You may have heard that backlinks play a crucial role in helping you rank on search engine result pages ( SERPs). Your backlink profile is actually much more complicated than you realize, consisting of Dofollow and Nofollow links.
There are two contradictory types. Dofollow helps your website increase your authority and boost your rankings. So what are nofollow backlinks? They tell Google and other search engines not to pass page rank.
But what does all this mean for your SEO strategy?
Keep reading to learn more about the role of Nofollow links in SEO and how they help your business grow.
Nofollow links are hyperlinks with the rel=”nofollow” attribute in their HTML code.
The “nofollow” value tells Google not to crawl the linked page to pass link equity to it.
Nofollow vs. Dofollow Links — What’s the Difference?
The main difference between nofollow and dofollow links is in how they influence search rankings of the linked page.
- Dofollow Links: These are standard links that allow search engines to follow them and pass on “link juice” or SEO value to the linked page. When a reputable site links to your content with a dofollow link, it signals to search engines that your content is credible, helping to improve your site’s authority and ranking in search results. Dofollow links are essential for building SEO value and increasing visibility on search engines.
- Nofollow Links: In contrast, nofollow links include an attribute (rel=”nofollow”) that tells search engines not to pass SEO value to the linked page. While search engines may still follow these links to discover content, they do not contribute directly to ranking improvements. Nofollow links are often used in user-generated content, advertisements, or sponsored links, where the linking site does not endorse the linked page.
Why Both Matter: Dofollow links are essential for SEO as they contribute to page authority and ranking. However, nofollow links are valuable for generating traffic, diversifying your link profile, and appearing natural to search engines. A balanced mix of both types ensures a healthy link profile, reduces the risk of penalties, and enhances brand credibility by reaching a wider audience.
Why Are Nofollow Links Important?
Nofollow links, while not directly contributing to page rank, play an essential role in a balanced and effective SEO strategy. Here’s why they’re important:
Nofollow unwanted links
If you don’t want a link on your site affects your page ranking, you can noindex, nofollow this. That means this links will not affect SEO score.
Referral Traffic
Popular websites may send referral traffic to your website if you have nofollow backlinks (links from other websites pointing to your own).
Although nofollow backlinks don’t bring much benefit for enhancing your web’s authority, it’s still good to get a backlink from them because they have a large audience. And that audience can click those links to land on your website.
Natural Link Profile: A healthy backlink profile consists of both dofollow and nofollow links. A mix of link types looks more natural to search engines, reducing the risk of penalties that can occur with manipulative linking practices.
Brand awareness
Getting mentioned on popular websites is great for enhancing brand awareness. That can naturally lead to more follow backlinks from other sites.
People can access to backlinks and it’s still raise brand awareness even you use nofollow link.
Backlink Profile Diversity
Search engines value a natural and diverse backlink profile.
This includes a mix of both nofollow and follow links.
A website with just follow links could raise red flags since it seems artificial or manipulative to search engines.
By having a healthy balance of nofollow links, your site demonstrates a more organic growth pattern.
Do Nofollow Links Help With SEO?
Some people say: “Nofollow links have zero impact on SEO”.
And others claim: “Nofollow links aren’t as powerful as dofollow links… but they still help.”
What’s the truth?
First, what does Google say about nofollow links?
“In general, we don’t follow them.”
That means there are certain cases, they do follow them.
However, there’s no evidence that Google will say this publicly. In fact, some SEO marketers actually answer this quetion: “Does Google actually follow nofollow backlinks”.
To find out, he added a nofollow link to one of SurveyMonkey’s 404 pages.
That link led to a page that wasn’t indexed yet.
In theory, Google should ignore that link.
But that’s not what happened.
Instead, Google followed the link… and indexed the page within 48 hours.
Finally, let’s check out the results from an industry study that analyzed factors that influence the “power” of a backlink.
And they discovered that both dofollow and total backlinks (including nofollow links) had similar impact on rankings.
How to use nofollow links on my site?
Firstly, you need to check your backlink analysis with all backlinks you built so far. Use tools like Ahref, SearchPie, Semrush to simplify your process.
- Ahrefs
With Ahrefs, you can check and monitor your backlinks’ status. See every page linking to your target in the detailed Backlinks report. Use powerful filters to dive deeper:
- Link type (“dofollow” / “nofollow”)
- Platform
- Domain Rating (DR)
- URL Rating (UR)
- Referring domains
- Etc
- SearchPie
SearchPie is a SEO app for Shopify with backlinks building feature is available on this.
After installing SearchPie on Shopify, you can check total of backlink by clicking on set up button.
To check your total backlinks, you need to click on Analytics.
To check if there is any store you wish to submit articles to and exchange backlinks on your store website, please go to the Requests section for further check.
You should check their DA, total backlinks, and view their draft articles carefully before deciding to reject or publish their articles on your website.
Install app button
Conclusion
Using nofollow backlinks bring many benefits to optimize SEO performance when you can control all links that affect your score in the search results. However, remember to use it carefully to not be counter-productive.
