Nofollow vs dofollow links: what's the difference?

By default, a link from one page to another acts like a vote: it helps search engines discover the destination and can pass ranking signals to it. A nofollow attribute tells search engines that you don't want to vouch for the page you're linking to.

What a nofollow link looks like

<a href="https://example.com/" rel="nofollow">Example</a>

A "dofollow" link is just a normal link with no rel restriction. There's no such thing as a rel="dofollow" attribute; it's a nickname for the default.

The three link attributes

In 2019, Google added two more specific values alongside nofollow:

You can combine them, for example rel="nofollow sponsored". Google treats all three as hints rather than strict commands: it may still use the link for discovery or as a ranking signal.

When you must use them

Google's spam policies say links that are paid for, or exchanged for free products or services, must be marked with sponsored (or nofollow). Unmarked paid links can lead to a manual action against your site. This includes:

• Sponsored posts and paid reviews.
• Affiliate links.
• Links in adverts.
• Links given in exchange for free products.

When to use nofollow

• Links in blog comments and forums (use ugc).
• Links to sites you need to mention but don't trust or endorse.
• Links in widgets or embeds you give to other sites.

When not to use nofollow

• Internal links to your own pages. This stops signals flowing around your own site.
• Normal editorial links to helpful, trustworthy sources. Linking out to good sources is fine and natural.
• Every external link by default. Some sites do this out of caution; it isn't necessary and looks unnatural.

Do nofollow backlinks help SEO?

Directly, they pass less value than followed links. But they still bring referral traffic, brand visibility and, since Google treats nofollow as a hint, possibly some signal. A natural backlink profile always contains a mix of followed and nofollowed links.

How to check nofollow links on a page

Enter any page in the checker on this page to see every link with its rel values, grouped into followed, nofollow, sponsored and ugc. It also flags internal links marked nofollow, which are usually a mistake, and checks the page-level robots meta tag, because <meta name="robots" content="nofollow"> makes every link on the page nofollow.