In a support discussion titled ‘Custom add “Nofollow” to specific links,’ RaviJayagopal asks if it’s possible to manually add rel=nofollow to specific links they post as an admin, even though UGC links already have nofollow enabled. codinghorror responds that there is no current way to do this, suggesting instead posting as a new user to trigger low-trust link behavior. RaviJayagopal requests this feature be added for long-term content hub use, emphasizing the need to control outgoing links—including adding nofollow or opening links in new tabs. Stephen counters that users already have profile preferences for opening links in new windows, and overriding those preferences would be user-hostile. RaviJayagopal clarifies they’d like to set defaults globally, with users able to override if desired (though most won’t), and reiterates that nofollow customization is more critical than new-tab behavior. Stephen reaffirms that, as previously stated by Jeff, this functionality does not exist and is not currently supported.
I link out to tools and websites from my forum. I already have rel=nofollow turned on for UGC.
But I want to be able to custom-add no-follow to specific links I post myself (I’m the admin).
The forum code for links looks like this:
[Auphonic](https://auphonic.com): Audio Optimization
Is there a way to add rel=nofollow in that code?
No, there is no way to do this.
You could try logging in as a new user and posting the link that way to get the low-trust links.
Is it possible to submit a request for this to be added? Because for the long-term, to use the forum as a content hub, we need to be able to control outgoing links to some extent, and being able to add tags to links - like nofollow, or open in a new tab - is pretty important.
Users already have a preference in their profiles to determine if things open in a new window.
If they’re setting their preference why would you be given a means to override it? Wouldn’t that be confusing to them and generally user-hostile?
I would like to be able to set it at a global level and they can override it if they wish to (99% won’t). And opening in a new tab is just one part of it. Being able to customize the forum-code, especially with nofollow, is more critical.
As Jeff said above, there’s no way to do this.