About Dofollow and Nofollow Links and Their Impact on SEO

 


Whenever we talk about search engine optimization, some of the common words that we often hear are noindex, doindex, nofollow, dofollow, meta robots, and so on. All these words are equally important in SEO books.


One of the most frequently performed searches on the Google search engine related to dofollow nofollow is the backlink search. There are 2 (two) types of backlinks, namely Dofollow Backlinks and Nofollow Backlinks. And both of them will be the subject of discussion in this article because both have a different impact on blog SEO.


In this post, I will explain Nofollow and Dofollow. Especially for beginners who are new to SEO or those of you who are still not clear about what is Nofollow or dofollow, and hope that this post will be useful. Where before, I also explained in detail about the nofollow, no opener, and referrer values.


Do you know?

Nofollow is an HTML attribute value used to instruct search engine bots that the hyperlink should not affect the target link's ranking in the search engine index. This is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring. This is a concept introduced by Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen in 2005.



What is the Difference between NoFollow & Dofollow

The following is a brief explanation of the value of attr rel nofollow links and dofollow links

1. Link DoFollow.

DoFollow is the value of the rel attribute which allows search engines (search engine bots) to follow a link and reach the web page that the link points to. DoFollow links are not only followed by visitors when the link is clicked, but search engine robots will also follow. In DoFollow links, there is a transfer of SEO value or there is SEO value (link equity or link juice) that is passed from a web page to another web page or website.


There are two advantages to DoFollow links. The blog will get traffic when someone clicks on the link and there is also a transfer of SEO value. For example, if your blog gets backlinks from websites that have large traffic and high authority, likely, your blog will also get a lot of traffic and your ranking on the SERP will also increase.


For dofollow link types, you don't need to add any rails or tags. That way, the link has become dofollow. For example

<a href="https://www.niadzgn.com">NiaDZGN</a>


2. Link NoFollow.

Unlike DoFollow, NoFollow is the value of the rel attribute which instructs search engine robots not to follow the link. In the NoFollow link, there is no transfer of value (link equity or link juice). The NoFollow link is only used by people to open the web page the link is pointing to.



If your website gets NoFollow backlinks from other websites, your website doesn't get link juice. However, NoFollow backlinks are still useful by bringing traffic if they come from websites that have large traffic. Likewise, if you create an external link to a website with poor authority or a website that is not trusted enough, using the NoFollow value will not damage your blog.


When and how is the NoFollow rail value used?

The nofollow value should be used in certain situations, the NoFollow value can be used, for example, you create an internal link that leads to your profile page (eg your Blogspot profile, etc.), or:

  • You create external links that point to websites that have low authority, 
  • You create external links but don't want to transfer SEO value (link juice) or 
  • You create external links that lead to irrelevant web pages.

Recently Google said that they will still count nofollow links as outgoing links in terms of page rank distribution. But again it also depends on where the nofollow link is placed. Placing the nofollow link at the bottom (comment field) of the page has the least impact, and when placed at the top of the page, it does a good job for the blog (for example, if it's in an article, a sidebar widget or a menu).


Nofollow links are very easy to recognize because they have special attributes or add rails after the link.


For Example:

<a href="https://www.niadzgn.com rel="nofollow">NiaDzgn</a>

2.1 Types of Nofollow

There are two types of nofollow links that we can find on the website, namely:


1. Robot Meta Tag

<meta name = "robots" content = "nofollow" />

This tells the bot/crawler/spider not to follow the link on the full page.


2. Attribute Links

<a href="http://www.niadzgn.com" rel="nofollow">


This tells search engines not to count the links


Conclusion

To distinguish between nofollow and dofollow tags can be seen from the addition of a value or "rel". On dofollow links, the anchor text that is created does not have a rel attribute that follows the link, while nofollow is very clear on the "rel" value that follows the link.


Recommendations for reading other articles for you about SEO Optimization

What is SEO Friendly

How to Install the Latest SEO Meta Tags

How to optimize on-page SEO

Explanation of no opener and referrer values



This is brief but solid information explaining the value and difference between Nofollow and Dofollow Links and the consequences they have for SEO. Thank you

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