The Impact of Dofollow Links on Your SEO Strategy

A dofollow link is a standard hyperlink that passes SEO value (link equity) to the target page, helping improve its search engine rankings—by default, all links are dofollow unless marked otherwise by a special attribute.

What Are Dofollow Links?

Despite common industry jargon, there is no actual 'dofollow' HTML attribute. Instead, a dofollow link simply refers to any typical hyperlink (<a href="...">) that is not marked with rel="nofollow", rel="ugc", or rel="sponsored" (SEMrush definition). These links let search engines crawl the destination page and transfer link equity (often called "link juice"), a fundamental measure in determining page authority and ranking via Google’s PageRank algorithm.

How Dofollow Links Affect SEO

Dofollow links connect the web. When a reputable site links to yours with a dofollow link, it signals trust, relevance, and authority to Google, directly benefiting your rankings. The more high-quality dofollow links point to your site, the higher your chances are to rank for competitive keywords—provided your content and on-page SEO are strong. Conversely, links from low-quality or spammy sites can harm or dilute your site's reputation.

The Mechanics: Link Equity and PageRank

Think of link equity like water: websites with more incoming dofollow links from strong sources have more water to share, benefiting any site they link to. When a page with authority links to you, a portion of its ranking power (PageRank) flows through the link, boosting your own authority (Sitebulb explanation). However, if a page links out to many sites, the flow to each is diluted.

Example: Industry data shows a site earning 30–35 high-quality dofollow links can gain over 10,000 monthly organic visits. In another case, a business receiving a single editorial dofollow link from a major news site saw a measurable lift for target keywords within weeks.

Best Practices for Earning Dofollow Links

• Seek quality over quantity: Focus on getting links from authority sites relevant to your niche.
• Diversify sources: Use guest posting, broken link building, and genuine relationship outreach.
• Observe safe linking: Avoid link schemes or paid links, which can trigger Google penalties.
• Audit your profile: Regularly check your backlink profile for toxic links and disavow if needed.

Related Concepts

• Nofollow link: A link with rel="nofollow" that generally does not pass link equity (though since 2020, Google treats these as 'hints').
• Sponsored link: For paid or sponsored content, marked with rel="sponsored".
• UGC (User Generated Content) link: Marked with rel="ugc", for links in forums or comments.
• PageRank: Google’s original metric for measuring web page authority, dependent on link flows.
• Link equity (Link Juice): The transferable SEO value passed via dofollow links.
• Domain Authority: An industry-wide SEO metric estimating how well a domain is likely to rank.

Bottom line: Dofollow links are the backbone of effective SEO strategy, powering PageRank flow and authority. Focus on earning organic, high-quality dofollow links while staying updated on Google's policies for sustained search success.