[Do Follow No Follow Links] - How Important for Website SEO?

Photo by Vlada Karpovich [Pexels]

Do-Follow and No-Follow Links in SEO:

What are no-follow and do-follow links? As a website owner, there are many ways in which you can improve your website’s search engine ranking.

Since search engines use links to gauge a site's importance, they take advantage of two different link types: do-follow and no-follow.

Let's dig deeper to provide you with more information. Also, don't forget to read the FAQs at the end.

Do-Follow and No-Follow Links:

Both do-follow and no-follow links can help a website as a sign of legitimacy and trust.

Do-follow links allow Google to follow your link and index the website that you are linking to. No-follow links do not allow Google to follow your link and index the website that you are linking.

Search engines follow do-follow links and contribute to the site's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

"In other words, do-follow links are the best for SEO because they transfer PageRank to your site to help it rank higher in the search engines" - SEOCHATTER

Search engines do not follow no-follow links and will not contribute to the site's SERP ranking.

"In other words, no-follow links rarely pass any link equity at all which is why everyone wants do-follow links for their site" - SEOCHATTER

However, both do-follow and no-follow links help a website because they indicate the quality of the websites you are linking to.

If you are linking to high-quality websites, it improves the overall quality of your website too.

Here is a section from a related Ahrefs article:

Image Content Source - Ahrefs

In summary, having both do-follow and no-follow links can still help balance out a site's overall SEO link profile and can be beneficial to its rankings, but do-follow links have the upper hand.

Here's related information that you may find helpful – How Long for Backlinks to Show Up?

FAQs:

Are No Follow Links Important?:

Yes, no-follow links are important for diversifying your link profile and adhering to search engine guidelines.

No Follow Links:

No-follow links are hyperlinks with a special HTML tag that tells search engines not to pass any authority to the linked page.

Do No Follow Links Help SEO?:

No-follow links do not directly impact SEO, but they can still be valuable for driving traffic and diversifying your link profile.

“In 2019, Google evolved how its algorithm sees nofollow links. It now treats “nofollow” as a hint about what to include or exclude, not a direct instruction. Which means a nofollow link can still help your SEO” – Semrush

Follow vs No Follow Links:

Below is a tabular comparison between follow and no-follow links:

Image Content Source - Generated through ChatGPT

Are Nofollow Links Good for SEO?:

Nofollow links may not directly impact SEO, but they can still be beneficial for driving traffic and diversifying your link profile.

What are Follow Links?:

Follow links are hyperlinks that search engines can follow to discover new pages and pass authority to the linked page. Such links significantly help the linked page rank higher in search results.

When to Use Nofollow Links?:

Nofollow links should be used when linking to untrusted content, user-generated content (UGC), comment sections, or paid links to adhere to search engine guidelines.

Buying Links for SEO:

Image Content Source - Semrush

Should I use Nofollow on External Links?:

Using nofollow on external links is advisable for untrusted content, user-generated content, comment sections, or paid links to comply with search engine guidelines.

Outbound or External Links Won't help SEO:

Image Content Source - SE ROUND TABLE

Here's related information that you may also find helpful – Do social media links count as backlinks?

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