Dofollow vs nofollow links: how to tell them apart

Dofollow and Nofollow are two common terms in the SEO SEO trade. Each link type is used for a different purpose, and this article by MONA Media will walk you through how to use dofollow and nofollow links.

What are dofollow and nofollow?

When you run and grow a website, you are used to citing other websites besides your own, SEO terms known as external link.

Example: For example, when you mention Google Ads, linking to https://adwords.google.com/ is perfectly normal.

But sometimes the page you link to is not really trustworthy, and it can even badly hurt your own site’s credibility. That led Google to create a new concept about LINKS is the No-follow and Do-follow

What is a dofollow link?

A dofollow link “tells” Googlebot and other search engines that the link leads to a website with good content that is safe for visitors. This passes credibility and quality from the source site to your site.

In the example above, adwords.google.com is a very reputable website, and linking to it is a sound decision. Googlebot uses the link to assess the page’s quality score and ranking, which helps improve your quality score, SEO ranking and your site’s credibility.

What is a nofollow link?

The opposite of dofollow is the nofollow. This link tells Google’s bot, “You are not sure about this link and users may not want to click it”. Googlebot and related search engines then “ignore” the link and do not count it toward your site’s PageRank.

Nofollow links are usually used to avoid sharing credibility with websites you do not want to be tied to, or to control the traffic on your site.

For example, if you want to cite an article about “online gambling websites in Vietnam”, you would worry about someone thinking you are advertising that site, or worse, Google thinking you are deliberately sending users there. To avoid this, webmasters usually add the attribute rel=no-follow to the link the <a> tag. It looks like this:

<a href="link" rel="nofollow">site name</a>

Should you link out? Will you drop in rankings? Will you lose traffic? Almost every SEO has asked these questions at least once. But used correctly, external links actually build credibility and trust for your site. Watch the video to see how to link out and still keep your site high on Google.

How do dofollow and nofollow affect SEO?

No-follow is an attribute added in recent years to limit content spam by SEOs, such as dropping links into unrelated blog comments. The nofollow attribute gives webmasters more control and holds back most careless SEOs. A link with nofollow also loses a lot of value, worth only about 1/100 of a dofollow link (though nofollow links are still needed for SEO)

As you know, one factor that affects search results and makes your site more credible in Google’s eyes is the number of backlinks quality links pointing to your site. You would not want to waste time getting a nofollow link, so what is the fastest way to know whether a site lets you place a nofollow link?

How can you tell nofollow from dofollow?

When you read an article where the author links to other sites, readers how do they know which links are dofollow or nofollow? Usually readers do not care. They just want quality content that makes them want to read more, and they click the link on their own. But SEOs are different: they always track and study this, so telling the two attributes apart is important.

There are 2 ways SEOs usually check nofollow and dofollow links:

Check manually

If you know a little HTML, press F12 and look at the <a> tag. If the tag has the attribute rel=”nofollow” then it is a nofollow link; if the tag does not have it, or it is rel=”dofollow” then the link is dofollow.

You can also check a single link by right-clicking it and choosing “inspect”. Then find the the <a> tag that contains the link. If the link has the attribute rel=”nofollow” it is a nofollow link; if not, it is a dofollow link.

Check with a Chrome extension

As MONA mentioned above, not everyone can read code, and it takes time. But there are now browser extensions that let you see it right in the article without spending time hunting for and checking links. All you need to do is install them in your browser.

For example: Firefox has add-on “NoDoFollow” and Chrome has extension “Nofollow” and MONA Media has “MONA Nofollow”,… These extensions highlight links with the no-follow, attribute, so you can tell them apart accurately without wasting time.

Is dofollow better than nofollow?

Many people wonder about this. In theory, a do-follow link lets a webmaster tell Google, “Yes, this one is good, I recommend it to you, index it”, and the page you link to gets +1 point in Google’s ranking algorithm, which also benefits your own page. A link with no-follow says, “Hey, I am not sure about this link and I am not responsible if that site is bad!” So Google just evaluates that site and gives it traffic but does not add ranking points to it.

But what if your whole site is made up of Do-followbacklinks? That would not look natural, right? It is also dangerous if your site is a forum where members who post are SEOs for football betting or shady sites. It is like saying that gambling site is trustworthy and that adult site has great content. So on a website, a Do-follow and No-follow link is always liked by Google, but it likes the do-follow attribute more, and cares less about the no-follow.

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How should you split nofollow and dofollow links?

Google has no official figure for the exact ratio of nofollow to dofollow links. However, based on the experience and testing of many SEOs, a ratio of 30% nofollow to 70% dofollow is considered the most effective.

In practice, dofollow links improve a site’s SEO ranking over time better than nofollow links. That is why most large websites have a more varied and richer set of dofollow links.

A mix of both backlink types, dofollow and nofollow, also helps Google rate your site better. If you are not sure about the ratio, you can look at competitors in your industry to plan a sensible link mix.

Or, if researching and running these two link types feels too complicated, you can turn to the SEO services from MONA Media.

As a a trusted SEO agency leader for many years, MONA can solve all your SEO technical issues (On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, Technical SEO,…) with a team of SEO specialists highly qualified, experienced specialists who keep up with Google’s latest algorithms. We make sure your website gets the best SEO results and full optimization. Contact us at hotline 1900 636 648 for a consultation and to receive a full-scope SEO quote for details!

That covers what we have learned about the dofollow and nofollow that MONA Media attributes in our work. We hope this helps you with knowledge and with putting both backlink types, dofollow and nofollow, to good use for your website. Good luck.

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