How does it affect website rankings?

When any website links to another website, there are two ways to create the link. The first way is to create a dofollow backlink and the second way is to create a nofollow link. Although both types of links have the common goal of linking from a page to a landing page, they mean different things to search engines. This article covers the difference between dofollow backlinks and nofollow backlinks and their impact on website rankings. Let’s find out together!!!

What is dofollow backlink?

Dofollow backlink is a standard link from one website to another, it allows search engine bots like Google to scan it and index it. Dofollow links help SEO by transferring authority from the original page to the linked landing page, this transfer of authority is also known as "link juice".

nofollow-va-dofollow-1

Standard links default to dofollow, so there’s no need for rel=”dofollow” when linking to a site.

What are the benefits of dofollow backlinks for SEO?

Pagerank (Pagerank) of a website is basically the website value that Google perceives. Dofollow links are a signal to Google or other search engines that the page being linked to is valuable.

Pages with higher pagerank are often shown higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). There are many factors that help a website rank well on the SERPs and dofollow backlinks is one of the core, most valuable factors.

Get dofollow backlink from high DA page to increase site’s pagerank

Usually smaller sites, with low pagerank will look for backlinks from high DA sites. When getting a link from a high ranking site with a dofollow link being passed along their "link juice", it can effectively increase the value of a low ranking site on search engines. . Because now the site with the lower ranking has received more page rank points from the high quality dofollow link.

What is nofollow?

In contrast to Dofollow links, Nofollow backlinks are links that do not transfer authority from the original page to the page it links to. A nofollow link will include the rel=”nofollow” attribute tag in the HTML snippet. This tag sends a signal to search engine bots that this link has no effect on pagerank, meaning it doesn’t need to be scanned and indexed.

Nofollow backlink has rel=”nofollow” attribute tag

When to use nofollow

When placing links in comments or forums

You can make backlinks by sharing content on forums or commenting, commenting on other posts with the same link. But these links need to be tagged with rel=”nofollow” if you don’t want Google to think that your site is spamming links too much.

Links in press releases

Links placed in press releases are nofollowed by default.

Do nofollow links bring value to SEO?

There is always debate about the impact of nofollow links on a site’s rankings. And many reviews say that it has no direct impact on the website’s Pagerank index. However, Nofollow links still bring indirect benefits for SEO.

Increase traffic

Let’s look at the following example to better understand the effect of increasing traffic through nofollow backlinks. Same nofollow link pointing to a landing page, but a backlink from a related article on the topic on Forbes site and a nofollow backlink from spam comments on forums. There is definitely a difference in the potential to increase page traffic from these 2 links.

Nofollow backlinks have an indirect effect of increasing web traffic

Even if it doesn’t have a direct impact on SEO, an effectively placed nofollow backlinks from a topically relevant website content with lots of user traffic can bring your site a lot of traffic. more valuable access.

Diversify your link profile

A natural backlink profile will always include both dofollow backlinks and nofollow backlinks. If the site only has dofollow links, the backlink profile may look unnatural. Having nofollow backlinks is normal and not harmful to a website. It helps diversify the site’s link profile, making them look more natural and less likely to be seen as spam.

How to know which is Dofollow or Nofollow

HTML Check

To tell if a link is Dofollow or Nofollow, simply check the HTML code. Do this by right-clicking on the link and selecting "Inspect" or clicking the key combination "Ctrl + Shift + I" (in Chrome).

Check the HTML snippet, if you find the rel=”nofollow” tag, the link is identified as nofollow. Otherwise, if the rel=”nofollow” tag is not found, this is a standard tracked link.

Identify nofollow links by checking HTML

Use an extension on Google

Various browser extensions will help you detect dofollow or nofollow backlinks. For Chrome browser, you can use an extension called "Nofollow". Do the installation of the utility by

Nofollow extension on Chrome browser

Here, click "Add to Chrome" and select "Add extension" from the message box to finish installing the Nofollow extension

After installing this extension on the Chrome browser, you can easily identify Nofollow links by the add-on pre-marked with red frames for easy identification.

Nofollow backlinks are marked with a red box

Backlinks analysis tool

If you need to analyze backlinks, you can use backlink analysis tool like Ahrefs there are Majestic SEO.

With the Ahrefs analytics tool, click on the Backlinks section to see the backlink analysis. Here, you can use the filter at "Link type" to know the number of links of each type and distinguish between dofollow and nofollow links easily.

Ahrefs allows filtering and checking of dofollow and nofollow backlinks

What is the reasonable ratio of Dofollow and Nofollow backlinks?

Understanding the impact of dofollow and nofollow links on a website, how to place the link appropriately is also worth considering. Until now there is still no standard Dofollow and Nofollow backlink setting rate.

According to an Alexa survey, the website’s Nofollow and Dofollow backlink ratio at approximately 25:75 gives the best results. That means a higher dofollow backlink ratio will have a good impact on website rankings, thanks to which the reputation of the website is appreciated.

Conclude

Dofollow backlinks and nofollow backlinks are the types of backlinks that SEOs need to understand to properly place links. Both types of backlinks bring positive effects to a website whether directly improving rankings or indirectly increasing page traffic. Hopefully through the article you have a better understanding of backlinks as well as their meaning for SEO.