Did you know that pages in the top 10 of Google results have an average of 31 links from unique domains, as compared to 9 for those outside the top 10?
When other domains point to your website, Google considers it as a positive sign for your website’s content and authority. This means that the more authoritative domains and high-quality websites point to your website, the better your website performs in the search rankings.
These links pointing to your website are called backlinks. They have been the cornerstone of SEO for quite a long time, and numerous studies have shown how effective they are. They transfer some of the traffic and authority from their source website, to your website. This is called link juice. This is why your rankings, and your authority both rise if you keep acquiring good backlinks.
However, backlinks are not all-positive. Link juice is equally as powerful, if not more, if it comes from toxic and spammy websites. If your website gets a lot of backlinks from poor sources, your website’s rankings might fall, as Google starts considering you as toxic and problematic.
A way to go around handling the positive and negative effects of backlinks is through the use of ‘dofollow’ and ‘nofollow’ tags.
What Does Dofollow Link Mean?
Dofollow is an attribute in HTML that is attached to a hyperlink. It tells the search engine crawlers that this link is to be followed to its destination website, consequently transferring link juice, whether positive or negative.
By default, all links are ‘dofollow’ links, and you do not need to add this attribute manually for experiencing the positive effects of backlinks. Here is an example of a dofollow link:
“<a href=”https://www.example.com”>Visit Example.com</a>”
Backlinko’s research found that the top 5% of pages with the most backlinks receive over 40% of all organic traffic for their target keywords. This shows us how crucial and how large of an effect backlinks actually have.
What does nofollow mean?
‘nofollow’ is an HTML attribute that can be attached to hyperlinks in order to stop search engine crawlers by Google from tracking the link to its destination and transferring SEO value to the destination website.
By default, all links are dofollow. Therefore, to make a link nofollow, a ‘rel=nofollow’ tag has to be added to the URL. Once it is added, the search engine ignores the link so that no transfer of authority takes place. Here is an example of a nofollow link:
“<a href=”https://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Visit Example.com</a>”
One thing to be kept in mind is, the people viewing the source page of the link can still click the link and arrive at your website, as it still looks and functions like a dofollow link. Only the transfer of authority and signals to Google are stopped, traffic can still be transferred normally through nofollow links.
What is the difference between ‘dofollow’ and ‘nofollow’ links?
As you might have gauged from their meanings, there are many differences between dofollow and nofollow links.
The key differences are:
- Use in SEO: The main difference between dofollow and nofollow links is their use in SEO. High-quality dofollow backlinks improve SEO for a website, and lead to better rankings whereas nofollow links are ignored by search engines for ranking purposes.
Therefore, SEO professionals aim to get as many dofollow links from reputable websites as possible as search engines consider them endorsements of the destination website. - Nature of Links: All naturally created links are dofollow by nature, whereas nofollow links have to be created by adding the ‘rel=nofollow’ attribute to links.
- Indexation: Search engines use links to reach, discover, and index new content. Dofollow links allow this process to happen, whereas nofollow links are not followed by search engines, therefore no discovery of content or indexation is done through them.
- Flow of authority: Do follow links pass a bit authority to other websites while no follow links do not. For any website, getting this bit of authority is really crucial for any business.
Tip: Do not blindly follow Do follow links. It is really important to maintain a healthy balance of do follow and no follow links. Make sure you have 70:30 ratio of do follow to no follow links.
Harms of ‘dofollow’ Backlinks from Low-Quality Sources
As previously stated, backlinks transfer SEO value or ‘link juice’ from the referring domain to the destination domain. This works in favor of your website if the backlinks are coming in from reputable sources and high authority websites, as these lead to better rankings and higher trust by Google.
However, backlinks from low-quality spammy websites, or websites hosting questionable content such as content regarding cannabis, adult entertainment, gambling, etc. can negatively impact your SEO efforts, and lead to a loss of trust or even penalties by Google.
This is why it is important to manage your backlink profile by effectively using ‘dofollow’ and ‘nofollow’ tags. If you absolutely have to link to a website, but aren’t sure of its quality and trustworthiness, then you can use a ‘nofollow’ tag to link to them, without harming your SEO efforts.
How to check if a link is dofollow or nofollow?
There are a lot of ways you can check whether a link is dofollow or nofollow. Some of them are:
- Inspect Element: Right click on the link you want to check on a web page and click ‘Inspect Element’. A popup window opens from the right side in which you can see the HTML code for the link. Check if the link has a ‘rel=nofollow’ present in the HTML code.
If the nofollow tag exists, the link is nofollow and the search engines will ignore it, if it’s not there, then the link is a dofollow link that will be considered for SEO value, indexation, and rankings.
- SEO Tools: Many SEO tools such as Moz, SEMrush, NoFollow, SEOQuake, etc. can tell whether a link is dofollow or nofollow. They can also be helpful to SEOs in tracking traffic from links and overall backlink profile.
- Page Source: If you right click on any webpage, you can see an option to ‘View Source’. DOing that opens the entire page’s HTML. You can search the HTML of the page to see whether a ‘rel=nofollow’ tag exists. If it does, the link is being ignored by search engines, otherwise it’s a dofollow link.
How to get dofollow links for your website?
- Create High-Quality Content: Develop valuable and engaging content that naturally attracts backlinks from reputable sites. This is the backbone of trying to get links, if you do not have good content, no one is going to want to link to you.
- Guest Blogging: Contribute articles to authoritative blogs or websites within your niche, including a “dofollow” link back to your site. Guest blogging can also help you tap into a broader audience and get your voice heard.
- Build Relationships: Network with industry influencers and webmasters to secure backlinks from their reputable sites. Outreach campaigns for link building and content collaborations can also contribute in a similar way.
- Engage in Public Relations: Gain media coverage and backlinks from news outlets and industry publications by sharing newsworthy content. Make industry leading reports, or cover news and major insights about your industry to encourage PR links.
- Participate in Industry Forums: Contribute to relevant forums and communities where you can include a link to your site in your profile or signature. This can also increase your brand’s presence across the web and industries.
Conclusion
Backlinks are essential if you have to scale your website to a larger audience and get the top rankings. However, this is only when used comprehensively with other efforts such as high-quality content, a sizable social media effort, and so on. Utilizing dofollow and nofollow becomes second nature to a content marketer after some time, and maintaining backlink profiles gets easier.
At Mohit’s SEO Training, we provide an exhaustive hands-on SEO course to make you job-ready. Rather than focusing on the theory, we ensure teaching you the practical applications of SEO. Along with the Advanced SEO Training in Bangalore, we are an Organic SEO Consulting Company as well. If you are looking for a full proof SEO Strategy for your business, do contact us.
FAQs
What is the ratio of dofollow and nofollow links?
The ideal ratio of dofollow to nofollow links depends on the context, however, industry experts and SEO professionals suggest an 80:20 split between dofollow and nofollow links. The focus should be on getting high-quality links.
What is the purpose of a no follow link?
A nofollow link can still drive traffic to your website and serve as a pointer to your resources. It’s only ignored for ranking purposes. It can also help pointing towards or from websites that aren’t trustworthy, if linking is essential.
What is a do follow backlink?
A dofollow link is a link that points to a website and also serves as a signal to Google endorsing the quality of the destination website’s quality and trust. Dofollow links increase SEO value.
Do no follow backlinks help SEO?
Yes, nofollow backlinks can also help SEO by driving traffic and encouraging viewership of your website.
