Dofollow vs Nofollow Links: The Difference That Actually Matters

One attribute in a piece of HTML separates the two. Everything people argue about downstream — value, ratios, whether to bother — comes from that single line.

The two link types

There is no such thing as a "dofollow" attribute in HTML. Dofollow is just what the industry calls a normal link — the default state of every hyperlink on the web:

<a href="https://example.com">a normal, followed link</a>

A nofollow link is the same tag with one attribute added:

<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">a nofollow link</a>

That attribute was introduced by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in 2005 to fight comment spam. It has since been joined by two siblings, rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc", covered in the attributes guide.

The actual difference

A followed link is an endorsement a search engine can act on. It can pass PageRank, and the anchor text helps describe the destination page. Enough of those from relevant, trusted sites is still one of the strongest ranking inputs there is.

A nofollow link is the same link with the endorsement withheld. The publisher is saying: follow this if you like, but do not read it as a vote. Google's documentation on qualifying outbound links spells out when publishers are expected to use it.

What does not change: the link still exists, still renders, still gets clicked, and still sends people to your site. A nofollow link from a busy subreddit can outperform a followed link from a dead blog by every measure a business cares about.

What changed in 2019

In September 2019 Google reclassified nofollow from a strict directive to a hint. Practically, that means Google reserves the right to consider a nofollow link for crawling and ranking purposes if its systems think it is useful. It does not mean nofollow links now pass full credit, and you should not plan a campaign as if they do. Treat any ranking value as a bonus, not the reason to pursue them.

Side-by-side comparison

The right mix for your profile

Nobody earns only followed links. Real sites accumulate social profiles, forum posts, press mentions and comment links, most of which are nofollow. That is why an all-dofollow profile reads as manufactured — see the benchmarks in what a good backlink profile looks like.

Rather than target a ratio, build the way a real business does: get listed where your customers are, publish things worth citing, participate in your industry's communities. The ratio takes care of itself.

Should you chase dofollow only?

No, for three reasons:

• Sites change. Publishers flip attributes sitewide without warning. A followed link today can be nofollow next quarter, and vice versa.
• Nofollow links lead to followed ones. A well-read Reddit thread or podcast note gets your work in front of people who cite it from their own sites.
• Filtering by attribute wastes time. Vetting relevance and audience quality predicts value far better than checking a rel value.

The exception is when you are paying. If money or free product changed hands, the link should be nofollow or sponsored — that is not a compromise, it is the rule. More on that in when to use nofollow.

Go deeper

• What is a nofollow link? — the definition, history and syntax.
• Do nofollow links help SEO? — the honest answer with the evidence.
• How to check if a link is nofollow — four ways, including bulk checks.
• When to use nofollow links — a policy for your own outbound links.
• rel="sponsored" vs ugc vs nofollow — which attribute to use where.

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