Dofollow vs Nofollow Link: Which One is Better?

There is a lot of confusion among webmasters between Dofollow vs Nofollow links, few people think that dofollow links are the only links which they need to rank higher in search result pages.

And others think that nofollow links are of no use because they think they might not contribute to the ranking of their website.

But you don’t need to worry about anything because in this post I am going to explain all the differences between nofollow and dofollow and their importance.

What are Dofollow Links?

These are links that are followed by search engine crawlers. In simple words, they continue to crawl other pages they discover through these links, and while doing so they pass on link equity. Link equity is the vote of trust and quality for the target URL.

What are Nofollow Links?

When users look at the links on web pages, they can’t differentiate between nofollow and follow just by looking at it. But when it comes to the Google search engine, it can identify the difference between both.

Nofollow links are the links with rel= “Nofollow” attribute in the HTML code.

The differences between nofollow and follow lie in HTML Code

In the below image, you can see in the first example that has a follow link, but this is not the case with the second as it has rel=” Nofollow” tag hence, it is a nofollow link.

The nofollow tag indicates the search engines ignore these links and they do not influence the rankings of the target URL because Google does not transfer link equity. In fact, Google doesn’t even crawl nofollow links, as a result, these links do not help the target website in ranking.

You may ask a question here which is if nofollow links don’t add any value in ranking then why do we need it. In Search engine optimization they carry completely different values for webmasters. Which I will explain later in this article.

As we discussed above, nofollow links don’t help in the ranking to the target page but dofollow links have their role in page ranking.

Here the important thing to know is, all the links on the internet without nofollow attribute by default follow links.

How Can You Check Whether a Link is DoFollow or Nofollow?

If you want to check content and comment links on the webpage are dofollow or nofollow, for that you need to follow the given steps to check the HTML code for the nofollow attribute. 

Right-click on the webpage where you want to check whether the link is dofollow or nofollow then click on “view page source”.

When you click on the view page source, you will be redirected to the ‘HTML code’ of the page.

Then you just need to copy the anchor text of the link and again goto source page, then press control + F and paste the anchor text in the text field. This will take you to your link where you can check whether it is dofollow or nofollow link.

There is another way to check the link whether the link has a dofollow or no follow attribute.

Just right click on the link anchor text, then select inspect after that browser console will be open in your side window. From there you can clearly see the details of your link.

Chrome Extension For Link Analysis

Here is an amazing chrome extension that you can use to save your lots of time by checking each link manually. You just need to download the “Nofollow” extension to your browser.

The rest of the job is done by this tool automatically for you, it will mark nofollow links on the webpage in red.

In this image, you can see how clearly this tool highlighted the nofollow link on this website.

How You Can Monitor Your Backlink Profile

It is very important to monitor your backlink profile, the reason for this is simple.

By doing so you will make sure that there are no spammy backlinks that could affect your website ranking or trigger a Google penalty. So it’s great to find them and get rid of them as soon as possible.

There is a great tool out there that can help you to do this task smartly. You can accomplish this by using the Ahref tool site explorer feature.

You just need to insert the domain name of the website which you want to audit, then Ahref will show all the backlink profile data reports.

How To Check The Total Number Of Dofollow And Nofollow Links

You can check the percentage of dofollow vs. nofollow links with the help of Ahrefs site explorer.

Just follow these simple steps, go to Ahrefs site explorer, enter the domain or URL you want to check then check the overview report.

You can see in the report that 52 out of 147 referring domains have Dofollow links, it means 35.3% of links are dofollow. It means this website has a diversified link profile.

Nofollow Links build awareness for your website by driving traffic, and traffic has dofollow links as well so you should keep a good balance of both.

Ways to Get Free Backlinks 

Ask Your Friends for Backlinks

In this digital world, you can easily find people around you who have their websites. you just need to approach them in the right way.

Always remember you are adding value when asking for a backlink. For example, if your friend loves the facts about tech gadgets and your new content covers the topic of a new gadget which is launched recently, then you have a higher possibility of getting a link from him.

Create a compelling outreach message and send the request for the backlink.

Become Guest on Podcasts

You can talk about your website and get high-quality backlinks, it is possible by appearing on your industry-related podcasts.

Do you know that most of the podcasts are based on interviewing new guests? It is mandatory for them to bring new people on their podcast to keep their show going on. By requesting them for a guest’s appearance on their show you are actually helping them.

Steps for getting free backlinks from podcast

Start with searching on Google for industry-related podcasts for example, if you’re running a recipe website and want to earn a backlink for that, then you need to look for your industry related podcast opportunity like “Table Talk”, “Home Cooking”, “The Food Seen”.

Then visit the podcast website and look for information on how to become a guest. Some podcasts have a dedicated page for that where you can pitch yourself and request for the guest opportunity.

Importance of Nofollow Link

Nofollow links from a high Domain Authority website can help in SEO. How let’s see, suppose if you get a nofollow link from a high DA website like Wikipedia which has very high monthly traffic.

The general users of that website don’t know or care about follow or nofollow, If he needs to know more on the topic then he will click on the link and read the following webpage.

So from this type of link, you can get lots of quality traffic to your website. Even if you ignore the role of nofollow links in SEO ranking, they do play some important role in building website traffic and link diversification.

Nofollow Link Help in Diversifying Your Link

Common links with Nofollow attribute

Blog comments
Social media
Links in forum posts
Links from “widgets”
Links in press releases

Few popular websites that use the Nofollow attribute.

Quora
YouTube
Wikipedia
Reddit
Medium

Nofollow Links Are Part of a Natural Link Profile

If your link profile looks unnatural, you’re at risk for a Google penalty.

Let’s define what is an unnatural link profile, take this analogy as an example for better understanding. If in real life someone wants to know about your character and he asks the people who know you.

And if everyone gives a positive response about you then inevitably that guy will become suspicious about you. Because it is impossible in real life to have everyone on your side. That’s the same thing that goes with Google and your overall link profile.

No matter how big your website is, you should have few nofollow links along your side for having a good balance between dofollow and nofollow.

Conclusion

Make sure your backlink profile is optimized and healthy. Once you understand the basics of dofollow and nofollow links you will be able to put this into practice to influence your rankings.

Always keep in mind that dofollow links will help you in the ranking, but nofollow links bring valuable traffic and engagement which is valuable in the world of SEO.

Thus, we can conclude that both Dofollow vs. Nofollow links have their role in website ranking.

The difference is dofollow links directly impact website ranking, but nofollow links help in ranking your website pages indirectly.