A dofollow link is a reference that has been placed on an external website. The trust of the external website and your own domain is passed on via a dofollow link. This does not happen with a nofollow link, but this also has an influence on the ranking.
Origin of the link with its attributes
Links were developed to create links. Google launched its search engine in 1999 and chose the link as an important parameter. This approach was subsequently adopted by all other search engines, which have developed since then, so backlinks (as do follow links) are a way of viewing trust signals between websites and evaluating them for your own link building, for example. In addition to the do follow link, there are other attributes, but the dofollow attribute is the important one, because the GoogleBot sees this as “follow” and crawls it. If all other important criteria have been met (such as topic relevance), it will have a positive influence on the ranking, but unlike other link attributes, this does not have to be specified separately for the follow link, as all links are automatically output as “Do Follow Link”. This is only different if the link is marked as “nofollow” or “sponsored”, for example. Incidentally, the nofollow link was developed in 2005 because link spam had become rampant. With this attribute, trust could not be passed on.
What value do backlinks have?
DoFollow backlinks have a higher value than NoFollow backlinks, at least on the market. However, the value is not based on an attribute, but on the quality of the website. In 2005, Google developed a weighting system based on links, called “Page Rank”, which indicated how valuable a website is. This system no longer exists in the same way. The high value of a website must be read by other factors, for example:
- Traffic
- Visibility
- Link profile
How do DoFollow backlinks affect the ranking?
How DoFollow backlinks show up in the ranking varies, although it is also not possible to predict when a backlink will start to have an effect. SEO professionals mention “link juice” in this context. The crawler of Google, Bing and other search engines checks the relationship between the websites and uses this as a benchmark, resulting in the “link juice”. The ranking can be improved if the outgoing website is extremely strong (and therefore authoritative).
How is a DoFollow link recognized?
A DoFollow link is not recognizable to a user, nor can they immediately recognize a NoFollow link. However, there are options for reading the attributes. In the Chrome browser, right-click on the respective element of the page. A context menu then opens and “Inspect” is selected.
Step 1: Right-click on the link and click “Examine”.
Step 2: Click on the mouse with the square at the top right, then click on the word/link (in this case “landing page”). The link then appears on the right with all its details (in this case there is no attribute such as rel=”nofollow”, which means this link is dofollow.
This is similar in the Safari browser, where it can be found under “Element information”. An HTML code opens within a window and you can search in it using the key combination CTRL + F, for example. If this is a recurring task, a browser plug-in can also be used to simplify the process.
In what context should DoFollow links be used?
“Do Follow Links” are the standard, but there are also cases in which this should not be used. When linking within your own domain, however, you should always link with DoFollow. For certain other things, as in the following list, you should always work with Nofollow:
- Press releases
- Social Media
- Affiliate links
- Forums / Q&A platforms
- Blog comments
- Untrusted sites
- Widgets
- Advertisements / Sponsored Content
As soon as the search engine crawler moves around the website, it will check the links and check that they are natural. It is also not harmful if nofollow links are generated, as this is part of a natural link profile. However, it is noticeable that most successful websites currently have a much larger number of DoFollow links. All unnatural links should be marked with the Nofollow attribute.
Why is a different link attribute more useful here?
Spam is very common in forum posts and blog comments, as links are created in order to obtain a backlink. This method could be counteracted by setting content management systems such as WordPress to Nofollow by default; social bookmarks also have the same problem, as they also issued a DoFollow and thus had a massive spam problem. Since then, this has also changed. From now on you have to pay for such a link.
Google is testing new link attributes
The Internet is in a state of constant change, which means that new methods are also being created. Link building is not an easy task in itself. Google has added two new link attributes and is currently testing new attributes that may appear in the next few years. 2019 saw the introduction of the “sponsored” attribute by Google. This attribute can be used to identify links that result from an advertisement, for example. Previously, “nofollow” was used for these links, and the “ugc” attribute was also introduced, as user behavior is playing an increasingly important role. The abbreviation “ugc” stands for “user-generated content”. It is therefore used to mark links that users have placed in forums, comments or Q&A platforms, and these attributes now also play a role in the link profile and should be taken into account when building links. However, the “ugc” attribute in particular is a marker that is also generated automatically for strong websites, for example because an article is discussed intensively, but smaller websites can also be helped by buying forum links, for example, or by actively participating in forums.
What do links look like in HTML source code?
If a website is checked for DoFollow links, then these passages must be searched for accordingly. However, a link is very easy to recognize from the HTML code, because there is never a deviation:”<a href=https://seo-galaxy.com/ rel=”nofollow”>Anchor text</a>”This would be a link with NoFollow, but “DoFollow” could also be entered. However, this would be unnecessary work, because if no attribute is set, this link is automatically a DoFollow link.
How are DoFollow links generated?
DoFollow links are generated by link assets, i.e. tools, infographics or information that webmasters link to in order to provide their visitors with comprehensive information. On the other hand, these backlinks can also be bought, but this should always be done by an expert.
