside user-generated content, such as comments, forum posts, and reviews.
Both sit alongside the older nofollow value, and all three are treated as hints. Google may still use a marked link for discovery or ranking, but the label tells it why the link is there. This entry focuses on deciding which label applies; the nofollow entry covers the attribute syntax in general.
What counts as sponsored
Use rel="sponsored" for any outbound link where there is an exchange of value:
- Affiliate links, including links through affiliate networks
- Paid posts, sponsored reviews, and paid guest posts
- Links added in return for free products, services, or discounts
- Banner and native ads linking to an advertiser
- Links in content you were paid to publish, even if the copy was editorial
Google's spam policies treat buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam. Marking them as sponsored, or nofollow, is what keeps a paid link within the rules. Disclosing the sponsorship to readers is a separate obligation under advertising rules in many countries; the rel value is not a disclosure.
What counts as UGC
Use rel="ugc" for links added by users rather than by you:
- Blog comments and commenter website fields
- Forum threads and community Q&A answers
- User reviews and profile bio links
- Wiki-style pages anyone can edit
If a contributor has earned trust over time, such as a long-standing moderator, some sites drop the ugc label for their links. That is a judgment call you are allowed to make.
Combining and applying them
Values can be combined, separated by spaces:
<a href="https://shop.example/grinder" rel="sponsored">Grinder (affiliate)</a>
<a href="https://member-site.example" rel="ugc nofollow">Member's site</a>
Adding nofollow next to sponsored or ugc is optional, but some sites do it for search engines that may not recognize the newer values. For crawling and indexing, Google has treated these values as hints since March 2020, so they are not a way to keep a URL out of the index; use noindex on the target for that.
In WordPress
WordPress core adds rel="nofollow ugc" to links in comments and to commenter URLs. For links in posts, the block editor has no rel option, so you add the attribute in the block's HTML view (Edit as HTML) or use a plugin that adds a link control. Hydrogen SEO's Nofollow External Links switch in general settings nofollows every external link, which is broader than most sites need; marking individual paid links as sponsored is usually the better fit. For affiliate-heavy sites, a site-wide search for affiliate link patterns is worth doing once to catch old unmarked links.
Common questions
Is it a problem if I use nofollow instead of sponsored for affiliate links?
No. Google accepts either for paid and affiliate links. Sponsored is more specific, so it is the preferred choice for new links.
Do I need to mark internal links as sponsored or UGC?
No. These values are for outbound links that are paid or user-added. Internal links should carry no rel value.
Do sponsored links hurt my site?
Marked sponsored links do not. The risk is unmarked paid links, which Google can treat as link spam and act against with a manual action.