The Hidden SEO Power of Nofollow Brand Mentions in 2025
When Forbes mentions your brand with a nofollow link, does it actually help your SEO? The answer is a resounding yes—and understanding why could transform your digital strategy.
From Spam Filter to Valuable Signal: The Evolution of Nofollow
Introduced in 2005, Google's rel="nofollow" attribute was originally designed as a spam-fighting tool, instructing search engines to completely ignore these links when calculating rankings. Fast forward to today, and Google's stance has evolved significantly.
In 2019, Google announced a fundamental shift: nofollow links (along with new rel="ugc" and rel="sponsored" attributes) would now be treated as "hints" rather than absolute directives. As Google's official blog stated: "All the link attributes — sponsored, ugc, and nofollow — are treated as hints... as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems."
This means that while nofollow links may not pass full PageRank, they're no longer invisible to Google's algorithms. Instead, they contribute valuable context, association signals, and discovery pathways.
Why Brand Mentions Matter: Entity Recognition in Modern SEO
Even without traditional link equity, brand mentions in authoritative publications provide significant SEO benefits through Google's sophisticated entity recognition capabilities:
1. Your Brand as an Entity
Google's algorithms now recognize brands as distinct entities in their knowledge graph. When The New York Times mentions your coffee startup in an article about sustainable sourcing, Google learns that your brand is associated with sustainability and coffee—even without a direct link.
2. Contextual Relevance Through Association
The words surrounding your brand mention provide semantic context that helps Google understand your brand's relevance to specific topics. These associations can strengthen your site's topical authority and relevance signals.
3. Implied Links as Trust Signals
While Google's John Mueller has clarified that unlinked mentions aren't the same as backlinks, he's confirmed in a recorded Q&A session that Google "picks up [mentions] as a mention on another website." Mueller explicitly stated that a mention "is not the same thing as a link" in terms of passing PageRank, but Google still acknowledges these references. These citations are increasingly factored into Google's understanding of your brand's reputation and authority.
Building E-E-A-T Through High-Authority Mentions
Google's emphasis on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) means your website's reputation across the web matters more than ever:
Authoritative Validation
When Wired or The Wall Street Journal references your company—even with a nofollow link—it signals to Google that your brand is noteworthy in your field. These third-party validations directly support your E-E-A-T profile.
Expertise Amplification
Having your brand or key team members cited as experts in reputable publications demonstrates real-world expertise. These unlinked quotes and mentions, particularly on high-authority sites, reinforce your authority profile.
Trust Through Third-Party Reputation
Google's quality rater guidelines explicitly reference the importance of what others say about a website. According to Userp.io's E-A-T analysis, "If Wikipedia is picking you up, you must have a large amount of verifiable notoriety... It means that multiple sources are mentioning you in the public sphere, and can give key hints at your reputation." Google's own guidelines provide examples where sites are deemed trustworthy because they're referenced by reputable sources—even without direct links. Positive mentions in trusted sources, even without links, contribute significantly to your trust factor.
AI-Powered Context: How Advanced NLP Enhances Mention Value
Google's natural language processing advancements have revolutionized how it understands content and the relationships between entities:
BERT: Understanding Language Like Humans
BERT allows Google to grasp the full context of your brand mentions. When an article states "Acme is revolutionizing quantum computing," Google understands both the positive sentiment and the topical association, even without explicit statements of expertise.
MUM: Cross-Platform, Multi-Format Understanding
With MUM, Google can connect the dots between your brand being mentioned across different languages, platforms, and media formats. This comprehensive view creates a richer understanding of your brand's significance and authority.
Helpful Content Framework: Quality Over Quantity
Google's helpful content system rewards authentically valuable information. When journalists naturally reference your brand within high-quality content, both the content and your brand benefit. The context of your mention—whether positive, informative, or critical—is now fully understood by search algorithms.
The Real Value of Nofollow Links from Premium Publications
When you secure that coveted Forbes mention with a nofollow link, you're gaining multiple SEO benefits:
Discovery and Crawling
Google has confirmed it may crawl and index pages through nofollow links. According to Morningscore's analysis, since March 2020, Google has been using "nofollow links as hints for crawling and indexing new pages." A mention in a major publication can put your site on Google's radar, potentially leading to more thorough indexing of your content.
Trust by Association
Being referenced by highly trusted websites creates a halo effect. As Morningscore notes, "The quality, relevance, and context of a link matter more than whether it's dofollow or nofollow. A nofollow link from a highly relevant, authoritative source likely provides more value than a dofollow link from an irrelevant or low-quality site." While not a direct ranking boost, this association strengthens your site's perceived trustworthiness.
User Signals and Secondary Effects
A prominent mention drives referral traffic, increases branded searches, and often leads to additional links from readers. These behavioral signals correlate strongly with improved rankings, as Search Engine Journal has documented.
Natural Link Profile Diversification
A healthy backlink profile contains a mix of dofollow and nofollow links. Those PR mentions, even if nofollow, make your link profile more natural and resilient against penalties. As Morningscore summarizes, "High-quality nofollow links from authoritative websites like major news publications, Wikipedia, or industry forums can still provide value through potential ranking signals (now that Google considers them 'hints'), direct referral traffic, brand exposure, and natural diversification of your link profile."
Expert Consensus: Brand Mentions Drive Long-Term SEO Success
SEO thought leaders broadly agree on the value of authoritative brand mentions:
Rand Fishkin has long advocated for "brand signals" as essential ranking factors, highlighting how brand visibility creates virtuous SEO cycles.
Marie Haynes, an E-A-T specialist, consistently advises that off-site reputation building, including unlinked mentions, improves performance in Google's core updates.
Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, has acknowledged that while there's no explicit "brand boost" in the algorithm, "people recognize something as standing out... in terms of search, that may correlate with signals we use to reward content." Brands that stand out tend to accumulate the signals Google rewards.
Conclusion: Embrace the Full Spectrum of Digital Visibility
In 2025's SEO landscape, dismissing high-profile mentions because of a nofollow tag is shortsighted. Modern SEO isn't a simple game of link counting—it's about building a comprehensive digital presence that signals relevance, expertise, and trustworthiness.
Brand mentions in premium publications contribute to your entity footprint, strengthen your E-E-A-T signals, and often trigger secondary benefits like increased branded searches and organic links.
While unlinked or nofollow mentions won't catapult a low-quality site to page one overnight, they are essential pieces of a sophisticated SEO strategy. As Google's algorithms continue to evolve, the line between PR and SEO will blur further, making every authoritative mention a valuable asset in your digital marketing portfolio.
In the modern SEO ecosystem, quality trumps technical link attributes. A nofollow mention in The New York Times will ultimately deliver more SEO value than a dozen followed links from obscure blogs. Prioritize earning presence in spaces that matter, and the rankings will follow.
