Dofollow vs Nofollow Links: What's the Difference?

A dofollow link is a normal link with no rel attribute restricting it, so it can pass ranking credit to the page it points to. A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", which asks Google not to treat it as an endorsement.

That's the core difference, but there are two details most guides get wrong. "Dofollow" isn't actually an attribute at all, and since 2019 Google has treated nofollow as a hint rather than a strict instruction.

Here's how each link type works, what Google has said about them and why nofollow links are still worth having.

There's no such thing as a "dofollow" attribute

You won't find rel="dofollow" in any HTML specification. "Dofollow" is just the industry's name for a link without a nofollow, sponsored or ugc value.

<!-- A "dofollow" (followed) link: no rel attribute needed -->
<a href="https://example.com/guide">link building guide</a>

<!-- A nofollow link -->
<a href="https://example.com/guide" rel="nofollow">link building guide</a>

Google's documentation puts it simply: for regular links you expect Google to fetch and parse without qualification, you don't need to add a rel attribute. Every link is followed by default.

The rel attributes side by side

In September 2019 Google added two new values alongside nofollow: sponsored for paid links and ugc for user-generated content.

Link type	Markup	Google's guidance on when to use it	Passes ranking credit?
Followed ("dofollow")	No rel value	Regular links you're happy to stand behind	Yes
Nofollow	rel="nofollow"	When no other value applies and you don't want to imply endorsement	Usually not, treated as a hint
Sponsored	rel="sponsored"	Ads, sponsorships and other paid placements	Usually not, treated as a hint
UGC	rel="ugc"	Comments, forum posts and other user-generated content	Usually not, treated as a hint

You can combine values, such as rel="ugc nofollow". Google's documentation says multiple values can be written as a space or comma separated list.

What changed in 2019: nofollow became a hint

Nofollow was introduced in 2005 to fight comment spam. For years Google said it didn't count nofollowed links as a signal at all.

That changed with Google's September 2019 announcement. Google said all three attributes, sponsored, ugc and nofollow, are now "treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search". For ranking this applied immediately. For crawling and indexing, nofollow became a hint from 1 March 2020.

Google also said that in most cases the hint model wouldn't change how such links are treated, and it would generally not consider them for ranking. So the practical position is that a nofollow link usually passes nothing, but you can't rule out it ever being counted.

Are nofollow links worth getting?

Yes, just not for the reason followed links are. A nofollow link can still send real visitors, put your brand in front of a relevant audience and lead to followed links from people who discover you through it.

Value of a nofollow link	Why it matters
Referral traffic	Visitors from a busy page are worth the same whatever the rel value
Brand exposure	Mentions on major sites build recognition, which feeds into brand mentions in AI answers
Secondary links	Writers who find you through a nofollowed mention may link to you normally
A natural profile	Real link profiles always include nofollow links, so a profile with none looks built
Possible ranking value	As a hint, Google may occasionally count it

Many large publishers and platforms apply nofollow or sponsored to outbound links by default. A mention on one of those can still be one of the most valuable things that happens to a small brand.

When should you use sponsored or nofollow on your own site?

If you publish links, Google's rules are clear on paid ones. Any link that's an advertisement or paid placement should carry rel="sponsored" (or nofollow, which is still accepted). Google's spam policies treat paid links that pass ranking credit as link spam, and the 2019 announcement said flagging them is how to avoid a possible link scheme action.

• Paid placements, sponsorships and affiliate links: sponsored
• Comments and forum posts: ugc
• Links you need to include but don't want to vouch for: nofollow
• Everything else, including your own citations and editorial links: no rel value

This is also why the buying backlinks guide spends so long on attributes. A paid link marked sponsored follows the rules but won't pass much ranking credit. A paid link left followed passes credit but breaks Google's policies, which is the risk the whole paid link market sits on. See link schemes for how Google handles that.

How to check if a link is nofollow

1. Right-click the link and choose Inspect in your browser, then look for a rel attribute in the highlighted <a> tag
2. Use a browser extension that highlights nofollow links on any page you visit
3. Use a backlink tool. Ahrefs, Semrush and Majestic all label links as followed or nofollow in their backlink reports, and Ahrefs states that nofollow-only links don't increase its Domain Rating

Check after a link goes live, not just when it's agreed. Sites sometimes change attributes on old links, and it's worth knowing which of your backlinks are actually passing value.

The short version

• "Dofollow" just means a normal link with no restrictive rel value, it isn't a real attribute
• Nofollow, sponsored and ugc ask Google not to treat a link as an endorsement
• Since 2019 Google treats all three as hints, and generally still doesn't count them for ranking
• Nofollow links are still worth having for traffic, brand exposure and a natural profile
• If you sell or publish paid links, mark them sponsored or nofollow, as Google's policies require

Chase followed links from relevant sites for rankings, and welcome every nofollow link that brings real readers.