Add ‘nofollow’ to navigation menu links in WordPress

One can easily make specific weblink as nofollow by adding [rel=”nofollow”] manually. What about navigation links generated within menus created using in-built menu feature in WordPress dashboard? You may not have used it till now but there is “Link Relationship (XFN)” option that allows you to make any or all links within menu have “nofollow” attribute.

Make WordPress menu links “nofollow”

1. Goto Appearance > Menus section and then create new menu or open existing menu. Click on “Screen Options” at top right and then click to check (tick) “Link Relationship (XFN)” option.

2. Now expand specific item in the menu and add nofollow in text box for “Link Relationship (XFN)”. Click save menu button, this will automatically add “nofollow” attribute to that specific link in the menu. Similarly, you can make more or all links in menu “nofollow”.

This is useful when you are using external website links in the navigation menu. Also, there is section of bloggers who like to use “nofollow” attribute even for internal links in the navigation menu (why?). For starters: A link with “nofollow” attribute does not pass Google juice to the outgoing weblink, a seo concept!