What is UGC Link Attribute?
The UGC link attribute (user-generated content) rel= "ugc" is used to indicate that a link was added to a site by a visitor. Google requires links posted in a blog’s comment section to include a UGC link attribute. This indicates that the links were posted by a visitor and not the blogger.
For example, the link below has a UGC link attribute:
<a href="https://yourdomain.com/" rel="ugc">Your Domain</a>
You may also include multiple link attributes to a link. For example, the link below contains the user-generated content and sponsored link attributes.
<a href="https://yourdomain.com/" rel="ugc sponsored">Your Domain</a>
Google introduced the UGC link attribute in 2019 as part of its improvement to the nofollow link attribute. Google mentioned that it uses the UGC link attribute to understand the context and purpose of the link and whether it should be used for ranking purposes.
History of the UGC Link Attribute
Backlinks are a ranking factor. They were considerably important in the early days of search engines when having a lot of backlinks pointing to your site increased your likelihood of ranking on search results pages.
Many bloggers caught on to the importance of backlinks and started leaving their URLs in the comment sections of blogs and forums. These links were often left in spammy comments, which were, in most cases, unhelpful and irrelevant to the content on the site.
This changed in 2005 when Google introduced the nofollow tag to allow bloggers and forums to indicate links left by visitors. The nofollow link attribute was later expanded to cover the links in ads and any link the blogger does not want Google to follow or pass link equity to, even if the blogger added it.
In 2019, Google split the nofollow tag into the nofollow, sponsored, and user-generated content tags and specified the conditions under which they can be used.
- Nofollow: When you want to link to a page but do not want to endorse it
- Sponsored: When you want to link to a content that is part of a sponsorship or advertising campaign
- User-generated content: When you want to indicate that the link was added to the site by a visitor
As part of the introduction, Google mentioned that the UGC, sponsored, and nofollow attributes are hints that inform Google whether or not to consider the links for its rankings.
Importance of the UGC Link Attribute
The UGC link attribute allows Google to identify links left by visitors. The attribute also allows bloggers to provide Google with a clear context about the nature of the links on their webpages. This can influence how search engines evaluate and process that link, particularly for ranking purposes.
The UGC link attribute is nofollow by default. This means Google does not typically pass link gelijkheid of PageRank to the site receiving the link. However, it may have some benefits as Google now displays user-generated content from forums like Reddit on search results pages.