How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress

You add nofollow to links in WordPress with Link Manager Pro in two places: global defaults under Settings → Link Attributes, and per-link toggles when you create or edit a masked link. You can also set domain-level defaults for each Affiliate partner so every hop to that merchant inherits the same rel values. The plugin exposes nofollow, noopener, noreferrer, and sponsored in the UI. For ugc, Google’s label for user-generated links, you follow the same policy choice in HTML or blocks where you control raw attributes—pair it with nofollow on community-sourced destinations. You revisit Settings whenever your legal or SEO policy changes site-wide.

The problem

WordPress’s classic editor and many blocks default to “follow” links. Affiliate and paid placements should signal nofollow and sponsored consistently. Doing that by hand across hundreds of posts fails quickly, and partner-specific rules are easy to get wrong.

What these attributes mean

• nofollow — Tells search engines not to pass PageRank-style signals to the destination.
• noopener — Stops the new page from accessing window.opener when the link opens in a new tab (security against reverse tabnapping).
• noreferrer — Omits your URL as the referrer on the request (privacy).
• sponsored — Marks paid or affiliate relationships for search quality and disclosure alignment.
• ugc — Marks user-generated content links (comments, forums). Link Manager Pro focuses the four toggles above; add ugc in HTML or compatible blocks when you need the explicit UGC hint.

Set attributes in Link Manager Pro

1. Global defaults

1. Open Link Manager Pro → Settings → Link Attributes.
2. Toggle nofollow, noopener, noreferrer, and sponsored to match your site-wide policy for new managed links and auto-linked output.
3. Save. Existing links keep their saved values until you edit them.

2. Per-link override

1. Go to Link Manager Pro → Links and open any link (or Add New).
2. Use the Link Attributes checkboxes to override globals for that redirect only.
3. Save.

3. Affiliate domain overrides

1. Open Link Manager Pro → Affiliates.
2. Edit a partner (or create one).
3. Set Attributes for that domain—common choice: nofollow + sponsored + noopener for paid partners.
4. Save. Auto-linked keywords and matching redirects inherit those values.

Best practices

• Affiliate / paid links: Enable nofollow and sponsored; add noopener when links open in a new tab.
• Editorial external links you trust: Leave follow behavior (no nofollow) if you intentionally vouch for the target.
• User-submitted links: Use nofollow in Link Manager Pro for managed hops; add ugc in the HTML layer when the link truly is user-generated.
• New tabs: Always pair noopener (and usually noreferrer if you want stricter privacy) on target="_blank" flows.

How overrides stack

Global defaults apply first when you create a new managed link or when auto-linking inserts HTML. A per-link edit wins over globals for that redirect’s outbound rel string. An affiliate profile applies when the destination domain matches the partner—handy when every Amazon hop should look identical without you touching each slug. When rules conflict in your head, edit the specific link and read the resulting rel in the preview or front-end source.

When you still touch the block editor

Some native blocks strip custom rel values. If a block ignores your policy, switch to a custom HTML block for that paragraph or manage the hop through Link Manager Pro’s masked URL so the plugin injects attributes during render. The goal is one consistent policy: paid links disclose and do not pass equity; trusted editorial links stay clean.

Related

• Settings
• Creating links
• Managing affiliates