What Is a Sponsored Link Attribute?
The “sponsored” link attribute is an HTML tag that tells search engines a particular link is paid for or part of a sponsorship. It is indicated as rel=”sponsored”
So, if a website is linking to another site as part of a paid partnership or advertisement, the “sponsored” tag is used to signal to search engines that the link was not earned organically.
Link attributes were introduced by Google in 2019. Previously all sponsored or paid links were to be indicated with a “nofollow” attribute. When it comes to SEO, sponsored link attributes and nofollow attributes have the same functionality and do not pass link equity to the link’s destination. Sponsored link attributes essentially provide additional context to the link.
Should You Update Links to Be Rel=”Sponsored”?
Sponsored link attributes are not industry standard. If your paid links already use the nofollow attribute, you don’t have to switch over to sponsored attributes. Your website will not be penalised – as long as the paid links on a page is clearly labelled.
However, as it does offer Google additional information about the nature of your links, it is a good idea to use the sponsored attribute where relevant going forward.
