NoFollow Links vs. DoFollow: What You Need To Know

Table of Contents

Let me start by saying this: links are one of the most important parts of your website. It doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger or an eCommerce merchant; without links, no one will ever find you. But with so many different types of links out there, it can be hard to know what’s best for your business. If you’ve ever wondered about Dofollow links vs. Nofollow links, then this article is for you—it’ll explain what each type is used for and why they matter in terms of SEO (search engine optimization).

What is a DoFollow Link?

A Dofollow link is any link that helps your site rank higher in search engines.

  • The most common way to have a Dofollow link is when someone links to you from their website or social media account, like I did with this article. When you link out, you are giving other people content and letting them know that you think it’s worthwhile. If they want to promote those things and gain traffic themselves, they’ll do the same thing for your content too!
  • Another way Dofollow links can happen is if someone shares your content on their own social media accounts—especially if it’s something they agree with or find valuable. In this case, your site will get more exposure because of more eyeballs seeing it (and possibly clicking through). That means more potential visitors coming over and checking out what else may be interesting there!

What is a NoFollow Link?

You may have heard the term “Nofollow Link,” which is a link that search engine bots don’t Dofollow . This means that even if a search engine bot tries to crawl the page with a Nofollow link in it, it still won’t affect your ranking on Google or Bing.

But don’t let this fact fool you: from an SEO perspective, there are plenty of reasons why you would want to include NoFollow Links in your content marketing strategy. Here are some examples:

  • You can use it as a way to avoid spammy links on your site (because Google will ignore them). For example, if someone leaves comments on articles posted by different authors on different blogs and asks them to put their website link in their bio section (which they know they shouldn’t), these two things could be considered spammy behavior because they aren’t directly related to the topic of conversation at hand — meaning people probably wouldn’t click through anyway because what’s being said isn’t interesting enough for visitors who just wanted information about whatever topic was being discussed here). However since these links weren’t followed by search engines’ bots anyway then there won’t be any point paying attention them either.”

Should I Use Dofollow Links or NoFollow Links?

Should you use NoFollow links or Dofollow links?

Well, it depends on your goals. If you want to improve the user experience and increase traffic for your website, then Nofollow links are a better option. On the other hand, if you have an e-commerce site and want to improve search engine rankings for keywords related to products listed on your site, then Dofollow links would be a better choice. If you’re not sure which option is best for your needs—or what “Dofollow ” versus “Nofollow ” even means in the first place—let’s break down each option so that there’s no confusion!

DoFollow

Dofollow links are more authoritative than Nofollow links.

This is a good thing because following links is an indication that you trust the content and its author, which establishes your brand as trustworthy in turn.

By using Dofollow links, you can also increase your website’s authority and boost its search engine rankings.

The study showed that 80% of all clicks on Google results come from a search engine’s first page, so it’s essential for any online business to get their site listed there if they want to reach customers and grow their revenue.

Followed by this fact, another study found that having relevant content on your site (i.e., high quality) will help boost SEO rankings due to how well it ranks when other sites link back to it via social media shares or through blog posts on similar topics (thus spreading the word about yours).

NoFollow

NoFollow links are less authoritative than Dofollow links. They don’t pass much PageRank, and they’re less likely to be clicked on or indexed. However, they do have some benefits:

  • NoFollow links are treated more like regular text. This means they don’t appear as “linked” when someone hovers over them with their mouse cursor—which can be good if you want to hide a link from the eyes of users who aren’t ready for it yet.
  • If you have a lot of content and don’t want your website to seem overloaded by all those blue underlined words (or if you simply prefer not too), Nofollowing your links can help keep things simple for both readers and spiders alike!

NoFollow Links are useful for a variety of things:

  • Blogs and forums: If you want to include a link in your blog or forum post, but not do any SEO work on the page with that link, use NoFollow Links. This way, search engines will only check the overall content of your article rather than individual pages within it.
  • Social Media: You can use NoFollow Links when creating posts on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter because these platforms don’t allow you to tag specific URLs anyway!
  • Guest Posts: When guest posting on other websites (which is an important part of link building), use NoFollow Links so that they won’t impact your domain’s reputation (or negatively influence its ranking). In fact, some people even recommend putting Nofollow attributes on all internal links within one website to avoid being penalized by Google for having too many outbound links from one domain.

How Do You Create NoFollow Links?

You can create Nofollow links in two ways: by adding a Nofollow attribute to the hyperlink’s code and by creating a Nofollow tag within the HTML.

Technically speaking, both methods will work for you. However, it’s important that you use one over the other based on your needs and goals as a website owner because each method has its own pros and cons.

How Do You Create Dofollow Links?

To make a Dofollow link, you need to have the right link type. A Dofollow link is simply a URL that the search engine spider can easily crawl and index. If you don’t have the right kind of page in place, no amount of cloaking will make it work right. To create this type of page, use one of these options:

  • Link Shortener/Redirector
  • Link Cloaker or Redirector
  • Link Builder (SEO)

How to Find and Check Other Link Types

  • A link checker tool is an easy way to see if a URL has a nofollow attribute. You can use these tools for free, or pay for one that allows you to export the information and do more extensive analysis.
  • A crawler is another type of program that can be used to find links on websites. It will crawl through thousands of pages so you don’t have to manually click through every page yourself.
  • If you have access to technical support, you can ask them about any links that may not be showing up in search results as they might know more about how the site was built than you do.
  • Check whether a page title has been changed from what it was when originally indexed, because this may mean it had nofollow attributes removed from some links after being crawled by Googlebot (assuming they only crawl certain pages).

Know when to use Dofollow links and when to use Nofollow links.

Knowing when to use Nofollow links and when to use Dofollow links can be confusing. Here are the basic differences:

Dofollow Links = Good for Traffic

Nofollow Links = Good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

So which should you choose? The answer depends on what your goal is. If you want more traffic to your site, then go with Dofollow links. If SEO is important, then opt for Nofollow links instead!

Conclusion

Ultimately, you should use the type of link that best fits the situation. If you’re trying to build a relationship with another blogger or website owner, go ahead and give them a Dofollow link! On the other hand, if you want to keep your readers engaged by directing them to relevant content elsewhere on the internet while still benefiting from SEO benefits like Google indexing (and its ranking), then Nofollow links are what you need. Keep in mind that there are many different types of links beyond these two categories—and it can be difficult to know which one applies in each situation—but hopefully this article has given some clarity on how each works so that next time around it will be easier for everyone involved.

"The future of SEO is here – understanding and marketing to specific and defined audiences through search engines."

-Adam Audette, Chief Knowledge Officer, RKG-

Share this post with the world!

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Tumblr

Check Out Our Latest Posts!