Nofollow Vs Dofollow

You’ve probably heard of “nofollow” and “dofollow” links…

…but what exactly are the differences between these two types of links?

And which one is better for your website’s SEO?

Keep reading to find out.

Nofollow vs Dofollow

There has been much debate in the SEO world about nofollow vs dofollow links.

Some say that nofollow links are useless, while others claim that they can still help with your SEO efforts.

So, what’s the difference between these two types of links? And more importantly, which one should you be using on your website?

When it comes to link building, knowing the different types of backlinks you can get is essential.

What is a Nofollow Link?

Nofollow links are backlinks that are given the nofollow attribute.

This means that the link passes no information to the destination website about what you’re linking to, so it won’t be able to use the link as a way of getting leverage for their content.

They won’t have an impact on your Google pagerank score or in the ranking algorithms.

What is a Dofollow Link?

Dofollow links are backlinks that are given the dofollow attribute. This means that they pass information about what you’re linking to on their website. They carry “link juice”.

This could be a link to a piece of content on a page, a domain name, or any other value you want to pass along. Getting dofollow backlinks in your backlink profile from relevant, high DR websites will boost the domain rating of your own website.

Dofollow links pass the link value to the destination website. The link value could be information about your domain, your IP address, or it could be any other value you decide. Dofollow links are often used in a situation that requires a lot of authority because you want to amplify a piece of content that already has a lot of authority because it’s already been shared a lot across the web.

As an example, let’s say you have a link in your blog post pointing back to your website’s homepage.

That link would be a dofollow link because it passes the link value to the destination site, but it wouldn’t be a nofollow so that other site could see it. It might not matter to them if they receive any kind of backlink because you’re linking to their own domain.

Nofollow vs Dofollow: What Are The Differences?

In most cases, nofollow links are used when you don’t want to pass any information to the website that receives your backlink.

You might want to share that content without passing on any link value, or you might just want to share the content without it altering the link value of the page you’re sharing.

Many external links from blog comments and forum posts, such as Quora, are assigned the Nofollow attribute.

Dofollow links pass the link value to a site in order for it to have something, an increased chance of being seen in search engine results, increasing rankings for a page on a website.

If you’re using dofollow links, then you’re going to be passing along information about what you’re linking to.

This could be a link to a piece of content on a page, a domain name, or any other value that helps that other website amplify its own content and help them gain search engine traffic.

Inbound links from guest posts are also likely dofollow links, as guest blogging on high authority sites is a key part of most content marketing efforts.

Webmasters can use our link buying guide to make sure you only pay for links that will be beneficial to your SEO efforts (aka contextual links).

Further reading:

• Link Building Basics: 7 Best Practices
• What is Link Building? (+ 18 FAQs Answered)
• 10 Link Building Benefits for SEO (and $$$)

Nofollow vs Dofollow FAQ

When should I use nofollow links?

You should use nofollow links when you want to offer a backlink to another site, but don’t want to pass along any link value. Nofollow links are useful when you have a business or are trying to sell something on your website, but don’t want the other website to think that your website is endorsing them.

Do nofollow links help SEO?

No. You can sometimes get some SEO benefit when you use nofollow links, but it’s not guaranteed. Nofollow links won’t help your backlink appear in the results of a search engine, or affect how much search traffic they receive.

Should I disavow nofollow?

It’s not recommended that you disavow nofollow links because they won’t help your SEO, and it will cost you a lot of time. It’s not an action that Google recommends either.

What is nofollow tag?

The nofollow tag is the mark you put on a link in your HTML code, but with another semi-colon (;). That tells search engines not to count the nofollow links to your site.

Can nofollow links hurt you?

No, in most cases they won’t hurt you.

A nofollow link can help your page be seen in search engine results, but it won’t affect the amount of traffic that they receive.

How do I use nofollow tag?

You put a nofollow tag in the HTML code to mark a link as nofollow.

How do I remove a nofollow tag?

If you don’t want a link to be a nofollow, then you need to go back to the HTML code and remove the nofollow tag from that link. If you don’t, then it will continue to be a nofollow backlink.

Why would you use nofollow?

You might link to a site that you don’t want to be seen as endorsing. For example, if you’re linking to another business, you might not want them to think that they’re endorsing your products or services. You don’t need to worry about your backlinks hurting your SEO.

Why is nofollow important?

Nofollow links can provide credibility to your website. When you have a large number of backlinks coming from sites that you’ve built good relationships with, it will increase the likelihood that visitors will choose your site over other sites when they search for something on Google.

What does a nofollow link look like?

Here’s an example of a nofollow link in the HTML code of a website:

<a href=”http://www.google.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Google</a>

Summary

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of nofollow vs dofollow backlinks.

Both play an important role in directing traffic between websites, and in signifying the importance and relative partnerships between these websites.

Using the two types of links is an important part of SEO strategy, so please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask how we at Loganix can help your SEO efforts.

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