Noreferrer (rel=”noreferrer”) is an HTML attribute used in the “rel” attribute of an outbound link to tell the browser not to send referrer information to the linked website.
This means the linked site won’t know where the traffic came from. For security, it will also behave as if “noopener” is also specified.
Let me explain:
When you place an outbound link to a website and a visitor clicks on that link, analytics tools like Google Analytics mark the traffic as “referral traffic”.
The noreferrer attribute stops that information from being passed to the analytics tool by the browser.
If someone clicks on an outbound link with a noreferrer tag – the website receives the visitor through the link but won’t know where the traffic came from.
Think of it as a way to anonymously refer traffic to other websites.
Use the noreferrer attribute when you don’t want to disclose the referrer URL to the linked website.
For example, you might link to a competitor but don’t want them to know.
The noreferrer attribute will hide that information.
You might also use the noreferrer tag when linking to an untrusted site to prevent potentially malicious scripts from exploiting your referrer information.
No, the “Noreferrer” has very little direct impact on SEO so it’s not something you need to worry about.
Noreferrer links still pass link equity in terms of SEO rankings like any other backlink.
But keep in mind:
Noreferrer links can indirectly affect analytics by NOT passing the referrer data. This means you will limit the insights on traffic sources to the website you linked to.
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