NoFollow & DoFollow - simply explained and used sensibly

updated on February 24, 2025

Author: Sebastian Prohaska

Owner & Managing Director of ithelps Digital. Since 2013, he has been deeply engaged in SEO and online marketing.

In this article, you will get all the relevant information about NoFollow links and DoFollow links: from the definition to the influence on search engine rankings to their code.

Best of all, we provide you with a list of the 5 most common mistakes when using the two labels - so that you don't make these mistakes.

NoFollow

Definition: What does the NoFollow attribute mean?

A link with a nofollow attribute instructs the Google search engine crawler not to follow this link - the respective page is therefore not linked to the linked website. The value is currently only regarded by Google as an indication.

Google introduced several attributes such as "dofollow" and "nofollow" in 2005 (based on the idea of Jason Shellan and Matt Cutts) so that webmasters and blog operators have the chance to observe and influence the linkjuice of a website (power of all links).

Why did Google take this step?

Before the nofollow labelling was introduced by Google and adopted by other search engines, the own ranking and that of other websites was manipulated in online marketing.

Forums and blogs were bombarded with dubious comment spam or spammed with irrelevant links (backlinks) using bookmarking services, link exchanges and farms or automated software.

The aim: to generate backlinks for the purpose of search engine optimisation in order to positively influence the ranking of their homepage and domain. Or rather: to achieve an increase in their own ranking through the link power or PageRank of other websites.

Even back then, backlinks were one of the ranking criteria of search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo!

What is a no-follow link?

A no-follow link is an instruction that tells search engines not to follow the link of a website. A natural link profile contains both NoFollow and DoFollow links.

You have two options when using NoFollow links:

If you use the page-specific NoFollow tag, then all links from this website will not be followed by search engine crawlers. With this method, the attribute is placed within the header. This looks as follows:
If you only want to set a single link (hyperlink) to nofollow, then use this method: the link-specific NoFollow tag rel="nofollow".

Let's take a look at the different categories of this link labelling.

Internal vs. external NoFollow links

NoFollow links can be divided into two categories: internal and external NoFollow links.

The purposes of these sub-categories differ from each other:

Internal NoFollow links:

With a clean internal link structure, you can link the various subpages of a website to each other in a meaningful way. In this way, you can, for example, navigate visitors to your blog from one post to the next with thematic similarities (topic clusters).

External NoFollow links:

These links, which are also known as outbound links, serve as a kind of recommendation for further, relevant content. Outbound links that refer to sources or in-depth information about your own text generally do not require a NoFollow label. They offer the website user concrete added value.

When is it sensible to use NoFollow links?

For websites whose information and content have no editorial context with your own site

Are you linking to a page that doesn't quite match your content thematically, but you see its content as added value for your readers? Then set the link attribute nofollow.

For websites that are not trustworthy

What are untrustworthy websites?

These include websites that:

present little or no content of their own (thin content)
have had problems with copyright in the past
use automatically generated content or content copied from other websites
are only interested in getting users to click on their affiliate links
Gambling sites that want to entice people to spend money

In general, it is better for your blog and website visitors if you check your outgoing links by default and your website does not link to suspicious sites in the first place.

For advertising, paid links and links in comments or forums

Years ago, these links were also labelled with the NoFollow value. Since 2019, Google has also enabled the use of other rel values that can be used to label links in advertising banners and text adverts, affiliate links or purchased links (more on this later).

For the control of search engine crawlers (also search bots or web crawlers)

Labelling makes it possible to direct search engine crawlers specifically to websites and to control which pages are to be preferentially included in the search engine index.

These include

Registration, registration or login pages of online portals, forums and e-commerce companies
the administration area of a website

When should a NoFollow tag not be used?

Internal links on your website

You should never tag the internal links on your website with NoFollow. If you don't want a website to be indexed by a search engine, then use the NoIndex tag or create a rule in the robots.txt file.

Backlinks

If your own website is linked to by other websites, your own site becomes more visible (link popularity). The more credible and high-quality these links from a website are, the more link power and PageRank your own website will benefit from.

There is an interesting video on this from Matt Cutts.

If you want to find out how you should mark purchased links, advertising links or content created by users (user-generated content), then read on. I'll go into these points in more detail a little later.

Let's move on to the next link attribute: the DoFollow link.

DoFollow link or follow link

Definition: What does the DoFollow attribute mean?

The DoFollow attribute (or just follow) is the standard labelling of a link. So you don't have to do anything to mark an internal or external link with DoFollow: Because every link that does not have a NoFollow attribute is automatically a DoFollow link.

Tip: As a DoFollow link should not be marked as such, it is not necessary to add the value rel="dofollow" or rel="follow" to it.

What are DoFollow links?

Search engine crawlers use DoFollow links to travel from one website to the next in order to find out more about the relationship between the individual websites. DoFollow links signal to the search engine crawlers that they should follow (crawl) the respective links.

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NoFollow links vs. DoFollow links

This comparison once again illustrates the difference between the two labels.

NoFollow	DoFollow
Linkjuice and PageRank are not inherited.	Linkjuice and PageRank are inherited.
Backlinks and internal links are not tracked by crawlers.	Internal and external links are tracked by search engine bots.
	Relevant traffic can be generated.
	Ranking in search engine results can be improved.

Now that you have learnt the most important information about the two terms, we will answer some frequently asked questions about the two link values.

HTML code: How can you check whether a link is nofollow or dofollow?

The easiest way is to look directly in the HTML code. Don't worry. It's quick and you don't need to be an online marketing or SEO expert.

NoFollow

Select the link in your browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge and then click on investigate. You will see the code on the right-hand side.

DoFollow

If you cannot find a "nofollow" HTML tag in the code, then it is a DoFollow link.

SEO relevance: How does Google deal with NoFollow and DoFollow links?

Do not follow me (No Follow)

A NoFollow link is a kind of recommendation for the Google crawler to ignore it. Even search engine optimisation experts disagree on whether they have an influence on the visibility of a website.

Have you set a link to a page to do not follow and it was still indexed by Google? Then it may be due to the following:

Another website is linking to the page (dofollow).
Another subpage such as the sitemap links dofollow to this page.

Follow me (Do Follow)

DoFollow links that are thematically related to your own website also pass on their PageRank in addition to the link juice.

The positive effects of this fact include

a better Google ranking
added value for users of the website
the generation of more traffic (page views on your own website)

Next, I would like to introduce you to the most common mistakes that happen when using these tags.

NoFollow and DoFollow links: How to avoid the 5 most common mistakes

1. Mistake: Internal links are set to nofollow

You should never mark your internal links with this tag: This would erode your PageRank and render your anchor texts meaningless. In short: You will lose the advantages that result from this.

These unwanted markers are often created by plugins, themes and sometimes WordPress itself (automatically inserted links in WP comments).

A regular review of the internal linking structure is therefore essential for search engine optimisation.

2. Error: Advertising links are not labelled with rel="sponsored" (formerly rel="nofollow")

Although this is only a violation of Google's guidelines and is legally irrelevant, ignoring Google's house rules can have a negative impact on the visibility of your website.

Tip: Avoid the mass sale of DoFollow links on your website at all costs. This can get you penalised by Google: In the worst case scenario, your entire website (or parts of it) will be removed from Google's index.

3. Mistake: The external links of your blog articles are set to nofollow on one occasion and dofollow on the other

By taking this step, some blog operators try to minimise the risk of their articles linking to untrustworthy sites. This is a middle ground that benefits neither the website user nor the webmaster or blogger.

The solution: If you trust the website, then the link should not be a problem. If you question the seriousness of the site, do not place a link.

4. Mistake: All external links are set to nofollow

As checking external links takes time, some bloggers mark all their external links with this rel value.

In doing so, they unintentionally send Google these messages:

Your external links are advertising or purchased links.
You are not paying attention to the content quality of your outbound links or you are not checking them in advance.
Your posts are not editorial and trustworthy content, but user-generated content

If you do this, you could discourage other bloggers from linking to your website or publishing a guest post on your site.

It is better to check the outgoing links and mark the links of selected commentators with dofollow.

5. Mistake: Standard pages such as the legal notice or privacy policy are labelled with nofollow

Sometimes standard pages such as the privacy policy, the legal notice or the contact page are set to nofollow so that they are not crawled and indexed by Google.

It is better to work with the robots meta tag noindex.

What other link attributes can you use with Google?

rel attribute or rel value

Google offers you several options for marking outbound links. Since 2019, two additional rel values can be used: rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc".

By using a single attribute or multiple attributes, you help Google to learn more about your relationship to the linked website.

I have put together an overview of the other tags below.

Overview of the common rel values

rel value	Description
no value	Regular links that Google should follow without restriction do not require a rel attribute.
rel="sponsored"	Advertising links or paid links (placements) should be labelled with this attribute. It looks like this:
rel="ugc"	Content such as posts or comments in user forums can be labelled as ugc (user-generated content).
Multiple values	If you want to combine several rel values, use spaces and commas between the individual rel values. Here is an example of both options:

Conclusion: What you have learnt about marking links

The attributes nofollow and dofollow have a considerable influence on the control of PageRank and link power. At the same time, they influence Google visibility.

Blog operators and online marketers should therefore take care of their internal, inbound and outbound links.

Yes, this takes time. But there is a reward waiting for you: Your ranking will improve.

Do you need help with the internal or external linking of your website or do you have questions about backlinks? Then feel free to contact us. Write an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. call us on +43 1 353 2 353 or send us your enquiry using our contact form.

Any questions?

If you have any further questions on the topic or would like professional support, feel free to get in touch with us. Send an email to office@ithelps-digital.com, call us at +43 1 353 2 353, or reach out for us on our contact page.