Dofollow vs nofollow links
A nofollow link carries a rel="nofollow" attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking credit through it; a dofollow link is simply an ordinary link with no such attribute. 'Dofollow' is informal shorthand - there is no rel="dofollow".
Also called: nofollow, dofollow, rel=nofollow, sponsored link, ugc link
Last reviewed
Google introduced nofollow in 2005 so publishers could link to something without endorsing it, and later added two more specific values: rel="sponsored" for paid or affiliate links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content like comments. Since 2019 Google has treated all three as hints rather than strict directives, meaning it may choose to consider such a link rather than ignoring it outright.
The practical implication is that the dofollow/nofollow distinction deserves less weight than link-building folklore gives it. A nofollow link from a publication your buyers read still sends qualified traffic, still puts your name in front of the right audience, and still often precedes an unattributed follow link elsewhere. Discarding an opportunity because the outlet nofollows its outbound links optimizes for a metric rather than a business.
The one place the attribute genuinely matters is on links you control. If you paid for a placement in any form, it should carry rel="sponsored" - not doing so is what turns a paid placement into a link-scheme violation.
The link attributes, side by side
Google recognizes three rel values for qualifying a link, and they can be combined in one attribute (rel="ugc nofollow"):
- No attribute ("dofollow"). An ordinary link. It can be crawled and can pass ranking credit. This is the default, and there is nothing to add to make a link dofollow.
- rel="nofollow". The general-purpose value: you are linking to something but do not want to vouch for it. Use it when neither of the other two applies.
- rel="sponsored". For advertisements, paid placements and affiliate links. Google prefers this value for paid links, though nofollow is still accepted.
- rel="ugc". For links inside user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts.
Nofollow is a hint, not a command
Until 2019, Google treated nofollow as a strict instruction: such links were simply ignored for ranking. In September 2019 it announced that nofollow, sponsored and ugc would all be treated as hints, meaning its systems may consider such a link when deciding rankings, and from March 2020 the same applied to crawling and indexing.
In practice, plan on a nofollow link passing little or no ranking value, and value it for what it certainly does deliver: visitors, visibility, and the chance that someone who reads it links to you properly elsewhere.
How to check whether a link is nofollow
Right-click the link in your browser, choose Inspect, and read the link's HTML: if its rel attribute contains nofollow, sponsored or ugc, the link is qualified; if there is no rel attribute, or it holds only values like noopener, it is an ordinary link. Browser extensions that highlight nofollow links do the same thing at a glance, and backlink tools report the attribute for every link they find.
Which to use on your own site
- Sources you trust. Leave editorial links to useful pages as ordinary links. Citing a good source is expected, not a leak of value.
- Anything you were paid for. Mark paid placements, sponsored posts and affiliate links with rel="sponsored". Leaving it off is what makes a paid link a policy violation.
- Comments, forums and profiles. Mark links your users add with rel="ugc", optionally with nofollow, so they are not read as your endorsement.
- Your own internal links. Leave them as ordinary links. Nofollowing internal links does not redirect value anywhere useful and can stop pages from being discovered.
Common questions
Are nofollow links worth pursuing?
Often yes. Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than an absolute instruction, and a nofollow link from a relevant publication still delivers referral traffic and visibility to the right audience. Judge the opportunity by the audience and the publication, not by the attribute.
How do you make a link dofollow?
By leaving the rel attribute off, or removing nofollow, sponsored and ugc from it. There is no rel="dofollow" value; an ordinary link is followed by default. On a site you do not own, only the publisher can change it, and asking for a paid link to be made dofollow is asking them to break Google's policy.
Should all external links be nofollow?
No. Google's guidance is to qualify links that are paid, affiliate or user-generated, and to use nofollow when you do not want to vouch for a page. Linking normally to sources you trust is expected, and blanket-nofollowing every outbound link adds nothing.
What is a good ratio of dofollow to nofollow backlinks?
There is no target ratio, and Google has never published one. A natural link profile contains both, because many large publishers nofollow outbound links by policy. Chasing a percentage is optimizing a number nobody grades.