Title: Remove nofollow attribute
Last modified: June 25, 2020

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# Remove nofollow attribute

 *  [Stefan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/languagecoach/)
 * (@languagecoach)
 * [5 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-nofollow-attribute/)
 * Hello, I have a wordpress site. Internal links to blog post have a ‘nofollow’
   attribute which I seem unable to remove. Would someone be able to assist?
    Many
   thanks.
    -  This topic was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/).
      Reason: Moved to Fixing WordPress, this is not an Developing with WordPress
      topic
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fremove-nofollow-attribute%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [5 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-nofollow-attribute/#post-13031488)
 * That’s not the default behavior when adding links in post content. Are you using
   a different editor besides the default block editor? The attribute is likely 
   added by a plugin or your theme (which may be where a different editor comes 
   from). Narrow down which module it is by selectively deactivating plugins or 
   switching themes. Then take up the issue in the dedicated support channel for
   that module.
 * Another approach would be to use “the_content” filter to strip out undesired 
   attributes when the content is output. It’d be better to stop them from appearing
   to begin with.
 *  Thread Starter [Stefan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/languagecoach/)
 * (@languagecoach)
 * [5 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-nofollow-attribute/#post-13032866)
 * Many thanks for that. I’ve checked the plugins and the theme via troubleshooting
   mode by switching the site to the default theme disabling all plugins. It appears
   that the problem is still there. The nofollow attribute is not caused by the 
   theme or any of the plugins. What else can I do to find the cause?
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [5 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-nofollow-attribute/#post-13035212)
 * I’m not sure how you investigated while in troubleshooting mode, a few factors
   can still confuse such an investigation. If the attributes are saved in post 
   content, checking for their existence in output while troubleshooting would not
   reveal anything different. You may need to insert a new plain link and see that
   the attributes do not appear after saving. Even then, caching can confuse the
   issue further.
 * Troubleshooting mode while investigating carefully is the best way to narrow 
   down the cause. Another way would be to use `grep` or similar search tool to 
   find all instances of `nofollow` in your installation. Anything with the string
   could be the cause. WP has functions in formatting.php to insert the attribute,
   but they are not used by default.
 * If core WP really is inserting the attributes, you have a corrupted version of
   WP and I would recommend doing a [manual update](https://wordpress.org/support/article/updating-wordpress/#manual-update)
   from a fresh download from this site.
 *  Thread Starter [Stefan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/languagecoach/)
 * (@languagecoach)
 * [5 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-nofollow-attribute/#post-13039093)
 * Ive installed the plugin WP External links by Webfactory Ltd. That seems to have
   reduced the nofollow from 109 to 29.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Remove nofollow attribute’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Stefan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/languagecoach/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remove-nofollow-attribute/#post-13039093)
 * Status: not resolved

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