UGC link

Why the ugc value exists

Sites that let people post links have always been a target for spam. Before 2019 the only tool was nofollow, which said nothing about why the site was holding back. The ugc value is more precise: it tells search engines the site owner did not choose this link, a visitor did.

That helps search engines treat the link fairly. A link in a respected developer forum may still be a useful hint, while the same link added by the site's own editors would be a stronger signal.

Where you will see it

Comment sections, community forums, Q&A sites, user profiles, reviews and any listing text that a member writes. Many sites combine values, for example rel="nofollow ugc", so older crawlers that do not know ugc still hold back.

On Aback Launch, links inside a founder's own description and in comments are marked nofollow ugc. The single website link at the top of a listing follows a different rule: it is nofollow until our badge is verified on the founder's site, then dofollow.

What it means for your link building

Dropping your link into comments and forums is not a link building strategy. Those links are marked ugc, and moderators remove the obvious ones. What works is being useful in the thread. People click the link because the answer helped, and some of them link to you later from their own sites.

Example

A reply on a forum that says "I built this for the same problem" with a link marked rel="ugc nofollow". It can send visitors, but it is not an editorial vote.

Questions people ask

Does Google count ugc links?

Google treats ugc as a hint. It may use the link to discover pages, but it does not count it the way it counts an editorial dofollow link.