Dofollow and nofollow links

Dofollow and nofollow are

1. a common way to classify backlinks in the SEO environment based on the presence of an attribute in the code;
2. "conditional" link attributes that tell Googlebot whether to follow the given link to the acceptor page. The reason I used the adjective "conditional" is because the dofollow attribute doesn't actually exist: Dofollow is a link that doesn't have a nofollow value. Compare the two examples below - on the first of them the link will be considered dofollow, on the second - nofollow:

   <a href="https://aboutseo.blog/">  

   <a rel="nofollow" href="https://aboutseo.blog/">  

So, in this article I will analyze the difference between dofollow and nofollow links, based on official Google sources, personal experience, as well as an analysis of the opinions that exist among SEO specialists and link builders.

Article content:

1. Occurrence and purpose of attributes in links
2. How Google treats nofollow links
• Google's official position
• Seo Expert Opinion
3. How to check a dofollow or nofollow link
4. When to use nofollow on your site
5. Do I need nofollow backlinks

Occurrence and purpose of attributes in links

Nofollow attribute was introduced in 2005 as a means of combating link spam in comments, as well as spam on other types of links that users might create themselves. Technically, the nofollow attribute on a link means that Googlebot doesn't need to go to the given address and take this link into account in its acceptor domain ranking algorithmic calculations.

In 2019, in addition to nofollow, the ugc (User Generate Content) and Sponsored attributes appeared. These attributes should mark outgoing links created by users of the site, as well as paid links, respectively. After this expansion of the list of attributes, Google began recommending the use of nofollow "in cases where you want to link to a page, but don't want to imply any kind of endorsement, including passing the rating to another page."

View screenshot from Google Blog, to better understand the difference between these attributes:

How Google treats nofollow links

Google official position

I'll emphasize once again what is written in the subheading: these are the statements of the search engine, not my opinion.

• ✅ Until 2019, Google didn't consider nofollow links at all;
• ✅ Since 2019, Google has not only introduced two additional attributes, but also indicated that they now act as "hints for the search engine about which links to consider or exclude from the search." We will use these tips - along with other signals as a way to better understand how to properly parse and use links in our systems."
• ✅ Also on the blog we see the following phrase: "For the purposes of crawling and indexing, nofollow from March 1, 2020 will be a hint."

However, in another part of the official documentation (link here) we come across the following phrase: Links marked with these attributes (they are talking about Nofollow, UGT and Sponsored attributes) [bot] will not be followed.

The way I understand these statements is that it seems to me that nofollow links are usually not a signal or a ranking factor, but they can tell the search engine about the content of the acceptor page or even about the existence of such a page.

Seo experts' opinion

The authorityhacker website polled 755 link builders about the current off-page situation. The full article can be read here. When it comes to nofollow links, SEO experts generally agreed: 673 of the 755 link builders we surveyed said that nofollow links have some impact on search rankings.

In principle, this statement does not contradict the official position of Google, the only question is the strength of the influence of nofollow.

How to check link: dofollow or nofollow

Method 1: if you need to spot check 1-2 links, do the check in code. Video instruction below.

Method 2: If you need to crawl all outgoing page links for the nofollow attribute or another attribute, you can use a plugin like SEO Quake.

Method 3: a list of pages with outgoing links can be thrown into ScreaminFrog (mass check mode - list). After that, go to the Outlinks section, enter your acceptor domain in the search bar. The program will show all outgoing links to this domain, and when scrolling to the right, you can see the attribute type (if any).

Method 3: You can check all incoming dofollow or nofollow links using Arefs in the Backlinks section.

Method 4: If you need to keep track of the link type (dofollow/nofollow) all the time, you can use the service LinkboxPro.

When to use nofollow on your site

You can use nofollow for outbound and internal links on your site.

For outbound links, the recommendation is: "Use this attribute in cases where you want to link to a page but don't want to imply any endorsement, including passing the rating to another page." UGC should be flagged those links that are generated by readers / users of the site, and Sponsored is for sponsored outbound links (I will say this, Sponsored is almost never used, because those who pay for advertising on your site indicate in their TK that the link should be dofollow).

For internal links, use nofollow if you don't want the bot to go to that internal page, crawl and index it. However, in addition to nofollow, in this case, you must use the no-crawling directive in the robots.txt file, as well as noindex on the acceptor page.

Do I need nofollow backlinks (as well as backlinks from UGT/sponsored)

Most SEO experts answer yes to this question. It is believed that:

• ✅ Nofollow backlinks still have a small weight in the overall link profile of the acceptor page; Of course, this weight is not as big as that of dofollow links, but it is there. This is confirmed by the words of Google, that he perceives these links as "hints", and besides, such links sometimes appear in the Search Console.
• ✅ Naturalness of the link profile. It is believed that nofollow backlinks must be present in the link profile of a large site, so SEO specialists are actively ordering crowdlinks.
• ✅ Any links, including nofollow, increase the number of mentions of the brand / site on the Internet, which positively affects brand awareness and trust in the site.
• ✅ Users can click on nofollow links from the right resources, increasing the total amount of relevant traffic on the site (I mean that this will be specifically your target audience).

Related Articles