What are do follow links

Follow Links Vs. No Follow Links: Should You Care?

Those new to SEO might be wondering what all the hullabaloo is about follow links vs. no follow links. Confused? Not to worry, we’re going to clear it all up.

What is a Follow Link?

To really understand what is going on with follow vs. no follow links, we need to provide a bit of background about how most links work in the realm of SEO. When a site page gets an inbound link, which is a hyperlink pointing to that page, the page gets a small SEO boost. Think of a link as a point, and the more links you have, the more points. More Points = Winning, like Charlie Sheen.

Google takes note of these points, watching how many inbound links a page has and from what sites. Google figures, hey, if a lot of people are linking to a certain page, it must be a really good page! Let’s give preference in our search engines to that page over others of a similar topic so we can easily deliver the very best pages to our search engine users.

Google created a metric called PageRank to calculate the link points. Many SEO folks refer to link points as “link juice.” The link juice flows through sites and into new sites through hyperlinks. The more reputable the site, the bigger boost of link juice the linked-to site gets. Getting a link from the New York Times or BBC is pure gold!

Now we can define a follow link – Follow links are links that count as points, pushing SEO link juice and boosting the page rank of the linked-to sites, helping them go higher in the SERPs as a result.

What is a No Follow Link?

A no follow link is a link that does not count as a point in the page’s favor, does not boost PageRank, and doesn’t help a page’s placement in the SERPs. No follow links get no love. Theirs is a sad and lonely life.

A no follow link is created with the nofollow link HTML tag, which looks like this:

The nofollow tag is basically a notice sign for search engines saying “don’t count this.”

Isn’t that just mean and terrible? Why would anyone do such a thing? There’s a reason for the nofollow attribute, and boy is it a good one!

Want more traffic? Here are 25 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website.

A World Without No Follow = Spamalot

As we discussed earlier, the natural do follow form of links is used by Google to measure PageRank. More links means more link juice, which results in higher ranking website pages. In its unadulterated state, PageRank exists to see what pages are the most popular (and therefore, likely the best quality pages), and deliver those top pages to searchers.

Well, ours is an imperfect world, and, as you might have heard, some self-proclaimed SEO “experts” scheme to trick search engines and inflate their rankings using black-hat, unethical methods, and in the times before the nofollow attribute, link-building was an easy way to artificially boost page rankings.

Once PageRank was discovered by SEO black-hats, all hell broke lose! Suddenly it was all about the links for SEO. More inbound links meant better PageRank, and SEOs were determined to get as many links possible, even if it meant spamming everyone on the web to get them. Blog comments were a joke, riddled with self-promotional nonsense and linking gibberish.

Wikipedia got messy too, as people tried to add their own sites as references on hundreds of Wikipedia pages all in the name of the coveted link juice.

The blogging community was worried – these spammers were destroying any chance at fostering real community and authentic discussion on blogs. In 2005, Google, the self-styled web police, stepped in. Google’s Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen of Blogger stepped in to introduce the nofollow attribute.

NoFollow: The Tag the Internet Needs, But Not the One it Deserves

The necessity of the nofollow tag highlights the crooked and spammy mentality commonly associated with SEO, but there’s no denying we couldn’t get by without it.

The no follow link tag has done a lot of good for the online world – most SEO spammers won’t bother posting irrelevant links to blogs or forum posts if they know they won’t get to publish a follow link. WordPress automatically assigns the no follow link attribute to all user-submitted links, and Wikipedia does the same for its reference section.

While blog comment spam still happens, no follow definitely dampened it.

As a webmaster, you might find yourself wondering when to use the no follow attribute and when to allow for do follow links. No follow links primarily belong in:

Some webmaster may disable the nofollow attribute as a reward for blog commenters who are contributing to the blogging community or online discussion, but that’s up to individual discretion.

So I Just Shouldn’t Bother With No Follow Links, Right?

Absolutely not! Just because they don’t provide SEO link value doesn’t mean no follow links are worthless. No follow links still provide valuable referral traffic.

A well-placed blog comment or a relevant forum post, no follow or not, can send a huge amount of traffic to your site, which then can funnel down to leads and conversions!

Besides, search engines today are looking at a lot of factors outside of link juice and PageRank. Social signals like those from Twitter and Facebook are increasingly valuable, despite being no follow. The key is to build your brand – don’t think of what links are good for SEO, but instead think what links are good for your business, your brand, and what links can help establish you as an industry authority. Remember that links, no follow or not, build trust.

It’s also still worth pursing Wikipedia links when appropriate. Wikipedia is very picky about their references, so you’ll have to provide very niche, unique content, but if you can get a link it can bring about some pretty cool results – including other do follow links.

Gianluca Fiorelli of IloveSEO notes that once, when doing competitive research about sites related to traveling to Patagonia, he found that the site that was ranking in first place on Google had a Wikipedia link. He says:

“I dug into that link and discovered that it was to a post about the Welsh immigration in Patagonia present in that site’s blog. Is that link sending traffic to the site? Probably not at all, but it was noticed by someone in the BBC website, who finally linked to that same post citing Wikipedia. Boom, now that travel site not only has one link from Wikipedia, but it has also an important backlink from another trusted seed: the BBC.”

Wikipedia links, despite being nofollow, can still drive traffic and might earn you some platinum do follow links down the line.

How to See if a Link is Follow or No Follow

How do you decipher between follow links vs. no follow links?

In Chrome, go to the navigation bar and click View>Developer>View Source. Alternatively you can just right-click on a page and hit Inspect Element. For Firefox, do Right-Click>View Page Source.

From there, do an Edit>Find and search for “nofollow” in the search box. All instances of the nofollow tag will be highlighted.

For the SEO pros who want to keep careful and easy track of no follow links, there are many extensions available to download for Chrome and Firefox that automatically highlight no follow or do follow links on the pages you visit.

A couple for Firefox are:

How to Get Follow Links

We’ve talked about why links are important, regardless of their no follow/do follow status, but you probably still want a few follow links to even out that link profile.

The best ways to get do follow links is the honest way: creating awesome, original content that gets shared and linked to naturally. Other approaches include guest blogging, especially on a site relevant to your own so that you can build referral traffic in addition to getting an SEO boost.

Follow or No Follow: A Balanced Link Profile is Best

Remember, ultimately you want a healthy balance of do follow and no follow backlinks for the perfect link profile. Do follow links may do more for SEO, but both deserve a place in your online marketing strategy.

Meet The Author

Megan Marrs

Megan Marrs is a veteran content marketer who harbors a love for writing, watercolors, oxford commas, and dogs of all shapes and sizes. When she’s not typing out blog posts or crafting killer social media campaigns, you can find her lounging in a hammock with an epic fantasy novel.

See other posts by Megan Marrs

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What Are Dofollow And Nofollow Links?

A marketing management strategy aims to generate results that meet the business’s objectives.

Content Marketing is one strategy that helps bring these results. However, it is not just about creating good content, but also adopting some practices like understanding nofollow vs. dofollow links and knowing how to use them to your advantage.

If you want to see how to use those types of links in your SEO strategy, keep reading. Here, we will treat:

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What are the differences between nofollow vs. dofollow links?

In order to understand the differences between nofollow vs. dofollow links, we must first clarify how link building works within SEO.

By that, we mean what happens every time a website or blog receives a new link that can increase its ranking in Google.

In the same way that each new content on your blog increases the chances of you being found by your audience, we can say that each new link increases your chances of having more visitors and better positioning in search engines.

After all, when Google’s algorithm identifies so many internal and external links pointing out to your website, it automatically understands that, if so many people are linking to this blog, then it must be a very good one.

Therefore, it should be in a better ranking position in search results.

What is dofollow link

Dofollow links are those that allow Google and other search engines to point back to your website or blog.

So, every time you insert a dofollow link on your site, it can point back to you, which strengthens your authority by showing search engines what other sites, blogs, and posts are linking to you.

For example: if Rock Content uses on its blog a link from company X that is dofollow, the page or blog post used in the link will be taken into account in the ranking.

This is called Link Juice by some users, and it occurs because of Google’s PageRank metric.

Therefore, when inserting external links on your blog, make sure they are from sites with good authority, as this will be very important for the growth of your blog’s authority.

What is nofollow link

On the other hand, there are those links that you can insert and not have it pointing back to you. They are called nofollow links. They do not boost PageRank, nor do they help with better placement on SERP.

Websites that have nofollow links have an HTML tag similar to Link Text .

This tag serves as a warning to search engines, so they do not consider it for the ranking of those who linked it on their website.

Tools like SEMRush can show you nofollow vs. dofollow links, so you can consider when inserting them into some of your content.

Why does anyone leave their own website or blog as nofollow?

Now that you understand the differences between nofollow vs. dofollow links, you may be wondering why some companies and professionals choose to have websites or blogs with nofollow links, which are beneficial for both linkers and linked parties.

Well, this is what happens: just as good links pointing to your domain make it better, bad links can decrease your authority with Google.

After all, just as the algorithm concludes something similar to “if many good sites are pointing to this guy, he must also be good”, it can also conclude “if so many bad sites are pointing to this guy, he must also be bad — and his SERP positioning needs to decrease”.

So, good websites certainly have nofollow links.

What should I take into account when doing a nofollow vs. dofollow link strategy?

Now see what points you should consider when inserting links on your website or blog that can be both dofollow and nofollow.

The first step is to find out which sites you want your content to mention and can also point you back as a dofollow.

Make sure they are relevant to your post and that they are not just there because of the link. Otherwise, search engines may consider your post as spam.

Do not underestimate the algorithm, because, with each update, Google considers more the content made for the user and not for the search engines.

If information is not that relevant, but you feel you need a link, choosing nofollow is better. Also, make sure that ad links, affiliates, and related ones are not dofollow.

To do this, use the nofollow tag every time you insert links you don’t want to be followed back. This is essential when it is necessary to quote links from competitors, not only in terms of niche but also of keywords.

What should I consider when inserting external links on my website or blog?

If you have a link to another website and want Google to recognize that you have linked to it, you must use a dofollow link.

This type of link is useful for search engines, as it can help bots get a better idea of ​​what their content is about.

This is especially true because mentioning other sites is also a natural thing to do with good quality content.

At all times, Google favors texts that appear to be natural, rather than those that simply want to rank well, while negatively affecting user experience.

Remember those texts that repeated keywords to exhaustion and also filled content with links in an attempt to appear in search results? This used to work in the past, but it doesn’t work anymore.

What should I consider when having my links published on other sites and blogs?

Up to this point in the article, we discussed the differences between nofollow vs. dofollow links when inserting them on your website or blog. But what should we do when other websites or blogs are the ones doing the linking?

When that happens, some people think that we just have to accept being linked, because the more mentions we have on other websites, the better, right? Wrong.

While more links can have a direct impact on your domain’s search rankings, links coming from websites with little authority and credibility can hurt yours. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not follow them back.

But there’s nothing to worry about because even if links pointed on third-parties websites are nofollow, they will still be visible to people who visit the page — therefore, being a source of traffic to your own website.

An example of this consists of companies and professionals who insert their links on Wikipedia.

Although it is nofollow, the fact that the link is there can lead many readers to access it, increasing the number of visits, which is also one of Google’s ranking factors.

How do I get links to my website?

This is a recurring question among those who want to start doing SEO actions off-page.

After all, the bigger the number of trusted sites pointing to yours, the greater its relevance to search engines.

The first step is to truly create the best content on any topic. When you have truly relevant and useful content to your buyer persona, you have better odds of being well positioned in search results.

As a consequence, other websites will also start pointing to you as a reference for the subject that you discuss in your content.

In terms of active actions to make this happen, a good way is to create content for third-party blogs, what we call guest posts. Some blogs allow other people to write for them, which helps them have more content published. In return, you can insert links to your website in the article.

So try to write guest posts for sites that have good authority and some connection to your segment. If someone has a website about vegan food, it makes no sense to write content for a steakhouse, for example.

Now that you know the main differences between nofollow vs. dofollow links, how about getting deeper into understanding what link juice is? Just click on the link and enjoy!

Understand DoFollow & Nofollow Link: SEO Basics

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we recommended. Read more about Affiliate disclosure here.

Whenever we talk about search engine optimization, some of the common words are noindex, doindex, nofollow, dofollow, meta robots and so on. All the words hold equal importance in the book of SEO. In this post I will be explaining about Nofollow and Dofollow. Especially for newbies who are new to SEO or people who are still not clear about Nofollow or dofollow, this post will be useful.

Did You Know?

Nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct search engines bots that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring in the first place. This is a concept introduced by Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen in the year 2005.

What Is The Difference between NoFollow & Dofollow

Nofollow links attributes do not allow search engine bots to follow link.That means if the website owner is linking back to you with nofollow attributes, it does not pass on link juice. Only Humans will be able to follow the links. Though some time back Google made it clear that they don’t consider nofollow link attributes but weightage of such links are really less. Even though, it’s a good practice to use Nofollow link attribute to those link, where you don’t want to pass link-juice.

An example of Nofollow Link:

Dofollow links allow google (all search engines) to follow them and reach our website. Giving us link juice and a backlink. If a webmaster is linking back to you with this link both Search Engine and Humans will be able to follow you. The best way to give someone dofollow love is allowing keyword in the anchor text. This means when you are linking to any website or page, use the targeted keyword as anchor text.

An example of Dofollow Link:

Note: By default all the hyperlinks are dofollow. So, you don’t need to do anything to make a link do-follow.

Important Notice:-

Recently Google has said that they will still count the nofollow link as an outgoing link in terms of the distribution of page rank from your page. Though again it also depends on where that nofollow link is placed. Placing a nofollow link at the bottom of the page has the least impact, and when placed at the top of the page, it carries some impact.

Types Of No-Follow

This tells bots/crawlers/spiders not to follow links on the full page.

This tells search engines not to count the link in terms of ranking pages.

Quick Tip: Try to keep noindex attribute for pages like contact and nofollow attribute for affiliate links on your blog posts. If you are linking to any spam website for any reason, use the nofollow link attribute.

Do let me know if you have more questions regarding basics of Nofollow or Dofollow?

What is a Dofollow Link?

Written by HubSpot Staff

The easier it is for potential customers to find your site in search engine results, the more traffic (and sales) you’ll generate.

As a result, there’s a kind of constant content competition underway as website owners and administrators look for ways to stand out from the crowd and improve search engine optimization (SEO).

Gone are the wild, wild west days of the World Wide Web where keyword spamming and content stuffing were the norm to drive search engine interest.

Now, brands need to focus on more tightly-controlled metrics — such as Google’s PageRank — to boost their online appeal and push their site listing closer to the first page, first result pinnacle.

While part of this effort comes down to writing relevant, accurate, and interesting content, there’s another key component: Dofollow links. With the right approach, these links can help leverage great content into higher PageRank and better search results.

Here’s how they work.

What is a dofollow link?

PageRank is effectively a weighted score that uses links to assign points — the more points, the better your site rank, and the better your SEO. Often referred to as “link juice” by online marketing professionals because of their ability to “flow” through websites with the right linking structure, getting these points is a priority for any site owner.

The problem? Almost immediately after their introduction, getting points in any way possible became the strategy of many unscrupulous marketers.

The easiest way to achieve this aim? Leaving comments on the posts of popular websites that contained links back to client sites, in turn boosting their profile. The more reputable the linking site — think well-respected retailers or news organizations — the bigger the link juice boost.

By default, these links were “dofollow” — they instructed search engines to follow the link back to the originating site and boost its PageRank. To solve the growing problem of spam links the “nofollow” link was created: Site admins could add an HTML tag:

… to any link on their site, which instructed search engines not to follow the link back to its destination and, in turn, not boost its PageRank.

Today, dofollow links remain an important part of SEO strategy — getting a “backlink” from a reputable site can significantly boost PageRank values and help brands stand out. The introduction of nofollow links, meanwhile, offers more control for site admins.

For example, most comment sections now include nofollow tags by default, and page creators can choose to add nofollow tags to blog posts and other articles. Changing these links from nofollow to dofollow is easy, but requires that destination site owners contact linking site admins and ask for the change.

How to Make a Dofollow Link

In most cases, no action is required to create a dofollow link. If your site is linked to by another site and they don’t choose to add the nofollow tag, search engines will naturally arrive at your page and increase your overall PageRank.

The same is true if you’re including links on your own site. For example, you may choose to add links to other reputable sites within your own content and allow search engines to follow these links.

If you’ve been asked by another brand to include their links on your page or are moderating blog comments, meanwhile, you may want to turn on automatic nofollow tags where possible or ensure that all links include the nofollow tag until you’re sure it makes sense to follow the link back.

This is especially critical if other links lead to low-quality or keyword-stuffed content, since this can reflect poorly on your own site.

Put simply? When it comes to external links from reputable sites that lead back to your page, dofollow is ideal. Links leading outside your site and linked from your own posts or attached to comments on your content should only be dofollow if the outgoing link site is reputable and relevant.

What tools are available for dofollow links?

Wondering if a link is dofollow or nofollow? If it’s on your own site, you can check the HTML code from your CMS admin page to determine if the nofollow tag is present, but what happens when the link comes from another, external site? Since you can’t see or edit their code, you can’t be certain if links are dofollow or nofollow.

In this case, it’s worth using dofollow link checker tools to determine if links will boost your PageRank or not.

The first tool is a web-based tool that checks entire pages for nofollow and dofollow links. Moz MozBar is a Chrome extension, while SEOquake is offered for both Chrome and Firefox. Link Analyzer, meanwhile, is a standalone tool that doesn’t require a specific browser. Each of these tools is free and works by following any links to your site to determine if they’re nofollow or dofollow, then reports the results.

Should I dofollow an external link?

Here, the answer depends on two factors: Where does the link lead, and what are the benefits if you opt for dofollow? Ideally, any dofollow links point search engines to content that’s current, relevant and accurate, in turn providing “link juice” for both the external site and your own website.

There may be cases where reciprocal dofollow links are a good idea, especially if you’re looking to expand site traffic and the external site has a similar ranking to your own page. Ideally, you want a mix of nofollow and dofollow links on your page to ensure search engines don’t view your content as simply a vehicle for PageRank points.

How long will it take Google to recognize a dofollow link?

While there’s no hard and fast answer here since search engine spiders crawl a significant volume of pages each day, dofollow links are generally recognized by Google within two to four days after being posted.

If your site has low traffic volumes and the dofollow links you’re creating or receiving come from similarly small webpages, it could take more time for PageRank to recognize these links. If you’re fortunate enough to receive a backlink from a highly-ranked site, meanwhile, you may see the benefit in just a few days.

Dofollow links remain a critical aspect of SEO and search ranking efforts, but must be used strategically to deliver substantive benefits.

Originally published Dec 25, 2020 7:00:00 AM, updated December 25 2020

Nofollow vs. dofollow links: What is the difference?

What is a nofollow link?

A nofollow link is a link that contains a rel=”nofollow” attribute in its HTML code. This attribute tells search engines not to pass authority from the linking page to the destination page. As such, noffollow links have very little value from the SEO point of view.

The nofollow attribute was introduced in 2005 by Google, Yahoo and MSN in order to fight the comment spam by giving webmasters the option to devalue certain links.

Nofollow vs. dofollow

From the technical point of view, the only difference between a nofollow link and a standard “dofollow” link is the presence of the rel=”nofollow” tag.

The practical difference is that nofollow links do not pass the link equity (also known as “link juice”).

In other words, if you get a nofollow backlink, the linking page doesn’t pass the authority to your page. It won’t improve your rankings and transfer any PageRank.

What is a dofollow link?

The term “dofollow link” is used to describe a link that passes the authority as opposed to one that doesn’t.

Technically, it is not a correct name because there is no such thing as rel=”dofollow” attribute. Some SEOs are quite strict about this.

There is no such thing as «DOfollow»

This is the hill that I will die on.

So keep that it mind when using the term.

Other link attributes

In 2019, Google introduced two new attributes that do not pass authority. They work as additional ways to identify the nature of some links:

You don’t have to change your existing nofollow links. The rel=”nofollow” attribute still works as a catchall for all the links that do not pass authority. Moreover, you can combine more values in one attribute, for example: rel=”ugc nofollow”

For more information on this topic, read this great guide by Cyrus Shepard.

When should I use nofollow links?

1. Pages you don’t want to endorse

Sometimes you simply need to link to websites that you don’t want to endorse.

For example, here’s an article by the Variety Magazine reporting on Pornhub releasing a non-adult film. Although all the links in that article are followed, they decided to use a nofollow attribute when linking to PornHub’s annual review.

You’ll use the rel=”nofollow” in this case.

2. Sponsored links

Buying links is an activity that is strictly prohibited by Google’s guidelines.

So you don’t want to be caught by Google on the receiving end of the link, but neither should you be obviously selling links on your website.

The only way is to use a nofollow attribute on all the sponsored links, more precisely rel=”sponsored” (rel=”nofollow” will work the same way, or you can combine both values like rel=”sponsored nofollow”).

3. Affiliate links

This is very similar to the previous point. Although affiliate links are not “sponsored links” per se, it is best practice to nofollow them.

John Mueller from Google said the best practice is to use rel=”sponsored” for affiliate links:

Yep. And definitely use rel=sponsored for affiliate links, if you can. And to be more complete: affiliate links are not bad. It’s fine to monetize your site. Google’s OK with that. There’s no need to hide them, just use the right kind of link if you can.

4. User-generated content

Any time a visitor is able to insert a link on your website (in most cases it’s the comments or forum posts) it should be automatically nofollowed.

There’s a special attribute for this case: rel=”ugc”

PageRank sculpting

In the past, there was this method called “PageRank sculpting”.

The idea was that if you nofollow certain links, you’ll “redirect” more PageRank to the pages you link to with standard followed links.

And it worked. Until 2009, when Google changed the way PageRank is distributed:

So remember, nofollow links are designed to be used only in some specific cases. We listed most of them above.

Nofollowing all the links on your website by default is not a solution and it can actually do more harm than good.

Do nofollow links have any SEO value?

There’s always been a lively debate about the possible impact of nofollow links on rankings.

Has a nofollow link from a relevant Forbes article really the same SEO value as a nofollow link from a spammy comment on a random website?

We don’t know. But even if nofollow links pass no link equity at all, there are other indirect benefits they bring.

1) They may serve as a hint for Google

When Google introduced new attributes in 2019, they also announced that they will start treating nofollow links as hints:

“When nofollow was introduced, Google would not count any link marked this way as a signal to use within our search algorithms. This has now changed. All the link attributes — sponsored, UGC and nofollow — are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search.”

What does it mean?

Well, nobody knows exactly. One of the possible interpretations is that Google may decide to “ignore” the nofollow attribute in some cases. It may be for the ranking purposes or just for crawling and indexing.

But more probably, they’ll just use them internally to help them improve their understanding of links and the content of the linked pages. After all, their official statement is that these hints will be used as “a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links”.

2) They can bring you traffic

Remember the example with a nofollow link from a relevant Forbes article and a nofollow link from a spammy comment?

Even if there was no difference from the “PageRank” point of view, there’s definitely a difference in the traffic potential these two links have.

Even if there’s no SEO benefit, a well-placed nofollow link from a relevant website with many visitors can bring you a lot of valuable traffic. And SEO is all about getting more traffic.

3) They diversify your link profile

A natural link profile will always consist of both dofollow and nofollow backlinks. Having only dofollow links or too many dofollow links can look unnatural.

It doesn’t mean you must actively look for nofollow backlinks or stress about the dofollow/nofollow ratio (unless you actively build links at scale). There’s no ideal number and never was.

Anyway, having nofollow backlinks is normal and doesn’t hurt you in any way.

Tip: You can check your DF/NF ratio in SiteProfiler. Just enter the domain and scroll to the “Backlinks” section.

You’ll get many other useful insights about your link profile and you can benchmark them with your competitors.

How to find out whether the link is nofollow?

There are various ways to do check whether a link is nofollow or follow:

1. Check the HTML code (great for single links)

If you know where the backlink is placed, the easiest way is to take a look at the HTML code of the referring website:

All you need to do is to right-click on the link and select “Inspect” or “Inspect element” (it can differ depending on the browser) or press “Ctrl+Shift+I” in Chrome:

Second, check the code. If you don’t find the rel=”nofollow” tag, you have a standard followed link. If the link is nofollowed, it will look something like this:

2. SEO extensions (great for outbound links)

Various browser extensions will help you to detect dofollow or nofollow backlinks.

For example, in Mangools SEO extension, you can quickly check the status of all the outbound links from a certain page:

Alternatively, you can just right-click on any page, go to “Mangools SEO” and select “Highlight Nofollow and Dofollow”.

3. Backlink analysis tools (great for inbound links)

If you need to analyze the inbound links (a.k.a. backlinks), you can use a backlink analysis tool such as LinkMiner.

It’s no rocket science, just enter the domain (or a specific URL) and the tool will show you all the backlinks of that domain/page.

You can use a quick filter to show only nofollow or dofollow backlinks and there’s an NF or DF label in each backlink row, indicating the attribute of the link.

Is it bad to have nofollow backlinks?

Of course, from the SEO point of view, it’s always better to get dofollow links from authoritative websites.

There’s always the option to contact the webmaster and ask whether he could remove the nofollow attribute, especially if there’s no obvious reason to use it.

But don’t worry too much about nofollow backlinks. They’re natural, they may have some additional benefits (as we mentioned above) and as your site grows, you’ll get more and more of them anyway.

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Vlado Pavlik

I’m the guy responsible for this blog. Although no marketing guru (I studied languages), SEO has been part of my life since high school. I love to look at it from a beginner’s point of view and explain its various aspects in the easiest way possible.

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