Dofollow links and nofollow links look identical to visitors, but they send different signals to search engines. What is the difference? A dofollow link passes ranking credit to the page it points to, while a nofollow link carries an attribute asking search engines not to count it in the usual way. Who needs to know this? Bloggers, site owners, and marketers, wherever they publish, who earn links or place links on other sites.
Why does it matter? Because links remain one of the clearest signs of trust on the web. When you understand which links pass credit, you can judge the value of coverage you earn, link out responsibly from your own pages, and avoid wasting money on links that do little. How the distinction works is simple; knowing when each type is appropriate takes a little more care.
A quick note on language: dofollow is not a real attribute you add. It is the everyday name for a normal link with no restricting attribute. Nofollow, by contrast, is an actual value added to a link's relationship attribute in the page code.
A normal link tells search engines, in effect, that the linking site is comfortable pointing its audience and its reputation toward the destination. Search engines may count that link as a vote when deciding how the destination ranks, depending on the quality and relevance of the source.
A nofollow link adds an instruction that changes that relationship. The visitor can still click through and arrive exactly as before, so nofollow links can still send real customers and readers. What changes is the ranking signal, which search engines are asked to ignore or treat only as a hint.
The idea grew out of the same link-based thinking that produced concepts like the long tail in search behaviour: value is spread across millions of individual pages and links, not concentrated only in a few famous sites.
Sites add nofollow for sensible reasons. Comment sections, forum posts, and social profiles attract spam, so platforms mark those links nofollow to remove the ranking reward. News sites and large blogs often nofollow links they cannot fully vouch for, even when the link itself is useful to readers.
Paid links are the most important case. Advertising, sponsored posts, and affiliate placements should be marked with a sponsored or nofollow attribute so search engines know money changed hands. Presenting a paid link as an honest editorial vote misleads readers and search engines alike.
None of this makes nofollow links worthless. A nofollow link on a busy, relevant site can send more real business than a dofollow link on a page nobody reads.
Checking a link takes less than a minute. In most browsers you can inspect the link, view the page source, and look at the code around it. If you see a relationship attribute containing the word nofollow, the link is nofollow. If there is no such attribute, it is a standard dofollow link.
Browser tools and SEO extensions can highlight link types across a whole page, which helps when you are reviewing coverage you earned or auditing your own outbound links. While auditing, also look for broken destinations, since a link of either type pointing to a missing page helps nobody.
The Broken Links Finder on Seovaro can support that cleanup by helping you find links on your site that lead nowhere, so the links you keep, follow or nofollow, at least work properly for visitors.
When earning links, natural dofollow links from relevant, trustworthy pages are generally the most valuable for rankings. But a healthy link profile always contains a mix, because real attention comes from many places, including platforms that nofollow everything by default.
When linking out from your own site, link normally to sources you genuinely recommend and have actually used or read. Use the sponsored attribute for paid placements and nofollow or UGC markers where your platform calls for them. The rule is honesty: the attribute should match the real relationship behind the link.
Chasing only dofollow links leads people into poor decisions, such as buying links from irrelevant sites. Those schemes risk penalties and rarely survive. Earning coverage because you published something worth citing remains slower, safer, and more durable.
For more link-building and auditing guidance, explore the Seovaro blog, where related guides break these topics into practical steps for your own site.
Want to clean up your own linking while you learn? Try the Broken Links Finder on Seovaro, run it over your key pages, and fix the dead ends you find. Working links, honest attributes, and links earned from relevant sites will serve you far better than chasing labels alone.
No. Nofollow links are a normal part of the web and a natural part of any real link profile. They can send valuable visitors, build awareness, and show search engines that your site is genuinely being discussed.
Search engines may treat nofollow as a hint rather than a strict instruction, so some effect is possible in some cases. Do not count on it, though. Judge nofollow links mainly by the audience they can actually send you.
No. Linking normally to trustworthy sources you recommend is healthy and helps your readers. Reserve nofollow and sponsored attributes for paid links, untrusted content, and places where you cannot vouch for the destination.
Only the site linking to you controls that attribute. You can politely ask if an editorial link was marked nofollow by mistake, but accept their policy if not. The referral value of the link remains either way.
