Every outbound link on your site should carry an appropriate rel attribute reflecting its actual relationship — sponsored for paid or affiliate links, ugc for user-generated content, nofollow where you don’t want to vouch for the destination — and most sites accumulate years of outbound links with none of this deliberately set.
Outbound link audit & rel attribute tagging
Outbound links audited and tagged by their actual relationship — sponsored, ugc, or editorial.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
What we need from you
- Access to crawl the site and identify existing outbound links
- Confirmation of any known categories of links needing specific treatment (affiliate programs, sponsored content, user-generated content areas)
- Your preferred report format, if you have one
This or something else?
| You want your outbound links audited and appropriately tagged with rel attributes | This fix covers it |
| You specifically want affiliate links cloaked and tagged, a related but more specific scenario | Affiliate link cloaking & rel attribute setup, in the Advertising & Monetization category |
| You want inbound or internal links audited instead | Orphaned page identification report, for internal linking specifically |
| You suspect a specific outbound link is actually broken, not just untagged | The relevant broken link scan & repair tier for your site’s size |
What we do
- Crawl the site to identify every outbound link
- Categorise each link by its actual relationship (editorial, affiliate, user-generated, sponsored)
- Apply the appropriate rel attribute to each category
- Verify existing functional links continue to work correctly after tagging
- Flag anything ambiguous for your confirmation
- Provide a written summary of what was found and tagged
What is included
- Outbound links audited and categorised
- Appropriate rel attributes applied by category
- Verified continued functionality of tagged links
- A written summary of the audit and tagging applied
Not included
- Affiliate link cloaking specifically, a separate, more specific fix if that’s your primary need
- Removing or changing the actual outbound links themselves, beyond adding the appropriate attribute
- Broken link scanning and repair, a separate, related fix
- Ongoing tagging as new outbound links are added, unless built into your content process
Questions about this fix
Why does the specific rel attribute actually matter?
It's part of how you disclose the nature of a link to search engines — an affiliate or sponsored link without the correct attribute is a guideline violation, and getting this right protects your site's overall link profile from that risk.
What's the difference between nofollow, sponsored, and ugc?
Sponsored is specifically for paid or affiliate relationships; ugc is for links within user-generated content like comments or forum posts; nofollow is a broader category for any link you don't want to vouch for or pass ranking credit to.
Will this change how my outbound links function for visitors?
No, visitors click through exactly as before — the rel attribute is metadata read by search engines and crawlers, not something that changes the visible link or its destination for a person browsing your site.
How do you decide which category a given link falls into?
We look at the actual context and relationship — whether it's a paid partnership, genuinely independent editorial reference, or user-submitted content — and flag anything genuinely ambiguous for your direct confirmation rather than guessing.
Do I need to redo this every time I publish new content with outbound links?
New content you create afterward would need the same consideration applied — this fix addresses your existing accumulated links; a consistent ongoing practice for new content is worth building into your workflow separately.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.