LINK BUILDING · SEO GLOSSARY
Sponsored Link
A link placed as part of a paid, compensated, or advertorial arrangement, marked with rel="sponsored" to identify its commercial nature to Google.
Definition
A sponsored link is a hyperlink placed as consideration in a commercial relationship: paid link placements, advertorial content, affiliate links, compensated reviews, or any link whose placement was arranged through payment or barter. Google introduced the rel="sponsored" attribute in 2019 to allow publishers to mark these links clearly. Before rel="sponsored" existed, paid links were supposed to use rel="nofollow". Sponsored links marked correctly with rel="sponsored" do not pass link equity (PageRank) to the destination — Google treats them as signals of commercial relationship rather than editorial endorsement. Failure to disclose paid links with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" violates Google\'s link spam policies and can result in manual action against either the linking site or the linked site.
Why it matters for SEO
Google\'s link spam policies require that all paid or compensated links use rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" to prevent the sale of PageRank. Sites discovered selling links without proper disclosure risk manual actions or algorithmic devaluation. Affiliate links — even when clearly labelled as affiliate links in page text — should also use rel="sponsored" to ensure proper machine-readable disclosure.
How DeepSEOAnalysis checks this
DeepSEOAnalysis audits the rel attribute values of all links on crawled pages and flags dofollow outbound links to known affiliate platforms or advertising networks that may indicate undisclosed sponsored links.
GLOSSARY
Related terms
link building
Editorial Link
An inbound link earned naturally because another site chose to cite your content, without payment, request, or reciprocal arrangement.
Read definition →link building
UGC Links
Links in user-generated content — forum posts, blog comments, social profiles — identified with rel="ugc" to signal non-editorial origin to Google.
Read definition →link building
Dofollow Link
A standard hyperlink without a nofollow, sponsored, or ugc attribute — one that passes PageRank and link equity to the destination page.
Read definition →algorithm updates
Link Spam Update
A recurring Google algorithm update that identifies and neutralises unnatural, purchased, or otherwise manipulative links — reducing their PageRank contribution or triggering manual penalties.
Read definition →See how your site scores on Sponsored Link.
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