Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Do-follow and No-follow Links: The difference and appropriate uses of each type of link

The fundamental difference between do-follow and no-follow links lies in how they affect search engine optimization (SEO). Think of a link as a "vote of confidence" from one website to another.

Do-follow Links

A do-follow link is the default state of a hyperlink. It's a standard link without any special attributes.

SEO Impact: Do-follow links pass on "link juice" or "link equity." This is the SEO value and authority that a linking website passes to the linked website. When a high-quality, relevant site links to you with a do-follow link, it signals to search engines like Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy, which can help improve your search engine rankings.

When to Use Them:

When you are linking to a high-quality, authoritative, and relevant source that you endorse and trust.

- For internal links on your own website, to help search engines crawl and index your pages more effectively.

No-follow Links

A no-follow link has a special rel="nofollow" attribute in its HTML code. This attribute tells search engines not to pass any link equity to the linked page.

SEO Impact: No-follow links do not directly contribute to a website's search engine rankings. However, they are still valuable because they can drive referral traffic and are a necessary part of a natural, diverse backlink profile. A website with only do-follow links can look unnatural or spammy to search engines.

When to Use Them:

- User-Generated Content (UGC): Use no-follow on links in blog comments, forum posts, or other content submitted by users to prevent spammers from getting free SEO value.

- Paid or Sponsored Links: This is a crucial use case. Google's guidelines require all paid or sponsored links (including affiliate links) to be marked with a no-follow attribute (or rel="sponsored") to avoid being penalized.

- Linking to Untrusted Sites: If you need to link to a site that you don't fully endorse or trust, a no-follow link allows you to do so without passing on your site's authority.

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Thank you. 

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