A freelance copywriter reached out to me last year frustrated after spending six weeks building backlinks that had not moved her rankings at all. She had landed mentions on three reasonably well-known marketing blogs, got listed in two industry roundups, and even earned a link from a popular newsletter with 40,000 subscribers. Her domain rating in Ahrefs had not shifted. Her keyword positions had not budged.
When I pulled up her backlink report, the pattern was immediately clear. Every single new link she had earned was nofollow. The marketing blog links were nofollow. The newsletter link was nofollow. The industry roundup links were nofollow. She had done real outreach, earned genuine placements, and the links were passing almost no PageRank to her site.
She had never been told that link attributes existed. Nobody had explained to her that a link from a high-authority website can be configured in a way that instructs Google not to pass authority through it. She had been measuring success by link count and domain authority of the source, not by whether the links were actually doing what she needed them to do.
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That conversation happens more often than it should. This guide explains the real difference between dofollow and nofollow links, what Google actually does with each, and what a healthy backlink profile actually looks like so you never build a campaign without understanding what you are earning.
What Is a Dofollow Link and Why Does It Matter?
A dofollow link is the default state of any hyperlink on the web. When a website links to another website without any special link attribute, that link is dofollow by default. Google's crawlers follow dofollow links, index the destination page through them, and pass a portion of the linking page's authority to the destination through a mechanism originally called PageRank.
The term dofollow is technically informal since there is no actual dofollow attribute in HTML. A dofollow link simply lacks the rel attribute values that would restrict Google's behaviour. When you see the HTML of a standard dofollow link it looks like this: a href equals the URL followed by the anchor text. No additional instructions. Google sees it, follows it, and passes authority through it.
Dofollow links are the currency of link building. Every editorial placement, every guest post, every niche edit you pursue as part of a link building strategy derives its ranking value from being dofollow. The authority that flows through dofollow links is what pushes pages up search rankings when enough relevant, high-authority sources link to them.
The quantity and quality of dofollow links pointing to a page is still one of the strongest ranking signals in Google's algorithm. That has not changed meaningfully since PageRank was introduced. What has changed is Google's sophistication in evaluating which dofollow links represent genuine endorsements versus which ones were manufactured to manipulate rankings.
What Is a Nofollow Link and Where Does It Show Up?
A nofollow link contains the rel equals nofollow attribute in its HTML. This attribute was introduced by Google in 2005 as a way for website owners to signal that a link should not be interpreted as a quality endorsement. The original intent was to help combat comment spam, where spammers were leaving links in blog comment sections to manipulate PageRank.
When a link carries the nofollow attribute, the traditional understanding was that Google would not follow it, would not index the destination through it, and would not pass any PageRank through it. That was the clean, simple version of the story that most SEO guides written before 2019 will tell you.
In September 2019, Google updated its treatment of nofollow. Instead of treating nofollow as a directive that Google must obey, they reclassified it as a hint that Google may use or ignore at its discretion. That change has significant implications for how seriously you should take the dofollow versus nofollow distinction in 2025.
Nofollow links appear on Wikipedia, in the comments sections of most blogs, in press releases published on PR distribution platforms, on social media platforms, on many news websites, and on any platform that applies nofollow to all outgoing links as a default policy.
The 2019 Update: Nofollow Is Now a Hint, Not a Directive
This is the part of the dofollow versus nofollow conversation that most guides still get wrong in 2025 because they were written before Google's September 2019 announcement or have not been updated since.
Google announced two new link attributes alongside the hint reclassification. The first is rel equals ugc, which stands for user-generated content, intended for links in comment sections and forum posts. The second is rel equals sponsored, intended for paid placements and advertisements. Google asked webmasters to use these more specific attributes going forward, while keeping nofollow as a general option.
The critical change is that nofollow went from a hard instruction to a soft signal. Google stated explicitly that it may choose to use nofollow links as hints for crawling, indexing, and ranking purposes. The practical implication is that a nofollow link from an extremely authoritative source on a highly relevant page may pass some ranking influence even without technically passing PageRank in the traditional sense.
Google has never quantified how much weight it gives nofollow links as hints. They have been deliberately vague about this. What practitioners have observed across testing and correlation studies is that high-authority nofollow links from relevant sources do appear to correlate with rankings improvements in a way that pure PageRank theory would not predict.
The honest position is this: nofollow links are weaker than dofollow links for passing direct ranking authority. They are not zero. And from highly authoritative sources in your niche, they contribute to a natural-looking link profile that is part of a healthy SEO foundation.
The Three Link Attributes You Need to Know in 2025
Dofollow: The Standard
No attribute present. Google follows the link, passes authority, and uses it as a ranking signal. This is what you are targeting in any link building campaign. Guest posts, niche edits, editorial links, and resource page links should all be dofollow to produce the ranking impact you are investing in them for.
Nofollow: The Hint
The rel equals nofollow attribute tells Google this link should not necessarily be treated as an endorsement. Google now treats this as a hint rather than a directive. Most user-generated content platforms, social media sites, and many media publications use nofollow on external links as a default. You will naturally accumulate nofollow links as your brand grows and they contribute to a natural-looking link profile even if their direct ranking contribution is limited.
Sponsored: Paid Placements
The rel equals sponsored attribute was introduced in 2019 for links that are part of paid arrangements including advertisements, affiliate links, and sponsored content. Using sponsored instead of nofollow on paid placements is now Google's recommended practice. A sponsored link tells Google that a commercial relationship exists and that the link should not be interpreted as an organic editorial endorsement. Some publishers still use nofollow for paid placements rather than sponsored, which is acceptable but less precise.
How to Check Whether a Link Is Dofollow or Nofollow
You do not need a paid tool to check whether a specific link is dofollow or nofollow. The fastest manual method is to right-click anywhere on the page containing the link, select view page source, and use your browser's find function to search for your domain name or the anchor text of your link. The surrounding HTML will show whether rel equals nofollow or any other attribute is present.
For checking your own backlink profile at scale, both Ahrefs and Semrush display the dofollow or nofollow status of every link in your profile. Ahrefs labels links as dofollow or nofollow in the Backlinks report. Semrush does the same in its Backlinks Analytics section. Both tools also show the percentage breakdown of dofollow versus nofollow links across your entire profile.
The free option for checking a specific link is the browser inspect element tool. Right-click the link itself, select inspect, and the HTML panel opens showing the anchor tag and any attributes attached to it. If you see rel equals nofollow or rel equals sponsored, the link is not passing standard PageRank. If you see a clean anchor tag with only the href and the anchor text, it is dofollow.
What a Healthy Dofollow to Nofollow Ratio Actually Looks Like
This is a question I get regularly and the answer is more nuanced than any specific percentage can capture.
A natural backlink profile includes both dofollow and nofollow links because that is what genuine web presence produces. Brand mentions on social media are nofollow. Wikipedia citations are nofollow. Comments you leave in industry forums are nofollow. News coverage often carries nofollow links. A site with zero nofollow links in its profile looks artificially constructed, because any real business operating online naturally accumulates nofollow links from these sources.
Most SEO practitioners cite a healthy range of somewhere between 60 and 80 percent dofollow links as a rough benchmark for an organic-looking profile. That figure comes from correlation studies across large groups of well-ranking sites rather than any official Google guidance. It is a directional benchmark, not a rule.
What matters more than the ratio is the source quality of your dofollow links. A profile with 60 percent dofollow links from high-authority, topically relevant sources will dramatically outperform a profile with 80 percent dofollow links from low-authority, irrelevant directories. The ratio is a secondary consideration. Quality and relevance of the dofollow links is the primary one.
The copywriter I mentioned at the start rebuilt her link building strategy after our conversation. Over the following four months she earned eleven dofollow guest post links from mid-authority marketing and copywriting publications. Her domain rating increased from 14 to 28. Two of her target keywords moved from page three to page one. The nofollow links she had previously earned remained in her profile and contributed to its natural appearance, but the ranking movement came entirely from the new dofollow placements.
Do Nofollow Links Have Any Real Value Beyond SEO?
Yes, and undervaluing them entirely is a mistake that some SEOs make in the opposite direction from the copywriter's mistake of not knowing they existed.
A nofollow link from a publication with 500,000 monthly readers drives referral traffic regardless of its attribute. That traffic is real, converts at real rates, and generates real revenue. A nofollow link from the BBC, the Guardian, or a major industry trade publication carries brand credibility that influences how other publishers perceive and reference you. Secondary editorial links, meaning dofollow links from other sites that find you through the nofollow source, are a well-documented downstream benefit of high-profile nofollow coverage.
Nofollow links also contribute to brand entity building. Google's understanding of your brand as an entity in its knowledge graph is influenced by where your brand appears across the web, not exclusively by which of those appearances carry dofollow links. Consistent nofollow mentions from authoritative sources strengthen your brand entity in ways that contribute to longer-term search visibility even without direct PageRank transfer.
Pursue dofollow links deliberately through your link building campaigns. Welcome nofollow links from high-authority sources as brand and traffic assets that support a natural-looking profile and generate indirect SEO benefits. Never turn down a nofollow placement from a relevant, authoritative source because of the attribute. Turn down weak placements regardless of attribute.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dofollow and Nofollow Links
Since Google's 2019 update reclassifying nofollow as a hint rather than a directive, nofollow links from highly authoritative and topically relevant sources may pass some indirect ranking influence. Google has never quantified how much. Practitioners have observed that high-authority nofollow links appear to correlate with ranking improvements in ways pure PageRank theory would not predict. Treat strong nofollow links as a supporting element of a healthy profile rather than a substitute for dofollow links.
Visit the target website and inspect an existing external link in one of their articles using your browser's view page source or inspect element function. If existing external links carry the nofollow attribute, your guest post link likely will too. Many SEO publications apply nofollow to all external links as editorial policy. Knowing this before investing time in a pitch helps you decide whether the placement is worth pursuing for its other benefits.
No. Since September 2019, Google treats nofollow as a hint and explicitly stated it may use nofollow links for crawling, indexing, and ranking purposes at its discretion. The practical implication is that Google does process nofollow links and may assign them some weight, particularly from authoritative sources. The weight is lower than dofollow links but nofollow links are not entirely invisible to Google's ranking system.
Both nofollow and sponsored tell Google not to treat the link as an organic editorial endorsement. The difference is specificity. Nofollow is a general signal that the link should not be treated as a quality vote. Sponsored specifically communicates that a commercial relationship exists behind the link. Google introduced sponsored in 2019 and recommends using it for paid placements, affiliate links, and advertisements rather than the generic nofollow attribute.
Generally no. Since nofollow links do not pass PageRank directly, spammy nofollow links have minimal ability to harm your rankings. Google's disavow tool is intended for situations where spammy dofollow links are contributing to a manual action penalty or creating an unnatural link pattern that Google has flagged. Disavowing nofollow links from low-quality sources is rarely necessary and adds complexity to your Search Console setup without meaningful benefit.
Yes. All major social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube apply nofollow or equivalent attributes to external links. Social media links do not pass PageRank directly. Their value lies in referral traffic, brand visibility, and the secondary editorial links that viral or widely shared content can generate from publishers who discover your content through social channels.
You can ask, but most publishers will not change their link policy for individual placements. If a website applies nofollow to all external links as editorial policy, that policy typically applies uniformly. Some publishers do differentiate between editorial and commercial content, applying dofollow to genuine editorial links and nofollow to sponsored content. In those cases, earning an editorial placement rather than a sponsored one may be the path to a dofollow link on that domain.
Wikipedia links are nofollow by default across the entire platform. Despite this, appearing on a relevant Wikipedia page as a reference or external link carries significant brand credibility and drives meaningful referral traffic. Google uses Wikipedia extensively as a signal for entity understanding and brand authority. A citation on a relevant Wikipedia page contributes to how Google understands your brand as an entity even without direct PageRank transfer.
Anchor text on nofollow links carries less weight than anchor text on dofollow links since the link is not passing standard PageRank. However, given Google's hint-based treatment of nofollow, anchor text on nofollow links from authoritative sources may contribute marginally to topical relevance signals. For practical purposes, focus anchor text optimisation on your dofollow link building campaigns and use natural anchor text on nofollow placements without strategic calculation.
Most correlation studies suggest that well-ranking sites tend to have between 60 and 80 percent dofollow links in their profiles, with the remainder being nofollow. This is a reflection of natural web presence rather than a target to engineer. A site with zero nofollow links looks artificially constructed because real-world brand presence naturally generates nofollow links from social media, forums, news coverage, and user-generated content platforms. Focus on building quality dofollow links through active outreach and let nofollow links accumulate naturally through brand activity.
Know What You Are Building Before You Build It
The copywriter's six weeks of link building were not wasted. The nofollow links she earned are real placements on real websites that drive real traffic. But they were not producing the ranking movement she needed because she did not know the difference between what she was building and what she needed to build.
That knowledge gap is fixable in an afternoon. Check the link attributes on every placement you pursue before you invest outreach effort in it. Build your link building campaigns around dofollow placements from relevant, high-authority sources. Welcome nofollow links from prestigious sources as brand and traffic assets. And check your backlink profile regularly to understand the breakdown of what you have accumulated.
Understanding link attributes is not advanced SEO. It is foundational knowledge that every person doing link building should have before sending a single outreach email. The distinction is simple once you know it and consequential every time you ignore it.
Have you ever discovered that links you earned were nofollow after the fact? How did you adjust your strategy once you realised? Share your experience in the comments below.
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