Nofollow Vs DoFollow Links: Complete Guide

What is a Nofollow Link?

A link with the rel=”nofollow” property in its HTML code is referred to as a nofollow link. Search engines are informed by this property not to transfer authority from the linking page to the destination page. Nofollow links therefore have very little value from an SEO perspective.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN introduced the nofollow tag in 2005 to combat comment spam by allowing webmasters to penalize specific links.

Nofollow Vs DoFollow

The existence of the rel=”nofollow” tag is the only technical distinction between a nofollow link and a typical “dofollow” link.

The practical distinction is that nofollow links don’t convey link equity, or “link juice,” 

With a nofollow backlink, the linking page doesn’t transfer its authority to your page, to put it another way. Your ranks won’t rise, and no PageRank will be transferred.

What do you mean by DoFollow Link?

In contrast to links that don’t pass authority, those that do are referred to as “dofollow links.

“Since there is no rel=”dofollow” attribute, it is technically incorrect to call it that. Regarding this, certain SEOs are pretty strict.

When should you use nofollow links?

1. Pages that you don’t want to endorse
   
   There are occasions when you must just link to websites that you don’t wish to recommend.
   
   
2. Sponsored Link
   
   Google’s policies categorically forbid the practise of buying links.As a result, you don’t want the website getting the link to be flagged by Google, but you also shouldn’t be selling links outright on your website.
   
   For example: if you pay for a  banner advertisement on a website, Google mandates that the link in the banner be nofollowed.
   
   
3. Affiliate Links:
   
   This and the earlier point are pretty similar. Even though affiliate links aren’t technically “sponsored links” per se, it’s still a good idea to nofollow them.
   
   For affiliate links, using rel=”sponsored” is recommended
   
   
4. User- Generated Contents
   
   Any time a visitor can add a link to your website (often in the form of a comments or a forum post), that link should be immediately nofollowed.
   There’s a special attribute for this case: rel=”ugc”

Are Nofollow links still useful for SEO?

There has always been a heated discussion surrounding the potential effects of nofollow links on rankings.

Does a nofollow link from a relevant website article really have the same SEO benefit as one from a spammy remark on an arbitrary website?

We are unsure. But even if nofollow links don’t convey any link equity at all, they nevertheless have other unintended advantages.

1. They could give google a hint
   
   In 2019, Google made the following announcement in conjunction with the introduction of new attributes:
   
   Why does it matter?
   
   Well, no one is certain. One interpretation of the data is that Google may choose to “ignore” the nofollow property in some circumstances. It might be only for crawling and indexing, or it might be for ranking purposes.
   
   
2. They broaden your link profile.
   
   There will always be dofollow and nofollow backlinks in a natural link profile. It can appear strange to have only dofollow links or too many dofollow links.
   
   You don’t have to actively seek out nofollow links or worry about the dofollow/nofollow ratio, for example (unless you actively build links at scale). There isn’t and never has been an optimal number.
   
   Anyhow, having nofollow backlinks is common and has no negative effects on your website.
   
   
3. They may increase your traffic.
   
   There is undoubtedly a difference in the potential traffic these two links have, even if there were no difference from the perspective of “PageRank.”
   
   A well-placed nofollow link from a pertinent website with lots of visits can nevertheless drive a lot of beneficial traffic to you even if there is no SEO advantage. And increasing traffic is the main goal of SEO.

How can I tell if a link is nofollow?

To determine whether a link is nofollow or follow, there are several methods:

• Analyze the source code.
• Use some browser extension
• Use any backlink analysis tools

Is it ok to have no follow links?

Yes it is

Of course, obtaining dofollow links from reputable websites is usually preferable from an SEO perspective.

If there isn’t a clear purpose for using the nofollow attribute, you can always get in touch with the webmaster and request that he remove it.

However, you shouldn’t stress too much about nofollow backlinks. They’re organic, they might provide extra benefits (as we already discussed), and as your site expands, you’ll still obtain an increasing number of them.

To know about toxic backlinks, do check our latest article now.

I hope you now understand the fundamentals of Do Follow and No Follow links. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment area.