Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links: What They Are and How They Differ
Most marketers are well aware of the importance of building a solid backlink network that works in tandem with high-quality content creation in order to generate as much organic traffic as possible. However, there is some confusion about the difference between follow and nofollow links and why dofollow links are important. To add to the confusion, Google has made a few announcements in recent years that seem to blur the lines between these two different types of links. Let’s take a closer look at nofollow vs. dofollow links and how to intentionally use them in your overall SEO strategy.
Here’s what you need to know about each type of link.
Backlinks: What Are They?
Before we dive into what dofollow and nofollow links are, let’s start with an overview of what backlinks are and how they fit into your SEO strategy.
Links to your website from reputable sites with content relevant to your business can boost your search rankings. Simply put, a backlink acts as a sort of endorsement of the quality of your content. When another website links to yours, it tells Google that your site is a credible source of information about your niche. The more relevant backlinks you have, the higher your topical authority and the more trust Google has in the quality of the information you’re sharing.
However, all that glitters is not gold. If you’re accumulating backlinks from untrustworthy websites that offer questionable value to readers, it can hurt your rankings.
What is a DoFollow link?
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a “dofollow” link, although the term is commonly used to refer to a link that has not been given a “nofollow” relationship attribute.
By default, Google’s algorithms will follow every link in their path except those that have the “rel=nofollow” attribute. Some site owners will use “rel=dofollow” to tell Google that it should follow a link, which isn’t technically wrong, but having no rel attribute at all (as in example #2 above) will do the same thing.
Dofollow links are important because they transfer link equity to the website they point to.
The more trustworthy the links that follow your pages, the more authority Google will give to that content. When you earn dofollow links from trustworthy websites that are semantically close to your business, they will have a favorable impact on your SERPs, which can translate into more exposure for your main keywords.
What is a NoFollow link?
The nofollow attribute is essentially a statement that webmasters include within a link, with the purpose of telling Google not to follow that link. According to the SEO community, nofollow links do not pass link equity. Since there is no transfer of equity in this case, nofollow links have no direct impact on search rankings.
SEO and nofollow links
If nofollow links don’t directly impact your ranking signals, are they worthless for SEO?
Not at all.
While dofollow links are more likely to improve your organic search rankings, nofollow links have value in these three ways:
- Nofollow links drive traffic to your website. If you earn a nofollow link from a relevant, reputable site, people who choose to click that link will still land on one of your pages, interested in the content you offer. Referral traffic can drive highly qualified leads to your website, regardless of whether they come from dofollow or nofollow backlinks.
- Nofollow links can lead to residual Dofollow links. If a content writer comes across a nofollow link to your site during their search, they are likely to pick it up and add it as a dofollow link from their content.
- Google might actually pay attention to nofollow links.
Even though you might not include nofollow links in your link building strategy, keep in mind that they still have value. A nofollow link is better than no link at all.
Backlinks: Quality Over Quantity
Before Google introduced dofollow links in 2005, the number of backlinks pointing to your website mattered much more than their quality. This scenario led to egregious abuses in the link building world. Bots and spam engines were used to bypass Google’s algorithms and artificially push their content to the top of search rankings.
Like many of its innovations, Google’s introduction of the nofollow link attribute was intended to short-circuit spammy link building efforts. As a result, dofollow links from high-quality websites became much more valuable.
Conclusion
To earn high-quality backlinks, you need high-quality, search-optimized content that people can find and that other websites want to be associated with. To learn more about how great content and high-quality backlinks work hand in hand to grow your organic footprint, contact one of our SEO consultants.
