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SEO: What Are NoFollow and DoFollow Links?

Linking, whether you’re linking to another site or your site is being linked to, is an important part of SEO (search engine optimization). How a site treats links is important because it can determine how search engines treat those links as well. Specifically, I’m talking about whether a site uses NoFollow tagging within its links.

What do NoFollow and DoFollow mean?

When you create a link within your blog, whether it’s on your sidebar, within your article content, or in a comment, a regular link will be coded similar to this (obviously the URL and link text will be your own):

<a href=”https://www.bloggingbasics101.com”>Blogging Basics 101</a>

If a link is tagged as NoFollow, it will look similar to this (again with your own information):

<a href=”https://www.bloggingbasics101.com” rel=”nofollow”>Blogging Basics 101</a>

The part that defines the link as NoFollow is the rel=”nofollow”. If you take that out, your link becomes DoFollow. There is no actual DoFollow tag. The absence of the NoFollow tag makes the link DoFollow.

If a blog or web site doesn’t use the NoFollow tag, the search engines acknowledge the link; if a site does use the NoFollow tag, the search engines do not acknowledge the link. Why does this matter? In a previous article, I explained Google pagerank. Basically, if a site with a high pagerank links to you, Google increases your authority, and in turn, your pagerank. Those links can be links directly to something you wrote or links left in comments (since most commenting forms allow you to include your URL). But what if that site with the higher pagerank is using the NoFollow tag and not sharing the love? Well, Google ignores the fact that the site links to you and you don’t get the increased authority or pagerank. It is therefore desirable to interact with DoFollow blogs or web sites.

Is Your Blog DoFollow?

Most web sites have the NoFollow tag automatically enabled. Check out these article for tips on figuring out whether your blog is DoFollow or NoFollow:

Should You Use the DoFollow Tag?

Your readers will appreciate it if you don’t use NoFollow tagging. After all, you’ll be building their authority. It’s a way to give back to your community. Like everything, though, there’s a downside to being a DoFollow site: spammers may inundate a DoFollow blog with comments and links. If you choose to become a DoFollow site, be aware that you may experience an increase in spam comments and it may take more time to filter out the spammy stuff.

If you decide ditching the NoFollow tags is worth it, here are some links to help you change your blog to DoFollow:

When should you consider using the NoFollow tag?

Not every link is created equal. Every site has links that are less important or link to pages that don’t change (e.g., a site map or your About Me page). Use the NoFollow tag for those links. In addition to low priority links, Google suggests using the NoFollow tag for untrusted content and paid links. If you have text link ads on your site, make sure they’re tagged as NoFollow.

Further Reading

A version of this article was also posted at BlogHer.com.

60 thoughts on “SEO: What Are NoFollow and DoFollow Links?”

  1. Patel

    I was searching for this information on “nofollow” and “dofollow” detail. I got it all the details here and cleared my doubts. Thanks, I really appreciate it.

  2. mlm

    Hi there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll certainly digg it and in my opinion recommend to my friends. I’m confident they’ll be benefited from this website.

  5. Bsnl Broadband

    No offence but Matt writes: “The essential thing you need to know is that nofollow links don’t help sites rank higher in Google’s search results.” And all the high Pageranks of the Twitter profiles are presumable from other links do DoFollow. Not the Twitter links.

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  9. Linda Ross

    Thank you for such an informative and clearly written article. New to this business I truly appreciate language not filled with acronyms. I totally understand how to use these links now.

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  14. Karen@MicroSourcing

    Spam is the risk you take for giving back to the community. Besides, there are control mechanisms with which the filter spam; WordPress is particularly good at this. Website owners need to see their Do Follow attribute as an incentive for heightened reader/author interaction.

    1. ali arfaq

      Spam is the risk you take for giving back to the community. Besides, there are control mechanisms with which the filter spam; WordPress is particularly good at this. Website owners need to see their Do Follow attribute as an incentive for heightened reader/author interaction

  17. Scentsy

    I understand the concern of spam, but I don’t understand why WordPress would automatically add no follow on their blogs. If someone is spamming your site can’t you just delete it? I would think that it would help SEO rating for everyone if this feature wasn’t so widely used. Sad to see the google considers it a good thing. Thanks for the clarification and for helping “spread the love.” 🙂

  19. safaris in tanzania

    I really wanted to know how one can tell it is a do follow or no follow. Many links that I place mostly do not seem to be dofollows, but how to tell one is a nofollow or a dofollow has been tricky.

  21. Stasia Riles

    I actually appreciate this post. We need to have far more folks like you bringing value for the community. Can I put this post on my blog? I’d give you credit and link back of course.

    1. Melanie Nelson

      Stasia,
      Thanks for commenting! Unfortunately, I do not allow re-prints of my articles. You are more than welcome to use a small quote, then link to the original article, but please do not reprint the entire article. This particular article was originally distributed via BlogHer.com and they paid me $50 to write it (we have an agreement that I write articles for them and I can reprint them at my site since I’m the author). Allowing you to reprint the article would be a breach of contract with them. Thank you for understanding.

  23. Sleepless

    Good summary of a simple but often missunderstood topic. To be honnest, I’m not sure how important NoFollw is. Tips like “Don’t have too many links on your homepage” sound strange to me. After all, I want to offer my visitors the best possible experience, and this often includes providing them with relevant links…

    There’s a lot of food for thoughts in this domain and no absolute rule.

  24. Melanie Nelson

    Krisit,

    In answer to your questions:
    #1: Links to the author’s site in a guest post can be DoFollow. That way they’re enjoying the link love from your site.

    #2: Affiliate links should be NoFollow.

    #3: A link to a site you love can be Do Follow (again to share the link love).

    If you’re using WP, then your post links are already DoFollow by default. Your comments are NoFollow by default. You probably don’t need to do a thing to share the link love and keep your comments NoFollow (to avoid possible spam). This article is just explaining what the difference is between DoFollow and NoFollow and introducing the pros/cons of each. You’ll have to decide which option works for you. And just because you choose one over the other doesn’t mean you can’t change back later. 🙂

    There is a No-Follow Reciprocity plug-in that Moomette discusses here: http://moomettesmagnificents.com/blog/nofollow-reciprocity-wordpress-plugin-best-plugins-blogging-tips/

    1. kajolcute

      If you’re using WP, then your post links are already DoFollow by default. Your comments are NoFollow by default. You probably don’t need to do a thing to share the link love and keep your comments NoFollow (to avoid possible spam). This article is just explaining what the difference is between DoFollow and NoFollow and introducing the pros/cons of each.

  26. Kristl

    Sorry…I’m still confused! The links I normally use in articles are:

    #1 – Guest post with a link or two…can or should I make these no-follow?

    #2 – Affiliate links…can or should I make these no-follow?

    #3 – A link to a site that I think is really great…I expect that I should make these no-follow?

    Is there a plug-in or something that will allow all my links to be no-follow?

    Thanks for helping a confused person!

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  31. Justin Germino

    Great sum up on DoFollow vs NoFollow.

    Reading the latest Google information remember that NoFollow links still leak some of your Google PageRank to other sites, it is best to have miminal links outbound from your site (especially homepage) for SEO reasons unless you want to promote and deliberately share the site you are linking to.

  32. Carl

    Many are obsessed with do follow blogs, im not saying that this is useless since it give you links but comments should be used holistically within a masterplan for getting what you really need: direct link recommendations from bloggers or site owners with a loyal audience, sending you high quality visitors that will convert well.

  33. John Soares

    Melanie, thanks for the clear explanation of this issue. I found out about it just a few months ago. My blogs are all on WordPress, which has nofollow as default. I’m debating whether or not to go dofollow.

  34. Gushchin Dmitry

    Good post!

    It is not clear to me though – why would one want to use ‘nofollow’ attribute?

    As I understand site owners review every comment and consider whether they are relevant to their post or not, so the spammers will not be able to incorporate their links anyway.

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