rel="ugc"
What is rel="ugc"?
rel="ugc" is an HTML link attribute that marks links inside user-generated content, such as blog comments, forum posts, reviews and community answers. It tells search engines the site owner did not place or vouch for the link. Google introduced it in September 2019, and like nofollow it is treated as a hint.
Google says sites may remove the attribute from links posted by trusted, long-standing members, much as some forums lift restrictions for established users.
The value can be combined with others. A comment link that is also an affiliate link could carry rel="ugc sponsored". Google says you do not need to change existing nofollow links on user content; nofollow remains a valid alternative.
Why rel="ugc" matters for SEO
Open comment and forum sections attract comment spam: people posting links purely to get backlinks. Qualifying those links with ugc or nofollow removes the reward and protects your site from looking like it links to spam.
If spammers can post followed links on your site at scale, Google may treat that as spam on your site. Google’s spam policies cover spammy user-generated content, and badly moderated sections can drag down how Google views the whole site.
How to add rel="ugc" to comments
- Check your CMS or forum software. Many add nofollow or ugc to comment links by default.
- If not, add the attribute in the comment template or with a filter so every user-submitted link gets
rel="ugc". - Moderate new comments, and consider blocking links entirely for brand-new accounts.
- Run a site audit occasionally to check that user-generated sections are not full of spam links.
rel="ugc" example
<div class="comment">
Great post! I wrote about this too:
<a href="https://commenter.example/post" rel="ugc nofollow">my take</a>
</div>rel="ugc" FAQ
Should I use rel="ugc" or rel="nofollow" for comments?
Either works. Google prefers ugc because it is more specific, and you can use both together.
Do ugc links pass PageRank?
Google treats ugc as a hint, so it generally does not count the link as an endorsement, but it may still use the link in some cases.
Related SEO terms
A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", asking search engines not to pass ranking credit. Since 2019 Google treats it as a hint, not a rule.
rel="sponsored" is a link attribute that marks a link as paid, sponsored or an affiliate link, so it does not pass ranking credit.
User-generated content (UGC) is content created by a site’s users rather than its owners, such as reviews, comments, forum posts and Q&A.
Comment spamBlack hat
Comment spam is posting links in blog comments, forums or profiles to gain backlinks, which breaks Google’s link spam and user-generated spam policies.
A dofollow link is a normal link with no rel="nofollow", "sponsored" or "ugc" value, so it can pass ranking credit to the page it points to.