\You may have heard that backlinks act as credibility votes on Google (heck, we mention it on this blog all the time).
However, this mainly applies to dofollow backlinks.
If a backlink is marked with the nofollow HTML tag, it tells search engines not to count the link towards the website’s SEO.
Conversely, the dofollow HTML tag does the opposite. It tells search engines to count the backlink as an endorsement of your content’s quality, accuracy, and trustworthiness.
Does this mean that nofollow backlinks aren’t worth building?
While it may seem that way at first, nofollow backlinks are still valuable.
Even though they won’t have as strong of an impact on your rankings (there’s evidence that they still provide some, but more on this later), they can still:
- Generate referral traffic
- Raise brand awareness
- Balance out your backlink profile and make it appear more natural
These are all significant benefits, so you should aim to build a mix of dofollow and nofollow backlinks, which is what we’re going to show you today!
Stick around to learn everything you need to know about dofollow vs. nofollow links, including how to identify them quickly.
What are Backlinks, Anyway?
Before we explore dofollow and nofollow links, it’s important that we quickly clarify what backlinks are and why they matter for SEO.
If this isn’t your first rodeo, feel free to skip this section!
A backlink is a link on another website that directs back to your website.
For example, here’s a backlink to our site on Semrush’s website:
They chose to link to our case study page to exemplify what strong case studies look like (we have an entire page dedicated to our success stories).
Thus, linking to us made sense because it provides a valuable resource to their readers. Also, the fact that they linked out to us means they’re endorsing our content.
That brings us to why backlinks matter on search engines.
Remember how we said backlinks are commonly called ‘credibility votes’?
It’s because Google’s search algorithm views backlinks as endorsements of a website’s quality.
Each backlink carries what SEOs refer to as ‘link juice,’ which you can think of as authority or ranking power.
For a backlink to have lots of link juice, it must:
- Come from a trusted website. Backlinks on low-quality websites won’t carry as much clout as links coming from high-quality sites that Google trusts.
- Be relevant. The only way backlinks count toward your search rankings is if they relate to your website’s content. Irrelevant backlinks aren’t worth building.
- Have the dofollow HTML tag. As we’ll cover more thoroughly in a bit, the dofollow HTML tag means the site owner wants to pass authority to the site it links to.
The backlink above checks all these boxes, as Semrush is one of the most trusted names in SEO. It’s also a relevant link since it directly relates to the topic of the blog and our services (SEO case studies). Lastly, it’s a dofollow backlink because the folks at Semrush wanted to endorse our high-quality case study page.
Backlinks are a hugely important part of SEO, and they’re a top ranking factor on search engines like Google. The entire practice of link-building centers around building backlinks, so it’s critical to know what they are and why they matter.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the specifics of dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
What are Dofollow Backlinks?
The dofollow and nofollow tags give site owners the power to choose which backlinks they endorse and which they do not.
The dofollow tag is a green light for passing link juice, and is the site owner’s way of saying, “This is good content and we vouch for it.”
A dofollow backlink from a high-quality domain is kind of like a mini letter of recommendation.
Therefore, dofollow backlinks will have the most impact on your search rankings.
This means that most of the links you try to build intentionally should be dofollow links, although that’s not always the case.
The importance of balancing dofollow and nofollow backlinks
As stated in the intro, it’s important to maintain a natural-looking backlink profile that contains a balance of dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
Why does this matter?
It does because Google’s algorithm can detect unnatural backlink profiles. Google does NOT want websites to artificially manipulate their algorithms just to rank higher, as that could mean ranking dangerous or misleading content at the top of page one.
This is why they have search guidelines in place that prohibit things like buying backlinks, using link farms, and setting up PBNs (private blog networks).
If the algorithm detects an unusually high number of dofollow backlinks pointing to your site, it may see this as a sign of manipulation, which could lead to manual actions (penalties).
To Google, a truly high-quality website will acquire a mix of dofollow and nofollow backlinks naturally due to the strength of its content. As a result, the algorithm expects to see backlinks from news sites, social media profiles, forum comments, and other types of nofollow backlinks.
What are the benefits of dofollow backlinks?
Okay, now that you know why achieving a balance is ideal, let’s look at the primary benefits of dofollow backlinks:
- Better search rankings. Since dofollow backlinks pass link juice, they have a direct impact on your content’s search rankings. The more dofollow backlinks you have from trusted websites, the more you’ll build trust with Google, making it easier to rank higher.
- Generate more organic traffic. The whole point of ranking at the top of page one is to generate more traffic, which is thankfully what it does. If you’re able to improve your rankings with your dofollow backlinks, you’ll start generating more traffic as a result. If you do your keyword research right, the traffic will come from qualified prospects, increasing the chances of converting them into leads and customers.
- Faster indexing. For any website to appear in Google’s search results, it has to show up in its index first, which can be easier said than done. Crawling the internet takes time and energy, which is why Google uses crawl budgets. However, if you have lots of dofollow backlinks, it’ll be easier for Google’s bots to crawl your content and make sense of your website, which leads to quicker indexing.
- Boosted credibility. As long as you build backlinks on trusted websites, you’ll start to build your brand’s reputation. Not only will your rankings improve, but users will start to notice your brand popping up on important industry websites, which can help establish you as a thought leader in your field.
These attractive benefits are why dofollow backlinks are such a powerful SEO asset.
How to build dofollow backlinks
Most link-building strategies center almost entirely around acquiring dofollow backlinks from relevant, trusted websites.
While the goal is always a backlink, the way you build them is what changes from strategy to strategy.
Here’s a brief look at some of the most popular dofollow link-building strategies in use today:
- Guest posting. This technique involves targeting websites in your niche that accept guest posts. From there, you reach out to the site owner via email to pitch an idea for a blog post. If they like it, you’ll get to create a post on their website, earning you a backlink in the process. This technique is so popular because it’s A) very effective and B) a great way to generate referral traffic.
- Link insertions. A strategy that’s gained popularity recently is to target link insertions, which are also called niche edits. This is where you reach out to site owners to request that they insert a link to one of your pages in an existing piece of content. An example would be finding a blog where it makes sense to link to one of your products. A perk of this method is that it doesn’t involve any original content creation.
- Fixing broken links. Nobody likes broken links, but they’re something every site owner has to deal with regardless. Savvy digital marketers found out that they could build backlinks by fixing broken links on other websites, which is a technique that’s still in heavy use today. In particular, you should look for broken links on relevant websites that have content similar to yours. That will increase the chances that you find a broken link that’s easy to replace (like if you have a similar blog post to one that’s broken).
To learn more about link-building techniques, check out our Learning Hub guide.
What are Nofollow Backlinks?
The nofollow HTML tag lets site owners link out to sites but withhold their endorsement.
This means that very little link juice passes through.
Notice that we didn’t say ‘no’ link juice, because that’s not true.
Granted, when nofollow was first introduced, it really did negate any influence nofollow backlinks had on Google’s algorithms. However, that’s no longer the case.
Here it is straight from the horse’s mouth (an official post on Google’s blog):
As you can see, Google now considers all link attributes (including nofollow) when determining its search results.
However, the link juice you’ll receive will be minimal, and you’ll still get way more from dofollow backlinks.
We just wanted to clarify that the commonly repeated statement that ‘nofollow links are useless for SEO’ isn’t true anymore.
The benefits of nofollow backlinks
So, why would anyone ever want to actively build nofollow backlinks?
There are a few reasons why, so let’s take a look at the main benefits of using nofollow backlinks:
- Preventing spam. This first benefit is from a site owner’s perspective, so it’s important to bear that in mind. Let’s say that you notice a user on your blog who keeps linking to their shady ******** site in the comments section. By hitting all user-generated content with a nofollow attribute, you won’t pass much link juice to these pages, which will discourage spammers from continuing the practice.
- Avoid penalties from search engines. As mentioned previously, a balance of dofollow and nofollow links is necessary for your backlink profile to appear natural. As such, building some nofollow links will avoid suspicions of spam and manipulation.
- Generate referral traffic. Even if you build a nofollow link on another website, it’s still a hyperlink that users can click on. This means you stand to generate referral traffic from each nofollow link you build. This is why press releases are a popular link-building tactic, even though Google requires all links contained in press releases to be nofollow.
- Build brand awareness. Just as nofollow links can still generate traffic, they can also raise brand awareness. Even if a user doesn’t click on one of your links, they may still remember your brand name just by seeing it (especially if it’s catchy or clever).
Popular nofollow links include links coming from social media sites, forum comments (without being spammy), and links in press releases.
How to Check if a Backlink is Dofollow or Nofollow
Before we wrap things up, you’re probably wondering how you can tell if a backlink is dofollow or nofollow.
After all, if you have no way of distinguishing the two, what’s the point?
The good news is there are plenty of ways to identify dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
Here are 3 methods to do so!
Method #1: Using your web browser’s inspect tool
The first method is the most technical, but it’s actually really easy to do.
Right-click on any link you want to inspect, and click on Inspect or Inspect Element.
If you’re using Safari on a Mac, you’ll need to go to Settings > Advanced Settings and make sure Show features for web developers is enabled.
This will add the Develop drop-down menu to the Safari bar at the top of the page. From there, you’ll be able to inspect the web page and individual elements.
What are you looking for when inspecting a link?
In the HTML, look for the <a> tag that corresponds with the link you’re inspecting. If you see a ‘rel=nofollow’ element, it means the link is nofollow. If there is no such tag, then it’s a dofollow link.
Here’s an example of a nofollow tag on a Reddit comment (since it’s user-generated content, they made it nofollow to discourage spam).
Let’s right-click on the link and hit Inspect Element:
This will take us straight to the link’s HTML, where we can clearly see the nofollow tag:
If you’re ever curious whether a link is dofollow or not, this method is typically pretty quick and easy.
Method #2: Using our free backlink checker tool
Next, you can always use our completely free backlink checker tool.
It will show you any website’s backlinks, including whether the link is dofollow or nofollow. Simply enter the URL you want to check and hit View Backlinks Report.
Here’s what some of our backlinks look like as an example:
As you can see, each backlink is clearly marked dofollow or nofollow. You also get to view the percentage of dofollow links the domain has, which comes in handy when analyzing competitors.
Method #3: Using Ahrefs
While our free tool is great, a paid service like Ahrefs will provide a more comprehensive solution.
Sign into Ahrefs, and then navigate to the Site Explorer tool. Enter the URL you want to check, and hit the Search button.
From the Overview, navigate to the Backlinks report on the left-hand sidebar.
Here, you’ll get to see a complete list of the website’s backlinks. At the top of the page, you can choose whether to show dofollow or nofollow links with this filter:
This will help you quickly identify all of a domain’s dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
Wrapping Up: Dofollow vs. Nofollow Backlinks
Alright, we covered a lot so let’s do a quick refresher:
- Dofollow and nofollow tags let site owners choose the links they endorse and the links they don’t.
- Building a balance of both link types is essential for building a natural backlink profile.
- Dofollow backlinks pass the most link juice and are most impactful on search rankings.
- Nofollow backlinks still pass some link juice but can also generate traffic and raise brand awareness.
- You can use your web browser, our free tool, or Ahrefs to identify dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
Do you need help putting together a winning SEO strategy that includes a mix of dofollow and nofollow backlinks?
HOTH X, our fully managed service, will simplify your SEO success, and that includes a comprehensive link-building strategy that combines dofollow and nofollow backlinks, so you should definitely check it out.
Don’t wait to get in touch for a free SEO consultation to discuss your needs in more detail!
