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Google's Gary Illyes said it again, the reason Google released those new link attributes, the rel sponsored and ugc attributes, is only to help Google understand links on the web better. Gary said you don't have to use it, if you do, it will help Google.
You do need to at least continue to nofollow sponsored or paid links but you do not need to label them as sponsored, or use the new attributes. You can still use the old nofollow. Of course, Google may decide to ignore nofollowed links on some sites or sections, if they decide to in the future, with the new rules.
Just to be clear, Gary Illyes form Google said this a month ago:
Focus on the other part: nofollow became a hint. Ugc and sponsored are icing on top of that cake, and it's one of those things where you don't have to do anything if you don't want to. If you want to help us understand the web better, implement them. If you don't want to, don't.
— Gary "鯨理" Illyes (@methode) September 11, 2019
But he said it again while on stage at PubCon:
Rel=sponsored and rel=ugc are optional and you don’t have to use them.
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) October 8, 2019
Google would like it if you implement them to help them understand linking patterns and how people are linking across the web.@methode #pubcon pic.twitter.com/cVChJgOvGR
Why use rel sponsored or ugc? To help Google understand the web and links better. @methode #pubcon
— Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) October 8, 2019
Since it only helps Google, and does not necessarily benefit you, would you be implementing it?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
