The UGC link attribute (rel=”ugc”) is a tag added to hyperlinks to indicate that the link is part of user-generated content.
Introduced by Google in 2019, it helps search engines to identify links placed in comments, forum posts, and other user contributed sections, from editorial or sponsored links.
Think about UGC links as a way of telling Google that you didn’t place the link and don’t vouch for the quality of the linked page.
Note: UGC Links do not pass link equity to the linked website.
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The UGC link attribute is important for SEO because it maintains your website’s credibility with Google.
Think of it like a protective measure that prevents your site from being associated with low-quality, spammy external pages.
Let me explain:
Google views every external link you place on your website as a vote of confidence for the website you’ve linked to.
You’re essentially saying that you recommend the linked website.
Here’s the problem…
If you write a blog post and allow users to comment, many users will add a backlink in their comment by default – Often to their own website.
The link the user adds may not be a site you want your own website to be associated with.
That’s where the UGC link attribute comes in.
It simply tells Google that the user placed the link there and you can’t vouch for it. This protects your website from potential penalties associated with promoting low-quality websites.
Simple, right?
You should use the UGC link attribute for any content created by other users on your site.
This includes:
Think about it like this…
The UGC link attribute should be applied to ALL external links on your site that you didn’t place.
This will proactively protect your website from dodgy links your users place!
The difference between a Nofollow and a UGC link is that the UGC link attribute tells Google that you didn’t place the link.
The “nofollow” link attribute is used for all links where you don’t want to endorse the website or pass link equity.
For example, you can choose to nofollow a link because you don’t want to pass link equity to the site.
But a UGC attribute should only be added if you didn’t place the link.
All UGC links are marked as nofollow by default, so they don’t pass any link juice or equity.
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To add a UGC link attribute to a link on your website, you need to include the rel= “ugc” tag within the hyperlink’s anchor.
This is done by editing the HTML version of the page.
Here’s how to do it step by step:
It should look something like this:
<a href=”http://example.com” rel=”ugc”>Link Text</a>
Save the page and you’re done!
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