If you have ever built a website, written a blog post, or tried to rank on Google, you have probably come across the terms dofollow and nofollow links. They get thrown around a lot in the SEO world, and honestly, the confusion is understandable. On the surface they look identical. You click them the same way. They take you to the same pages. But underneath the hood, they work in completely different ways — and understanding that difference could genuinely change how your website performs in search.
In this guide, I am going to break everything down in plain English. No jargon overload. No unnecessary fluff. Just a clear, honest explanation of what these two types of links are, why they matter to your SEO strategy, and how to use both of them wisely. Whether you are a blogger, a business owner, an SEO beginner, or someone who has been doing this for years, this article has something useful for you.
Let us start from the very beginning.
What Is a Hyperlink, Really?
Before we talk about dofollow and nofollow, it helps to understand what a link actually does in the context of search engines.
When you place a link from one website to another, you are doing two things at once. First, you are giving a human visitor a way to navigate from one page to another. Second — and this is the part that matters for SEO — you are sending a signal to search engines like Google.
That signal is often called link equity, or more casually, link juice. Think of it like a vote of confidence. When your website links to another website, you are essentially saying, “Hey Google, I think this other page is worth reading.” The more reputable your site is, the more weight that vote carries.
But here is the thing: not every link passes that vote of confidence. Some links are deliberately set up to withhold it. That is where dofollow and nofollow come in.
What Is a Dofollow Link?
A dofollow link is the default type of hyperlink on the internet. When you add a standard link in HTML, it looks like this:
<a href="https://www.example.com">Visit Example</a>
That is it. No special attribute. No extra tag. Just a plain anchor tag with a URL. By default, Google and other search engines will follow that link, crawl the destination page, and pass link equity from your page to theirs.
The term “dofollow” is a bit of a misnomer, by the way. There is no actual dofollow attribute in HTML. It is just what people call a link that has not been marked as nofollow. The internet adopted the term to give people a way to refer to links that pass SEO value.
Why Do Dofollow Links Matter?
Dofollow links are the backbone of off-page SEO. Here is why they are so important:
They build domain authority. When high-quality websites link to your content with dofollow links, Google interprets that as a sign that your content is trustworthy and valuable. Over time, this boosts your domain authority — a measure of how much Google trusts your overall website.
They improve your rankings. Pages with more high-quality dofollow backlinks tend to rank higher in search results. This is not a guess — it is one of Google’s most heavily weighted ranking factors, and it has been since the company launched its original PageRank algorithm in the late 1990s.
They drive referral traffic. Beyond SEO, dofollow links from popular websites can drive real human visitors to your pages. If a major blog in your industry links to one of your articles, their audience becomes your potential audience.
They help Google discover your pages. Search engine bots crawl the web by following links. Dofollow links help Google find your new pages faster, which means they get indexed and ranked sooner.
What Is a Nofollow Link?
A nofollow link is a link that includes a special HTML attribute telling search engines not to pass link equity to the destination. It looks like this in the code:
<a href="https://www.example.com" rel="nofollow">Visit Example</a>
That small addition — rel="nofollow" — changes everything from an SEO perspective. Google sees this tag and essentially says, “Okay, I will not count this as a vote of confidence for that page.”
Nofollow links were introduced by Google back in 2005. The reason was simple: comment spam had become a massive problem. People were flooding blog comment sections with links to their own websites, trying to game the ranking system. By creating the nofollow attribute, Google gave website owners a way to link to places without endorsing them for SEO purposes.
Why Do Nofollow Links Exist?
Today, nofollow links are used in a wide range of situations. Here are the most common:
Sponsored or paid content. If someone pays you to include a link in your article, Google wants you to flag that. Using rel="sponsored" (a newer variation introduced in 2019) or rel="nofollow" tells Google the link is commercial and should not be treated as an organic endorsement.
User-generated content. Forums, comment sections, and review platforms often apply nofollow automatically to links added by users. This protects the platform from being held responsible for link spam.
Untrusted or unvetted sources. If you need to reference a website but you are not sure about its credibility, or you simply do not want to endorse it, you can use nofollow to link to it without passing SEO value.
Affiliate links. Many publishers use nofollow or the sponsored attribute on their affiliate links to stay compliant with Google’s guidelines.
The Two New Nofollow Variants: UGC and Sponsored
In September 2019, Google introduced two new link attributes to give webmasters more precision:
rel="ugc" — UGC stands for User-Generated Content. This is meant for links within content created by users, such as comments, forum posts, and community contributions. It tells Google the link was added by someone other than the site owner.
rel="sponsored" — This is for paid or sponsored links. If you have been compensated for placing a link, whether through money, free products, or other incentives, Google recommends using this attribute.
Both of these attributes function similarly to nofollow in that they do not pass traditional link equity. However, Google said when it introduced them that it would treat them as “hints” rather than hard directives — meaning it might use them in certain ranking calculations, but it also might not. The traditional rel="nofollow" attribute was also updated to a “hint” at the same time, which caused some debate in the SEO community (more on that shortly).
Dofollow vs Nofollow: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Let me put this into a simple comparison so you can see the key differences at a glance.
| Feature | Dofollow Link | Nofollow Link |
|---|---|---|
| HTML attribute | None (default) | rel="nofollow" |
| Passes link equity | Yes | No (or minimal) |
| Affects rankings | Yes, directly | Indirectly or not at all |
| Used for | Organic endorsements | Paid, UGC, untrusted content |
| Google crawls the link | Yes | Possibly (treated as a hint) |
| Common on | Editorial articles, citations | Comments, ads, sponsored posts |
Does Google Always Ignore Nofollow Links?
This is where things get a little more nuanced, and it is something a lot of people get wrong.
Before 2019, Google’s official position was that nofollow links would never be used for ranking purposes. The search engine would see the tag and completely ignore the link. Straightforward.
But when Google updated the nofollow policy in 2019, it changed the language to say these attributes are now “hints.” That means Google may choose to follow and count nofollow links in some situations, at its own discretion.
What does this mean in practice? Honestly, most nofollow links still do not pass significant ranking power. However, the update acknowledged something that SEOs had suspected for years: Google is sophisticated enough to understand context, and an overwhelming number of nofollow links from high-authority sites pointing to your page is probably not being ignored entirely.
For the average website owner, the practical takeaway is this: dofollow links are still far more valuable for SEO than nofollow links, but nofollow links are not completely worthless either.
Do Nofollow Links Have Any SEO Value at All?
This is one of the most debated questions in SEO, and the honest answer is: yes, indirectly.
Here is how nofollow links can still benefit your website:
1. They Drive Real Traffic
A nofollow link on a high-traffic website still brings real visitors to your page. If the BBC or The Guardian links to your article — even with a nofollow tag — you will likely see a significant spike in referral traffic. That traffic can lead to new subscribers, customers, and yes, more organic links from people who discovered your content.
2. They Create a Natural Link Profile
Google does not expect every single link pointing to your website to be a dofollow link. In fact, a backlink profile that is entirely made up of dofollow links can look suspicious — like someone has been building links artificially. Having a natural mix of dofollow and nofollow links is actually a sign of a healthy, authentic website.
3. They Build Brand Awareness
Even if a nofollow link does not pass ranking power, being mentioned on reputable websites builds your brand’s credibility. People see your name, they recognise it, and over time that familiarity drives direct search traffic — people typing your brand name directly into Google.
4. They Can Lead to Dofollow Links Later
Getting a nofollow mention on a popular platform often leads to other writers and bloggers discovering your content — and those people might link to you with dofollow links. It is a chain reaction that starts with visibility.
How to Check Whether a Link Is Dofollow or Nofollow
You do not need expensive tools to check this. Here are three easy ways:
Method 1: Right-click and inspect. In any modern browser, right-click on a link and select “Inspect” or “Inspect Element.” Look for rel="nofollow" in the anchor tag. If it is not there, the link is dofollow by default.
Method 2: View page source. Press Ctrl+U (or Cmd+U on Mac) to view the raw HTML of any webpage. Then use Ctrl+F to search for “nofollow” to find all nofollow links on the page.
Method 3: Use browser extensions. Tools like NoFollow Simple or MozBar will visually highlight nofollow links on any page you visit, making it much quicker to spot them without diving into the code.
Method 4: Use SEO tools. Platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz will show you whether backlinks pointing to your site are dofollow or nofollow in their backlink reports. This is the best option for large-scale analysis.
When Should You Use Nofollow Links on Your Own Website?
If you run a website, knowing when to apply nofollow is just as important as knowing what it means. Here are the scenarios where you should use it:
Paid or sponsored links. If you are being compensated in any way for including a link, use rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Failing to do so violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can result in a manual penalty.
Affiliate links. Most SEOs recommend nofollowing affiliate links, both to comply with Google’s guidelines and to avoid passing ranking power to third-party affiliate programmes.
Comment sections. If your blog or forum allows user-submitted comments with links, apply nofollow automatically. Most modern CMS platforms like WordPress do this by default.
Links to unreliable sources. If you are citing a source you do not fully trust, or linking to a competitor without endorsing them, nofollow lets you include the link without passing any ranking benefit.
Login or registration pages. Internal pages like login screens, account creation pages, and thank-you pages often get nofollowed to prevent search engines from wasting crawl budget on pages that add no value to searchers.
Common Myths and Misconceptions About Nofollow Links
Let me clear up a few things I see misunderstood constantly:
Myth #1: Nofollow links are worthless and should be avoided. False. As we have discussed, nofollow links from authoritative sites still bring traffic, improve brand visibility, and contribute to a natural link profile. They are valuable — just not for direct ranking power.
Myth #2: You should always nofollow external links on your site. Also false. If you are genuinely recommending another website — say, citing a study, referencing an expert, or linking to a useful resource — you should let that link be dofollow. That is the natural, honest way to use links, and it is what Google rewards.
Myth #3: Adding nofollow to every outbound link protects your site. Not necessarily. Overdoing nofollow on legitimate, editorial outbound links can actually look unnatural and might signal to Google that you are being overly cautious or manipulative.
Myth #4: One dofollow backlink from a big site will instantly boost your rankings. The truth is more nuanced. One link helps, but sustained rankings come from a combination of consistent content, technical SEO, user experience, and a growing portfolio of quality backlinks over time.
Link Building Strategy: How to Get Dofollow Links
If dofollow links are what move the SEO needle, how do you actually go about getting them? Here is a realistic, sustainable approach:
Create Content Worth Linking To
The most reliable way to earn dofollow links is to publish content that is genuinely useful, unique, and well-researched. This includes original data and studies, comprehensive how-to guides, expert opinion pieces, and tools or resources that people in your industry actually use.
When your content becomes the go-to reference on a topic, other writers will naturally cite it. These organic editorial links are the most valuable kind you can get.
Guest Posting
Writing articles for reputable websites in your industry is one of the most effective link-building strategies. Most guest posts include at least one dofollow link back to the author’s website. Just make sure you are targeting quality sites — not low-quality link farms that exist purely to sell links.
Broken Link Building
This technique involves finding dead links on other websites and suggesting your content as a replacement. It is a genuinely helpful tactic because you are helping the website owner fix a problem while also earning yourself a quality link.
Digital PR and Outreach
Getting your brand featured in news articles, industry reports, and roundup pieces earns high-quality dofollow links from authoritative domains. This requires investment in outreach and relationship-building, but the results are often exceptional.
Reclaiming Unlinked Brand Mentions
Use tools like Google Alerts or Ahrefs Content Explorer to find places where your brand is mentioned without a link. Reach out to those publishers and politely ask them to turn the mention into a dofollow link. Since they already know about your brand, conversion rates on these outreach efforts tend to be high.
The Role of Internal Links: Dofollow by Default
It is worth mentioning that the dofollow vs nofollow debate is not just about links coming into your website from elsewhere. It also applies to the links within your website — your internal link structure.
By default, all internal links are dofollow. This means when you link from one of your blog posts to another, you are passing link equity around your own site and helping Google understand which pages are most important.
A well-structured internal linking strategy can significantly improve your rankings by ensuring your most important pages receive a strong flow of link equity from other pages on your site. Think of it like a river: you want the current to flow toward your most valuable pages.
Avoid nofollowing internal links unless you have a very specific reason — like the login page example mentioned earlier. Nofollowing too many internal links wastes the link equity that should be circulating through your site.
Dofollow and Nofollow in Social Media
Here is something many people do not realise: almost all links shared on social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit — are nofollow. This is a deliberate policy by these platforms to prevent SEO manipulation through social link spam.
So does that mean social media is useless for SEO? Not at all. Social media amplifies your content’s reach, which can lead to other people discovering it and linking to it with dofollow links on their own websites. Social signals also contribute indirectly to SEO through increased brand awareness and search volume.
Think of social media as the ignition, not the fuel. It helps spread your content to the people who will eventually provide the dofollow links that actually power your rankings.
How Google Evaluates Link Quality: It Is Not Just Dofollow vs Nofollow
Before we wrap up, it is important to understand that whether a link is dofollow or nofollow is just one factor in how Google evaluates its value. Several other factors matter just as much:
Domain authority of the linking site. A dofollow link from a low-quality, spammy website can actually hurt your rankings. A nofollow link from a high-authority domain like a major news outlet or university is far more beneficial overall.
Relevance. Links from websites that are topically relevant to your own carry more weight. A food blog linking to another food blog is more valuable than a car dealership linking to a food blog.
Anchor text. The clickable text of a link tells Google what the destination page is about. Natural, descriptive anchor text helps. Over-optimised, keyword-stuffed anchor text can trigger penalties.
Link placement. A link placed within the main body content of an article typically carries more weight than one buried in a sidebar or footer.
Freshness. Fresh links from recently published content can carry more short-term ranking power, especially for time-sensitive topics.
Final Thoughts: What You Should Actually Do
So here is the bottom line, stated simply:
If you are building backlinks for SEO purposes, prioritise dofollow links from reputable, relevant websites. These are the links that directly improve your rankings and build your domain’s authority over time.
Do not dismiss nofollow links. They contribute to brand visibility, referral traffic, and a natural link profile. A healthy website will have a mix of both.
On your own site, use nofollow appropriately. Apply it to paid links, affiliate links, user-generated content, and any links you do not want to editorially endorse. Leave your genuine, editorial outbound links as dofollow — it is the natural, honest way to use the web.
Focus on earning links, not gaming them. The most reliable long-term SEO strategy is to create content so good that people naturally want to link to it. Algorithm updates come and go, but genuinely valuable content and authentic editorial links have remained the core of Google’s ranking philosophy for over two decades.
Links are the original currency of the web. Understanding the difference between dofollow and nofollow puts you in a far stronger position to build something that lasts — a website that ranks because it genuinely deserves to.
Quick Reference Summary
- Dofollow links pass SEO value (link equity) from one page to another. They are the default type of hyperlink and are the most important for improving your search rankings.
- Nofollow links include
rel="nofollow"in their HTML and do not (typically) pass link equity. They are used for paid content, user submissions, and untrusted sources. rel="ugc"is used for user-generated content links (comments, forums).rel="sponsored"is used for paid or affiliate links.- Both types of links have value — dofollow for rankings, nofollow for traffic and natural link profiles.
- Always use nofollow for paid and affiliate links to stay compliant with Google’s guidelines.
- Focus your link-building strategy on earning dofollow links through great content, digital PR, and authentic relationship-building in your industry.