Do you want to add a title and nofollow tag to your WordPress links? By default WordPress does not provide a user interface for adding those attributes. In this article, we will show you how to add title and nofollow to insert link popup in WordPress.
Why You Need Title and NoFollow for Insert Link Section in WordPress
By default when a user click on the insert link button in WordPress, they see a popup like this:
It allows you to add the Link URL and the Link text (also known as anchor text). You can optionally choose to open the link in a new window. This will create a basic link that will look like this in the HTML view:
<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank">Example Website</a>
Often SEO experts recommend that you use rel=”nofollow” attribute on external links. This attribute tells search engines that they can crawl these links, but you don’t want to pass away any link authority to these websites.
Similarly, the title attribute in a link allows you to add a description of the page you are linking to.
It lets users know what they will find when they click on the link. Both these fields are important from an SEO point of view.
In WordPress 4.2, the core team decided to remove the title field in WordPress. Quickly came several plugins that would restore the title field, but they weren’t compatible with the nofollow plugins.
Since we needed both functionality on our site, we searched endlessly until we found a solution that works.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Adding Title and NoFollow Fields in Insert Link Popup
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Title and Nofollow For Links plugin. It works out of the box, and there are no settings for you to configure.
Simply edit or create a new WordPress post and then click on the insert link button in the post editor. The insert link popup will appear, and you will notice the restored Title field and a checkbox to add the nofollow attribute to the link.
The HTML of your hyperlink with a title and nofollow attributes will look like this:
<a href="http://example.com" title="Example Domain" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Example Website</a>
That’s all. We hope this article helped you add title and nofollow to insert link in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 40 useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog.
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Stuart says
Hi there,
It’s worth noting this won’t work in the Gutenberg editor.
Cheers.
WPBeginner Support says
We’ll be sure to look into updating this article
Admin
Kulwant says
can this plugin slow down over website speed ?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Kulwant,
No, it doesn’t affect site speed.
Admin
Bikramjit says
Hi,
I have added link of some research journals, they are like authorities. Should I keep those link as nofollow link.
best regards
Bikramjit
John says
I read this article today and installed the plugin, but it hasn’t been updated for the last 2 years?
Is it still a safe and good plugin to use then? Or is there a better one by now?
I have seen quite some nofollow plugins but none that include the Title as well.
Any advice would be nice :).
Great article!
WPBeginner Support says
Hi John,
We reached out to the plugin author and they have updated the plugin. You can now safely install it on your website.
Admin
Jasmin says
Hi, great tutorial!!! Can you please tell me how you added the hyperlink to the “Editorial Staff” text beneath the title?
Theodore Nwangene says
This is really a very awesome tutorial,
I understand how important it is to nofollow our external links especially when its an affiliate link and thats what made this post amazing.
A friend was just asking me the other day how to easily make a link nofollow now, which other way will be easier than what you just explained here?
I’m going to forward this post to him right away and will also download the plugin as soon as possible.
Thanks for sharing.
Viacheslav says
Isn’t that simpler to add rel=”nofollow” and title manually when adding the link in the TEXT mode? I usually do this with no bother
WPBeginner Support says
Yes you can do that too if you find it more convenient.
Admin
Barry Richardson says
Am I assuming correctly that each link on a blog would have to be individually set? After all, we might want to “do-follow” some outbound links and “no-follow” others – or we might want to link to a different post on the same site, which typically should be “do-follow”.
WPBeginner Support says
Yes this is why this plugin is helpful. You can leave the nofollow box unchecked if you want to create a dofollow link.
Admin
John D says
I’very never understood why WP by default has no title attribute to set in its link dialog. Blogger had it in 2008!
WPBeginner Support says
WordPress had it too. It was removed in WordPress 4.2.
Admin
Olivia Smith says
Do we have to change HTML setting individually for every blog we post ?
WPBeginner Support says
No, unless you want to.
Admin
Connor Rickett says
The real question is, Why isn’t this isn’t a default feature in WordPress?
I mean, all it needs is a little checkbox in the link section, follow/nofollow, and, poof, powerful new feature. No muss, no fuss, barely any tears.
Mark Corder says
“but you don’t want to pass away any link authority to these websites.” …
What exactly is meant by that?
Atila says
It means that you don’t want search engines to pick up that link while crawling. The link is there for reference or for whatever reason, and you are not giving him your PR juice. It would be bad to have a website full of dofollow outbound links, especially if they lead to poor content website. Only leave clean links to sites that you care of and are important.
Gulshan says
Please make a list of Perfect plugin to manage all over SEO.