Nofollow

Nofollow is a small instruction added to a link in a page's code, telling search engines not to treat it as a recommendation. The link works normally for anyone clicking it. It simply does not pass along the endorsement that an ordinary link carries.

It exists because open platforms were being farmed. Comment sections, forums and social networks let anyone publish a link, so their operators marked those links as not counting — which removed the incentive to spam them. This is why most links you can place yourself, on someone else's platform, are nofollow by default. It is not an accusation; it is the platform declining to vouch for something it never reviewed.

Two relatives do the same work more precisely: sponsored, for paid or advertising links, and ugc, for anything a user posted. Google now treats all three as hints rather than strict orders, which means a nofollow link is no longer guaranteed to count for nothing.

None of which makes such links worthless. A nofollow link still brings visitors, still puts your name in front of people, and still places your business in text that AI systems read. It is worth filling in the website field on every profile you own. Just do not expect those links to lift you in rankings — that was never their job.