When one website links to another, that link can either be a dofollow link or a nofollow link. Both types of links help users navigate between websites, but they send different signals to search engines like Google.
Understanding the difference between these two types of backlinks is important for building a strong SEO strategy.
What Is a Dofollow Backlink?
A dofollow backlink is the standard type of link that allows search engines to pass authority from one website to another. In SEO, this transfer of authority is often called “link juice.”
When a high-quality website gives you a dofollow backlink, it can help improve your website’s:
- Domain Authority (DA)
- Domain Rating (DR)
- Search engine rankings
- Organic traffic
The more quality dofollow backlinks your website earns, the better your chances of ranking higher on Google.
By default, all links are considered dofollow unless they contain a special tag telling search engines otherwise.
What Is a Nofollow Backlink?
A nofollow backlink is a link that tells search engines not to pass authority to the linked website.
This is done by adding the attribute:
rel="nofollow"
to the link’s HTML code.
While nofollow links don’t directly boost SEO rankings like dofollow links, they still have value and can bring visitors to your website.
When Should You Use Nofollow Links?
Nofollow links are useful when you don’t want to endorse or pass authority to another website.
Common situations include:
- Sponsored or paid links
- Affiliate links
- Blog comments
- User-generated content
- Untrusted external websites
Search engines first introduced the nofollow attribute in 2005 to help fight comment spam. Website owners were seeing people leave spammy links in comment sections just to gain SEO benefits.
Adding nofollow tags solved that problem by preventing those links from passing authority.
Are Nofollow Backlinks Bad?
Not at all.
Although nofollow links don’t pass link juice, they still offer several benefits:
- They can drive referral traffic
- They help create a natural backlink profile
- They increase brand visibility
- They diversify your link portfolio
In fact, having only dofollow backlinks can look unnatural to search engines. A healthy backlink profile usually contains a mix of both dofollow and nofollow links.
How to Check if a Link Is Dofollow or Nofollow
You can easily check whether a link is dofollow or nofollow using your browser.
Here’s how:
- Right-click on the link
- Select Inspect
- Look at the HTML code
If you see:
rel="nofollow"
then it’s a nofollow link.
If you don’t see that attribute, the link is most likely a dofollow link.
You can also use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to analyze backlinks more easily.
Final Thoughts
Dofollow and nofollow backlinks both play important roles in SEO.
- Dofollow links help improve rankings by passing authority.
- Nofollow links help diversify your backlink profile and can still drive valuable traffic.
A balanced combination of both types of backlinks is the best approach for building a strong and natural SEO strategy.
If you’d like help with backlink building or improving your website’s SEO performance, feel free to get in touch with our team.
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