Dofollow Link
A dofollow link is a standard hyperlink that passes ranking authority from the linking page to the destination. It's the default link type — and the one that actually contributes to search rankings.
"Dofollow" is not an HTML attribute — it's the absence of the nofollow attribute. Every link is dofollow by default unless rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", or rel="ugc" is explicitly added. When a site links to yours without any of those qualifiers, it's a dofollow link, and it passes a share of the linking page's authority to your page.
Dofollow links are the primary mechanism by which external authority flows through the web. When a high-authority site links to your page without qualification, it signals: "this page is credible enough for me to endorse publicly." Google uses this as a significant ranking signal. The authority passed is proportional to the linking page's own authority and the number of other outbound links it contains.
Not every backlink in your profile will be dofollow. Wikipedia, most news sites, social media platforms, and many press releases add nofollow attributes as standard practice. This is expected. A healthy backlink profile contains a mix of dofollow and nofollow links — an all-dofollow profile can appear manipulated to Google's algorithms.
When evaluating link-building campaigns, ask whether the links being acquired are dofollow. An agency delivering only nofollow links is delivering substantially less ranking value than raw volume numbers suggest. The distinction matters when interpreting link-building performance and ROI.
Dofollow links from authoritative, relevant domains directly improve the ranking ability of linked pages — they're the mechanism through which off-page link-building investment translates into search performance
Understanding which of your backlinks are dofollow vs. nofollow accurately reflects your actual link equity — backlink tools show this distinction and it matters when assessing your competitive position
Evaluating link-building campaigns requires knowing how many acquired links are dofollow — an all-nofollow link-building effort is near-worthless for ranking purposes regardless of site authority
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Full glossaryNofollow Link
A nofollow link includes a rel="nofollow" attribute that instructs search engines not to pass ranking authority to the destination page. Common on paid placements, social media, user-generated content, and news sites.
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