If you’re new to SEO, one of the most important things to understand is link building. Links are an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) and help in achieving top-ranking positions in SERP. But you have to understand the value of links. In this article, I’m going to cover EVERYTHING you need to know about nofollow vs dofollow links: What they are? Why they’re important? And how do they impact SEO?

1. Dofollow and Nofollow Links in SEO: How
They Impact Rankings in 2020
Written by​ ​AMAN SINGH
If you’re new to ​SEO​, one of the most important things to understand is link building.
Links are an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) and help in achieving top
ranking positions in SERP.
But you have to understand the value of links. In this article, I’m going to cover
EVERYTHING you need to know about nofollow vs dofollow links:
What they are? Why they’re important? And how do they impact SEO​?
So let’s dive…
What are Dofollow Links
Dofollow links are links that help increase page rank,
boost your ​website SEO​, make your backlink profile
stronger and your site rank higher in the SERPs.
Dofollow links allow search bots to follow the links (linked website). This passes the “link
juice” from the source website to the linked website.
If you receive a link from a high-authority website, the search engines will trust you and rank
higher in the search results.
And most importantly, if more quality links pointing to your site, then search engines will see
your site as an authoritative one.

2. HTML Tag for Dofollow Link
By default, all links are dofollow, so you don’t need additional HTML attributes to make the
link dofollow. And look like this:
<a href=“https://justbrightme.com”>JustBrightMe</a>
The “JustBrightMe” here is a follow link.
How Do Dofollow Links Affect Site Rankings
Dofollow links increase the credibility of your site in
Google’s eyes.
As I already said, dofollow links are links that allow search bots to follow the link. They pass
link juice and help your website get a higher rank.
The more dofollow links you have, the higher your site will rank. But dofollow links must be
from a reputed website.
For example, when a reputable site with high PageRank links to you, search engines will see
your site as more reputable and may increase your PageRank.
How to Get Dofollow Links
Building a dofollow backlinks from athority site is not an easy task. But by following the right
technique, you can easily get. Here i am going to tell you quick tips:
● Publish Quality Content on Your Blog​ (So that another website or blog link your
content. This increases the chances of getting dofollow backlinks).

3. ● Submit Guest Post to the Top Blog​ (One of the best ways to get dofollow link).
● Broken Link Building Method​ (Just contact the website owner to report the ​broken
links​ and recommend other websites or your own website).
● Create Internal Links ​(Proper ​internal linking​ help the visitor navigate from one page
to another and increase the overall user experience. And is considered most
important for improving website ranking and pageview and ​decreasing bounce rate​.
● Write Testimonials​ (You can offer to give a testimonial to a company for a link back
to your website).
● Create Backlinks Through Infographics​ (Another one of the best ways of creating
valuable dofollow links).
What are Nofollow Links
Nofollow links have no impact on search engine rankings.
Nofollow links do not allow search bots to follow links (linked websites). This nofollow tag
does not pass link juice and does not play any role to increase your ranking in search
results.
However, nofollow and dofollow links look similar but nofollow links have an HTML attribute
and it looks like this: ​rel=“nofollow”
If you have questions about how to add nofollow links, here is a guide: ​How to Add Nofollow
Link in WordPress
HTML Tag for Creating a Nofollow Link
Just you have to add a little piece of code ​(rel=“nofollow”)​ ​to your link. And it looks
something like this:

4. <a href=”https://justbrightme.com”
rel=”nofollow”>JustBrightMe</a>
“JustBrightMe” is a nofollowed link here.
Why Did Search Engines Create the Nofollow
Tag
The nofollow tag was originally created to fight comment spam. The two major reasons:
● First, spam sites started ranking well in Google.
● The comment link strategy worked well, so spammers left links back to their site in
the comments.
To tackle all this, Google has developed nofollow tag.
History of Rel=” Nofollow”
The nofollow tag was ​originally created by Google​ in 2005 to combat blog comment spam.
Below is a clear explanation from Google
If you’re a blogger (or a blog reader), you’re painfully
familiar with people who try to raise their own websites’
search engine rankings by submitting linked blog
comments like “Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site.”
This is called comment spam, we don’t like it either, and

5. we’ve been testing a new tag that blocks it. From now
(January 18, 2005), when Google sees the attribute
(rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any
credit when we rank websites in our search results. This
isn’t a negative vote for the site where the comment was
posted; it’s just a way to make sure that spammers get no
benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments,
trackbacks, and referrer lists.
In today’s times, WordPress and many other CMSs use nofollow tags for comment links by
default.
Evolving “Nofollow”
On 10 September 2019, ​Google announced​ two new link attributes to identify the nature of
particular links.
Before September 2019 “Nofollow” was the only way to mark sponsored or advertised links.
But after, there are 3 ways to flag these links:
rel=”sponsored”: ​Use the sponsored attribute to identify
links on your site that were created as part of

6. advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation
agreements.
rel=”ugc”: ​UGC stands for User Generated Content, and
the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within
user generated content, such as comments and forum
posts.
rel=”nofollow”:​ Use this attribute for cases where you
want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of
endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to
another page.
These three attributes can be used as hints, which links should Google include or exclude in
search.
Do I Need to Replace My Existing Nofollow
Google explains this,

7. No. If you use nofollow now as a way to block sponsored
links, or to signify that you don’t vouch for a page you link
to, that will continue to be supported. There’s absolutely
no need to change any nofollow links that you already
have.
How to Check If a Link is Dofollow or
Nofollow
All nofollow links contain with rel=”nofollow” HTML attribute. And there are a few ways to
check if a link is dofollow or nofollow:
● Check the HTML code
● Use browser SEO extensions
● Use backlink analysis tools
Viewing HTML Code
To check the Nofollow link, right-click on the link, then click on “Inspect” (This may vary
depending on your browser) and search for rel = “nofollow” tag. As you can see in the
screenshot,
If you see a rel=”nofollow” attribute, that link is nofollowed. Otherwise, the link is dofollow.

8. Using Browser Extensions
However, it may take time for you to check with HTML manually, and where browser
extensions come handy:
You just need to install ​NoFollow​ Chrome extension. This tool automatically marks any
nofollow links with a dotted enclosure.
Usinng Backlink Analysis Tools
You can find the nofollow and dofollow of any website (even your competitor’s website) with
a backlink analysis tools such as:
● SEMrush
● Ahrefs Backlink Checker
● Moz’s Link Explorer
● Neilpatel’s Backlinks

9. What Types of Links Are Nofollow
Any link that contains the rel=”nofollow” tag is technically a nofollow link.
You should add nofollow to all the external websites you do not trust. Also, add nofollow
attributes for affiliate & sponsored links and untrusted content. It protects you from Google
penalty.
1. For Affiliate & Sponsored Links
According to ​Google’s Webmaster Guidelines​, any link you pay must be nofollow. Google’s
Matt Cutts also made it clear on this video that all paid links should be nofollow.
If you use affiliate links, paid links and sponsor links to your blog, set the nofollow tag for
them. Otherwise, Google can reduce your site ranking.
If you use the plugin to manage affiliate links on your blog, you can easily set the Nofollow
attribute for your affiliate links. Here’s a list – ​10 Best WordPress Affiliate Plugin to Manage
Your Affiliate Link
2. For Untrusted Content
For the reference of your content, linking to a site that you do not trust, you should use the
nofollow tag.
3. For Sidebar Links
If you use external website links or affiliate links in the sidebar of your blog or website, it is
good to apply a nofollow tag for them.
4. For Comments
If you allow commenting on your site, then you must have seen that people post their
website link to get link juice. Some of them are spam comments. So nofollow tag should be
used to deal with this.

10. And these popular sites use the rel=”nofollow” attribute on all of their outbound links:
● YouTube
● Quora
● Medium
● Wikipedia
● Twitch
● Reddit
Do Nofollow Links Help with SEO?
Nofollow links do not allow search engine bots to follow any link. They also do not pass link
juice. And Nofollow links do not help you in increasing page rank, website ranking and have
no SEO value.
However, some SEO experts say​ “Nofollow links do not impact SEO”.​ And folks believe
“Nofollow links are not as powerful as dofollow links … but they help”.
But, what does Google say about nofollow links?
When nofollow was introduced, Google would not count
any link marked this way as a signal to use within our
search algorithms. This has now changed.

11. All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow —
are treated as hints about which links to consider or
exclude within Search.
We’ll use these hints — along with other signals — as a
way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and
use links within our systems.
Benefits of Nofollow Links
Nofollow links do not directly increase your website’s PageRank, yet they contribute value in
many ways.
Nofollow Links Balanced Your Backlink Profile
If a blog only has only dofollow links or a high percentage of dofollow backlinks links.
(Especially if those links all had the same anchor text), Google may consider it a suspicious
activity. And if that’s the case, you might get a Google penalty.
Therefore you must have a combination of nofollow and dofollow backlinks.
Bring Traffic and Increase Brand Exposure
One of the best advantages of nofollow links is that they boost your site’s referral traffic and
increase brand awareness.

12. For example, if your website link to a website with a vast audience, then its visitors likely land
on your site.
Nofollow Links can Help Grow Your Dofollow Links
You can get more awareness when popular sites link. As more people know about you,
chances are they can also link you, which can increase dofollow links.
They Protect You Against Google Penalties
Google stated that the dofollow paid links violates their webmaster guidelines.
Use the sponsored attribute or nofollow attribute for
advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation
agreements.
What’s the Best Ratio of Nofollow to Dofollow
Links
Are you thinking about what is the best dofollow and nofollow ratio? If yes, then I have to tell
you that there is no optimal ratio for the follow/noflow link.
… and here ​Alexa states​,
There’s no “best” nofollow to dofollow backlink ratio for
links pointing to your site. Some folks think 50/50 is a good
mix, some say 40/60, and still others target 30/70
nofollow/dofollow links. Looking at top websites by Alexa

13. Rank in the United States, the mix may be closer to 25/75,
which signals that the most successful websites have a
greater number of dofollow links.
The best mix for your site will naturally include a variety
of link types. To get an idea of what might be natural for
your industry, examine a sample of websites in a similar
space or industry. Follow the lead of sites that already
rank high.
To check the ratio of dofollow vs nofollow backlinks for your website, you can use ​SEMrush
or ​Ahrefs​.
How to Create Nofollow Links on My Site
Manually Adding Nofollow Links in Post and Page
Gutenberg is a new WordPress content editor. Since no plugins are currently compatible
with Gutenberg. So you have to manually create nofollow links in Gutenberg editor.
First of all, you need to click Posts >> Add New or edit your post.
Next, select the text you want to add a link. Then click the “link” icon and add your link.

14. If you want to open the link in a new tab, you have to click on the down arrow icon and you
will have to click on the “Open in New Tab” toggle box.
Now let’s make it nofollow links… click on the three vertical dots (Block Setting) and then
select ​“Edit as HTML”​ option.

15. Your content (link) will now appear in the HTML code. As you can see in the screenshot,
You just need to add nofollow attribute in the link. Simply replace noreferrer with nofollow.

16. Now, your link has changed to nofollow link. Apply the same process to add nofollow
attribute to another link.
Adding Nofollow Links in Post and Page Using a Plugin
If you still use Classic editor on your WordPress blog, you can easily set the nofollow
attribute with the help of the plugin.
There are a lot of plugins available to set nofollow tag but here I will use the ​Ultimate
Nofollow​ plugin.
After installing and activating the plugin, open the post or page and add links to the text.
Then click on the pencil icon.

17. Then click on the ​Gear​ icon.
A popup box will open in which you will see a checkbox – ​rel = “nofollow”​. Check that box
and click on ​Add Link​.

18. This will change your dofollow link to nofollow link.
Add Nofollow Link to WordPress Menu
Click on ​Appearance >> Menu​. Next, click on the Screen Option. Then check the ​Link
Relationship (XFN)​ box.

19. Now add your link by clicking on the ​Custom Link​ option. Then click the Add to Menu
button.
Now the link you have added will appear in the menu structure column. Next you have to
click on the downward arrow. And type nofollow in the “Link Relationship” box.

20. Click on the ​Save Menu​ button. This will add the nofollow attribute to the link in your
WordPress menu.
Make All External Links Nofollow in WordPress
Want to set the nofollow attribute for all the external links? If you are a WordPress blogger,
you can easily do this.
First of all, install and activate the ​Nofollow for external link​ plugin in your site. This plugin
sets the rel = “nofollow” attribute for all your external links.
Final Thought
If you are building backlinks to your site, then focus more on creating dofollow links.
Because they pass link juice and PageRank and have a direct impact on SEO.
But remember you must have a combination of nofollow and dofollow backlinks to stay safe
from Google penalty.
What’s your experience with dofollow and nofollow links? Let me know by leaving a
comment below.

21. Now it’s your turn… find this article helpful? Don’t forget to share!
More Resources:
● How to Create Quality Backlinks in 2020 (11 New Strategies)
● How to Protect Your Website from Negative SEO
● How to Increase Domain Authority
● How To Increase Website Traffic (54 Working Methods)