Lesson 5 of 6 · Backlinks
Label paid and untrusted links
What it is
Add rel='sponsored' to paid or affiliate links and rel='nofollow' or 'ugc' to links you don't vouch for, like comments.
Why it matters
Google requires paid links to be labelled; it protects you from looking like you sell rankings.
✓ Good example
An affiliate link to a product marked rel='sponsored'.
✗ Common mistake
A paid guest post with an unlabelled link.
You pass when: Paid and user-submitted links are labelled correctly.