Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links

Written by Web Hosting Expert

June 3, 2022
Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links

Linking one website to another has become a common practice in the digital world. Website owners use this process to boost SEO by having a link to their website on other people's websites. The more links you have on other sites, the more you boost your SEO.

SEO is essential for every website as it determines your ranking on search engines. So, boosting your SEO even a little is more than welcome. And seeing as there are over 1.8 billion websites today, the opportunities are endless.

Linking a website can be done in two ways, with dofollow and nofollow links. This article will explore these two options and the differences between them.

What Is a Dofollow Link?


A dofollow link passes the authority of the website on which it is posted to the linked website. This type of link helps boost the SEO of the linked website and gives it "link juice," which is the term used to describe the passing of authority.

Dofollow links improve the linked website's domain authority or rating, which improves keyword rating. All links are dofollow by default unless specified otherwise.

Dofollow links count as SEO points, and Google tracks these points and looks at how many inbound links a website has and from which websites they come. If Google sees a website with many inbound links, it gives it preference over other websites with a similar topic. So, when a user googles the keywords relevant to your website, Google will prioritize and show your website higher up in the search results.

What Is a Nofollow Link?


Nofollow links do not count as points and do not transfer "link juice," a.k.a authority, to the site they're linking. So, even if another site has a link to your site, if that site uses a nofollow link, your site will not get an SEO boost.

When Google sees a nofollow link to a website, it automatically doesn't count it, which can result in the website being displayed further down in the search results. A nofollow link has the following HTML tag:

<a href=”http://www.website.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Link Text</a>

How to Tell if a Link Is Dofollow or Nofollow?


To see whether a link is dofollow or nofollow in Chrome, you need to open up Chrome and go to the navigation bar. Then, click View, then Developer, then View Source. Another way to do it is to right-click on the page and click Inspect Element.

Check Dofollow or Nofollow Link

For Firefox, right-click the page and go to View Page Source. After, click Edit, than Find, and type in "nofollow" in the search box, so all instances of the nofollow tag will be highlighted.

Check Dofollow or Nofollow Link

Why use Nofollow links?

They are great for generating referral traffic, which refers to the traffic you get from people who visit your website by clicking the link on other sites and not by searching for your website. Even if your website is linked with a nofollow link, your website can generate massive traffic if the link is placed on a relevant blog post or forum, or a popular site. And since some of the people that visit your site might turn into customers, it makes nofollow links definitely worth it. Also, they are excellent for building a diverse portfolio of backlinks.

Do Nofollow links help SEO?

As mentioned before, nofollow links do not help SEO directly. However, search engines take other factors into consideration, aside from link juice. For example, links on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have become highly valuable for brand building, despite being nofollow links. So, seeing as building your brand improves your business overall, you should also focus on having good links from reputable sites that will establish you in your industry, regardless of the links are dofollow or nofollow.

How to Add a Dofollow Link in WordPress?


Dofollow links are added in WordPress via Gutenberg, the block editor for WordPress which replaces the classic editor. They can only be added manually.

The first thing you need to do is highlight the text that you want to convert into a link. Second, you go to the top side of the Gutenberg editor and click the link icon, or use CRTL + K.

Add a Dofollow Link in WordPress

After you've done this, copy and paste the URL you want.

How to Add a Dofollow Link in WordPress

If you want the link to open in a new tab so that the visitor doesn't leave your site for the linked one, click on the link setting, a.k.a the three vertical lines at the far right, and choose the Open in New Window option.

How to Add Dofollow Link in WordPress

How to Add Nofollow Link in WordPress?


With Gutenberg, the process for nofollow links is similar to the dofollow ones. The process for adding nofollow links with Gutenberg is also manual.

First, open the page, highlight the text you want to convert to a link, and click the link icon on the Gutenberg editor.

How to Add Nofollow Link in WordPress

Then, copy and paste the URL for the link at the top, and then switch on the Search engines should ignore this link (mark as nofollow) option.

How to Add Nofollow Link in WordPress

The process for adding a nofollow link with code, a.k.a the Classic Editor, is similar to the one with Gutenberg:

The first step is the same-highlighting the text you want to link and adding a regular hyperlink to it.

How to Add Nofollow Link in WordPress

Then, select the link and choose the Text tab on the Editor bar.

How to Add Nofollow Link in WordPress

In the HTML, add rel=”nofollow” after the href="examplesite.com" part.

How to Add Nofollow Link in WordPress

And it's done!

How to Get Backlinks?


Before we get into the ways you can get quality backlinks, it’s essential to know that there are some “unhealthy” backlinks that can reflect negatively on your site, like paid links. Using paid links is highly forbidden and search engines like Google can penalize you. Now, let’s move on to good backlinks and how you can get them:

Use HARO

Help a Reporter Out, or HARO is a site where you can connect with reporters and journalists that need sources for their articles. You can submit pitches to them, and they will use your posts as their sources and link them to their articles. You can use this site for free by choosing the free plan and start connecting with credible people for quality backlinks. Make sure to be consistent, as building relationships on this site takes time and patience, but it's worth it. As of 2020, over 55000 journalists, reporters, and bloggers use HARO, so you have plenty of opportunities to choose from!

Write guest posts

By writing posts for other sites and linking your website to them, you get exposure from the visitors of those sites. This method allows you to show visitors that your content is unique and valuable, which will let them know that you know what you're doing. Submitting guest posts to well-established websites with high domain authority and lots of traffic is one of the most excellent ways to earn backlinks to your website. That way, you make sure that your backlinks do not include spam and low-quality content, which will ensure that you have quality backlinks. This is a prevalent method for getting backlinks because over 77% of internet users read blogs, which makes for a vast potential audience pool. Also, websites with blogs are estimated to have 434% more indexed pages, which is good for your business overall.

Use broken links

This method involves contacting a web admin and reporting a broken link on their website. While doing this, you should recommend that they use a link to your website instead of the broken link. You have a good chance of getting backlinks this way because since you are helping them improve their website by reporting broken links, they will be inclined to help you out in return. Also, seeing as 88% of customers will not return to a site after a bad experience, you are helping them retain their customers and keep their reputation intact. Make sure the web admin you contact owns a website in your niche so that the visitors they have will also be interested in your content.

Show infographics

An infographic is a visual depiction of data or information. Because visual data is simple to comprehend and distribute, it is one of the most popular ways to attract visitors to your website. Make well-designed images for your audience with well-researched statistical data, and make sure your visuals touch hot subjects. Also, look into issues that people are interested in and find beneficial, and take the effort to gather high-quality data.

Use templates that are proven to be successful

This can help you a lot, especially since around 94% of all content has no backlinks and is ignored. To be in the coveted 6%, you should write content that has proven to get backlinks. The content that gets the most backlinks are "what posts," "why posts," infographics, and videos. Of course, you shouldn't write about things that are not of interest to anyone just to have this type of content. You should make sure to have quality content that the visitor will actually want to read. It can be challenging initially, but consistency is vital, so don't give up.

Create something unique

When creating your content you should try and create something that is unique to you and that you can use across all or most of your content. This will make you instantly recognizable in visitors' eyes and will also prompt other websites to link your posts to their own because you are the original author. This is something that everyone is looking to obtain, and it can be tough to come up with. But maybe with time and experience, you will get a sudden wave of inspiration and create your own method for doing something. Or maybe you'll discover an easier way to reach a particular goal that your audience has. Whatever it is, as long as it's relevant, practical, and unique, it will make you an unstoppable backlink machine!

Concluding Remarks


Dofollow and nofollow links are useful for many things. Dofollow links will give you link juice and will improve your SEO, which will signal Google to place you higher up in the search results.

And yes, the question: "Are nofollow links worth anything?" is a valid one. However, nofollow links prove their worth with the amount of referral traffic they can bring to your site, which will expose you to a potential customer pool that can turn the tide of your business.

So, when it comes to the backlink business, both dofollow and nofollow links are more than welcome and should be used simultaneously!

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