JNofollow — Documentation

1) Install

Install the ZIP via System → Extensions → Install. After a success message, proceed to enable and configure the plugin.

2) Enable & Configure

Open System → Manage → Plugins and search for Content – JNofollow by SEO NW. Enable it and open the settings.

3) All Options Explained

Processing

• Plugin enabled — Master switch for processing.
• Category filter — Restrict processing to selected categories (others remain unchanged).
• Debug log — Writes processing details to Joomla’s log (category plg_content_nofollow).

rel handling

• rel mode
  • Keep — preserve existing rel and extend with configured tokens.
  • Overwrite — replace existing rel entirely.
• Include noopener — add for safer new-tab behavior.
• Include noreferrer — hide referrer (SEO/analytics impact).
• Extra rel values — optional tokens like ugc, sponsored.

target handling

• target mode
  • Keep — leave as set in the editor.
  • Always _blank — open external links in a new tab.

Class filter

• Class mode
  • Exclude — process all links except those with the listed classes.
  • Include — process only links that contain at least one of the listed classes.
• Class list — space- or comma-separated class names (no leading dot).

Allow/Deny lists

• Domain whitelist — treat these domains as internal (no external processing). One domain per line, e.g. example.com. Subdomains are included automatically.
• Domain blacklist — always force rel="nofollow" for these domains (overrides any bypass). One domain per line.

Bypass rules (optional)

• Bypass via rel tokens — if the link already has one of the selected tokens (noopener, noreferrer, ugc, sponsored) and does not contain nofollow, the link stays follow.
• Bypass via CSS classes — links with any of these classes stay follow (e.g. follow).
• Bypass via data-follow — if a link has data-follow="1|true|yes", it stays follow.
• Remove existing nofollow when bypass matches — if enabled and a bypass rule applies, an existing nofollow is removed.
• Priority note: The blacklist has higher priority than any bypass rule.

4) Article Switches

Use the following tokens inside article content to exclude processing:

• Exclude entire article:
• Exclude a section: … content …
• Backward-compatibility: …

5) Whitelist & Blacklist

Whitelist

Enter one domain per line (no protocol, no path). Examples:

example.com
partner.tld
docs.example.org

Subdomains are included automatically — example.com covers www.example.com, blog.example.com, etc.

Blacklist

Enter one domain per line. Blacklisted domains always receive rel="nofollow", even if a bypass rule would normally apply.

6) Per-Link Bypass

• rel tokens — If a link already contains one of your allowed tokens (e.g., rel="noopener") and does not contain nofollow, it stays follow.
• CSS classes — Add a class like follow to force follow.
• data attribute — Add data-follow="1" (or true/yes) to force follow.
• Optional cleanup — If enabled, existing nofollow is removed when a bypass matches.

7) Examples

Site-wide enforcement

Input:

<a href="https://example.com">Example</a>

Output (keep or overwrite mode depending on your setting):

<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Example</a>

Keep a single link as follow (bypass via rel token)

Input:

<a href="https://partner.tld" rel="noopener">Partner</a>

Output:

<a href="https://partner.tld" rel="noopener">Partner</a>

Force follow via CSS class

<a href="https://partner.tld" class="follow">Partner</a>

Force follow via data attribute

<a href="https://partner.tld" data-follow="1">Partner</a>

Exclude a section in an article

<p>This section is not processed by JNofollow.</p>

8) Troubleshooting

• Still seeing nofollow on a bypassed link?
  Ensure the link does not already contain nofollow and that your bypass option(s) are enabled. Remember: the blacklist overrides bypass.
• Settings not applied?
  Clear Joomla and OPcache, then resave the plugin settings.
• Logs
  Enable Debug log and check plg_content_nofollow entries in the Joomla logs to see decision details per link.

9) Compatibility

• Joomla: 4 & 5
• PHP: tested with PHP 8.0–8.4
• License: GPLv3

10) Support

Questions or ideas? Visit jnofollow.com/support or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Maintained by Alexander Müller — SEO NW.