This documentation explains how to configure “nofollow” attributes for links posted by users on Discourse forums.
Required user level: Administrator
Default “nofollow” implementation
By default, all user submitted links will have a nofollow attribute added to deter inappropriate or potentially damaging behaviour. This includes all links on user profiles, as robots.txtignores all profile information.
However, there are exceptions that can be managed by admins to improve the relevance of certain links to your site and your trusted users.
Exceptions
Staff posts: Links posted by staff members do not receive the “nofollow” attribute.
Trust Level 3 users: Regular users who have reached Trust Level 3 can have their links followed. This setting can be disabled if necessary.
Whitelisted domains: Admins can create a whitelist of domains (including subdomains) to allow “follow” links for specific, trusted sites.
Configuring “nofollow” settings
Follow these steps to manage the “nofollow” settings via the Admin Settings:
Step 1: Configuring general “nofollow” settings
Navigate to Admin / Site Settings / Spam.
Ensure the add rel nofollow to user content setting is checked by default.
This allows internal links and links to content on the same site (outside Discourse) to be followed, increasing the visibility and relevance of content.
Tips for Whitelisting:
Include only the specific subdomain when whitelisting a site on a popular domain. For example, use myblog.wordpress.com to avoid whitelisting all wordpress.com subdomains.
AFAIK there’s no way to do that—but I might be wrong. Perhaps adding support for {:rel=“nofollow”} notation (which some markdown engines already support) would be a good idea?
E.g. [Google](https://google.com){:rel="nofollow"}
Sometimes have to answer (or tell things) using really low quality links. I have that kind case right now and that’s why I found this topic
But the last thing then is rewarding such site with a bit better SEO-value giving incoming link. Sure, nofollow is just a suggestion, but it is strong one.
So, admin may want to allow following in general, but not allways. I don’t see any reason why nofollow should be on/off option.
I have the same problem. I am adding some external links to my post as an admin. I want those links to be marked nofollow. But Discourse is making it too complex to add “rel=nofollow”
Nope. The term ”link juice” is quite yesterday but SEO-value comes from totally different metrics. Nofollow doesn’t mean anything there either. If googlebot follows that link it is counted, no matter if there is nofollow or not.
There is only one solution: don’t link — and that kind tool is missing now: deleting links automatically when nofollow is really wanted.
This is same situation (but different story) than when webmasters still believe H-tags has something to do with SEO