The difference between do-follow vs no-follow backlinks is a bit complicated; that’s why we’ve decided to break it down. So, keep reading to find out.
Hope you’re familiar with the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization), a set of tasks people do to rank a website.
Backlink building is one of the vital parts of SEO that helps a website rank better in the SERPs (search engine result pages).
There are two types of backlinks; do follow backlinks and no follow backlinks.
In these two types, the do-follow backlinks primarily contribute to a better website ranking. But it doesn’t mean no follow isn’t worth building/making.
That saying, let’s understand the types of backlinks and their importance in the coming sections or you can also check this video for more information about do-follow vs no-follow backlinks.
What is a Do-Follow Backlink?
A do-follow link is a link that passes the authority of the linking site (origin site) to the linked site (destination site).
You may have heard the term “Link Juice.” It refers to the passing of authority from one site to another.
When someone links to your site and provides a do-follow link, it suggests to Google that the linked website is trustworthy and relevant.
That means the origin website is referring “vote of trust” to the destination website by providing it a do-follow backlink.
Furthermore, do-follow backlinks are beneficial for better ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Most search engines follow this link to find and understand newly published content and the process is known as crawling.
Google uses this link to provide better ranking to pages if the link is made from some authority website.
Long answer short, do-follow is a link that passes the authority of the origin site to the destination site and helps to get a better ranking.
Pro Tip: Always try to make do-follow backlinks from a reputed and relevant website and not from a spammy website. Quality matters over quantity.
So, if you want to make do-follow backlinks to improve your ranking, you must read: 5 Creative Ways to Create White Hat SEO Backlinks.
What is a No-Follow Backlink?
The no-follow link was introduced in 2004 when people started making backlinks from authority websites by several black-hat SEO techniques.
Through these techniques, such as spam blog commenting, many irrelevant websites are getting better ranking in the SERPs.
In other words, people started commenting on authority websites to make tons of do-follow backlinks for their spammy websites, which (destination website) leads to their better ranking and also less credibility of origin website.
Therefore, to tackle the situation, search engines introduce No-follow Backlinks.
A no-follow backlink is a link provided by one website to another that contains the rel=” nofollow” attribute in its HTML code.
It doesn’t pass the authority of the origin web page to a destination web page, i.e., it doesn’t pass link juice.
Search engines like Google don’t crawl through this link to discover the other web page.
However, this isn’t completely true! Many tech giants have performed activities to determine whether search engines crawl no-follow backlinks.
From those activities, they found that some of the web pages that only contain no-follow backlinks get crawled.
Yet, there is a lack of information to state if the crawling and indexing (working of search engines) happen with no-follow backlinks.
In short, no-follow backlinks don’t help in search engine optimization (SEO) and help to improve ranking in SERPs.
So, why do people make these links to their web pages? Or do they really need these links? Is it worth spending time and effort?
Let’s understand it in the following section!
Do You Need No-Follow Backlinks?
You may be thinking, that no-follow backlinks are of no use as they don’t provide authority (link juice), but it isn’t true.
Building relevant no-follow backlinks for your website will benefit you in many ways, such as driving tons of referral traffic, building brand awareness, and more.
Research has found that no-follow backlinks are also a ranking hint for search engines like Google.
As discussed above, some web pages that only contain no-follow backlinks, get crawled and indexed by search engines.
Furthermore, the best Digital Marketing Agency in Bihar suggests having a healthy ratio of do-follow vs no-follow backlinks can benefit a web page.
Thus, it isn’t recommended to ignore the importance of no-follow backlinks.
Pro Tip: The recommended ratio of no-follow and do-follow backlinks is 60% and 40% (at least), respectively.
Suppose you make tons of backlinks or provide a few backlinks to another website; how’ll you know if they are do-follow or no-follow?
To get the answer, stick to the following section!
How to Know If the Link is Do-Follow or No-Follow?
There are several ways that can help you verify if a posted link is a do-follow or a no-follow backlink.
Many tools, websites, or extensions on the internet can tell you whether it’s a do follow vs no follow backlink.
But being the best SEO agency in Patna, we don’t rely on tools or websites, as they are not precise.
That’s why we check it manually and here’s how you can do it yourself too:
First, go to the web page on which you want to check a link, Right-click on the link in the browser, and select Inspect; you’ll see the page’s HTML code.
There, you’ll be able to see if the link is a do-follow or no-follow backlink.
For Do-Follow Backlinks, you’ll see:
<a href=”yourlink.com/” rel=”sponsored”>what your link is about</a>
For Nofollow Backlinks, you’ll see:
<a href=”yourlink.com/” rel=”nofollow sponsored”>what your link is about</a>
Thus, this is how you can see if a posted link is a do-follow vs no-follow backlink on any web page.
Hence, this is all for the do-follow vs no-follow backlinks and their importance for a website.
Conclusion: Do-Follow Links vs No-Follow Links
Do-follow and no-follow backlinks play a vital role in getting better rankings in the SERPs, directly or indirectly.
A do-follow backlink provides authority (link juice) to the destination site and also allows search engines to crawl through it.
On the other hand, a no-follow backlink doesn’t provide authority, but it helps the destination site to get tons of web traffic and also helps to increase brand awareness.
So, both types of links are important for a website. The recommended ratio for do-follow vs no-follow backlinks is 60% and 40%, respectively.
Moreover, always remember to build links from a relevant and authoritative website that gets tons of monthly web traffic.
Hope you find this blog helpful and informative! Let us know your views below.
