Let\u2019s start with some definitions.<\/p>\n
What is rel=”noreferrer”?<\/h2>\n
The rel=”noreferrer” tag is a special HTML attribute that can be added to a link tag (<a>). It prevents passing the referrer information to the target website by removing the referral info from the HTTP header.<\/p>\n
This means that in Google analytics traffic coming from links that have the rel=”noreferrer” attribute will show as Direct Traffic<\/em> instead of Referral.<\/em><\/p>\n This is how the noreferrer attribute looks in HTML View:<\/p>\n Here is an example to understand this better:<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say that you link from website A to Website B without the “noreferrer” tag.<\/p>\n When the owner of website B views the ‘ACQUISITION’ report in Google Analytics, he can see traffic coming from Website A, under the ‘REFERRALS’ section.<\/p>\n When you link from Website A to Website B using the “noreferrer” tag, any traffic going from Website A to Website B will show as DIRECT traffic in Google Analytics (and not referral).<\/p>\n Use the rel=”noreferrer” attribute on outgoing links when you don\u2019t want other sites to know that you are linking to them. Can’t think of any valid reason why you might want to do this, but that’s the case.<\/p>\n Definitely do not<\/u><\/strong> use the rel=”noreferrer” attribute on internal links, it can mess up with your Google analytics reports.<\/p>\n Adding the noreferrer tag to your links does not directly impact SEO<\/a><\/strong>. You can safely use it without worrying about anything.<\/p>\n But it does have an indirect effect in your link building and promotion efforts and the reason is the following:<\/p>\n One of the ways to get the attention of other webmasters is to link to their sites. All webmasters check their Google analytics on a daily basis and especially the ‘Referral traffic’.<\/p>\n When they see traffic from a website, they will most probably check it out and share the page in social media, follow the author or even decide to return the favor by linking back.<\/p>\n This is good for SEO and in fact, it is something that Google recommends as a valid way to get links from other websites (see below the relevant quote from a Google document).<\/p>\n When you have the noreferrer tag attached to your links, nothing from the above will happen because traffic from your website will not show as \u2018Referral\u2019 in Google analytics and so the other webmasters will not know that you have linked to them.<\/p>\n You might be thinking, \u2018Why even talk about this, I will not add it to my links and that\u2019s the end of the story<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n The reason that this issue has become popular is that WordPress adds the ‘noreferrer’ tag by default to all outgoing links that are set to open in a \u2018new tab.\u2019<\/p>\n So, if you are on WordPress you should know that when you add an external link to your content and set it to open in a \u2018new tab\u2019 (target=”_blank”), WordPress will automatically add rel=”noopener noreferrer” to the link.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.example.com\" rel=\"noreferrer\"<\/strong>>Link to Example.com<\/a><\/code><\/p>\n![\"noreferrer](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/referral-traffic.png\")
![\"rel=noreferrer](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/direct-traffic.png\")
When to use rel=”noreferrer”?<\/h2>\n
rel=”noreferrer” and SEO<\/h2>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/links-in-google-analytics.png\")
Noreferrer and WordPress<\/h2>\n