Add nofollow option for links

[reneedobbs]

On behalf of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who make money with their website with affiliate programs and sponsored content:

Please, please, pretty please, make it easy for us to add the nofollow rel attribute to a link.

I honestly don't know why it isn't a part of WordPress core. Every WordPress commercial I see lately is about having your business on WordPress, yet WP is making it difficult for business owners to be compliant with Google's guidelines on paid/affiliate links. We shouldn't have to add yet another plugin to handle something so basic and widely used.

Just have a checkbox or similar (like open to new window) to add the nofollow rel attribute for a link.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Soean]

Related PR Link settings extensibility#13190

[abernitz]

I also would like to request this feature. It is ok for me to add the attribute in html-view but for my clients this is a no-go.

[Chaddeus]

I also vote for this feature. I'm perfectly capable of editing HTML, but it is a time sink that can easily be resolved -- just add a little toggle switch just like the "open in new window" toggle.

[budgetsavvybride]

Echoing the above. This is a basic feature that should be quite simple to add, and site owners shouldn't have to rely on plugins that will eventually break. This is a feature that should be baked into Wordpress Core.

And while you're at it, give the ability to also add rel attributes to button block links as well! Please!!

[reneedobbs]

FYI - Google just announced 2 additional nofollow attributes: sponsored and ugc

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify.html

[chriscct7]

Google's announcement makes even more reason imho why Gutenberg should persue #11599 as it would allow for this type of thing (more options for links) to be added easily by plugins (if for example, Google wanted to write a plugin to test new types of nofollow attribute values prior to releasing their specs publicly)

[xomisse]

Agree with this, especially since Google's latest announcement. I have many clients who are looking for an easier way to mark a link as nofollow/sponsored for affiliate or paid for content. Not having this as part of the editor doesn't make sense to me.

[phpbits]

@reneedobbs I've just added nofollow and sponsored "rel" attributes option to EditorsKit plugin ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-options/ ). I hope this will be really helpful 👍

[devisan]

The core needs an option to put nofollow into the link code like it does target=blank. I don't understand why it didn't happen years ago. As much as I like the Editor's Kit plugin and use it, it's a workaround which will break if the plugin should break or be removed by a user who doesn't understand its purpose. This is such a simple thing for Wordpress to do that their not doing it has to be interpreted as a rejection of the idea. Why? Do they dislike affiliate marketing? Do they not want business people using Wordpress to run sites that sell products?

[Tropicalista]

Honestly core developers must understand that are dozens of issues relating to nofollow and the lack of extends one of the more important things on internet. Also I don't understand why some options are available for certain elements and are excluded for others. Here's my related issue: #17293

An easy solution? add a setting where users can choice if they want to enable the nofollow options. And please track the usage and report back how many millions will enable that feature.

This is a must have!!!

[paaljoachim]

Perhaps something like this will help:
#23011

[mackaaij]

Using WordPress 5.4.1, it looks like the editor even removes rel="sponsored" when editing a link via the editor. Support for nofollow, sponsored and ugc would be great!

[deborah86]

I also would like to see this feature.

[getdave]

Adding additional thoughts from #53566 (comment).

[skorasaurus]

FYI:

This was implemented in #53945 and #54110 and is available in WordPress 6.5.

This isn't available for links in the navigation block
and you can follow progress for that in #54091

[Mamaduka]

@skorasaurus, based on your latest reply, can we close this issue?

[skorasaurus]

there is #54091 which is specifically for the navigation block; not sure ; I am ok either way since there's a related issue.

[Mamaduka]

Let's close this one; the navigation issue can be handled separately.