When you create a link on your website, you have the ability to designate it as either dofollow or nofollow. But what is the difference between the two, and how do search engines interpret them? In this blog post, we will discuss the difference between dofollow and nofollow links, and how they can impact your website’s SEO.
What are Dofollow Links?
Dofollow links are the standard type of link, and they pass along the full SEO benefits to the website that is linked to. When a search engine crawls your website, it will follow all of the dofollow links and index them accordingly. This can help improve your website’s ranking in search results pages (SERPs), as well as increase traffic to your site.
What are Nofollow links?
Nofollow links are designed to protect websites from spammy or low-quality backlinks. When you add the nofollow attribute to a link, it tells search engines not to crawl or index that link. This can be helpful if you are trying to avoid getting penalized by Google for having too many low-quality links. It can also help prevent spammy links from harming your website’s SEO.
How do Search Engines Interpret Dofollow and Nofollow Links?
Since search engines use link popularity as one of their ranking factors, it is important to understand how they interpret dofollow and nofollow links. Generally, if a website has more dofollow links than nofollow links, it will rank higher in SERPs. This is because the search engine sees those dofollow links as votes of confidence for that website. However, if a website only has nofollow links, it will not rank as high (although it will still be indexed), as revealed by Ahref’s case study.
Benefits of Dofollow Links
There are a few benefits of dofollow links that can help improve your website’s SEO.
First, as we mentioned before, dofollow links tell search engines to follow and index the linked website. This can help improve that website’s ranking in SERPs.
Second, dofollow links also help increase traffic to the linked website. This is because when people click on a link, they are taken to the linked site. So if you have a lot of people clicking on your dofollow links, it can result in a significant amount of traffic for the linked website.
Third, dofollow links can also help build relationships with other websites. When you link to another site with a dofollow, you are effectively vouching for that site and recommending it to your readers and the same applies when other websites link to content on your website. This can help increase traffic and referral traffic from the website linking to you.
Fourth, dofollow links are a valuable SEO tool for building backlinks. When another website links to your site with a dofollow link, it is essentially giving you a vote of confidence and telling search engines that your website is worth ranking higher in SERPs. This can help improve your website’s ranking as well as its overall SEO health.
Benefits of Nofollow Links
While dofollow links are the more desirable type of link, nofollow links also have some benefits that can be helpful for your website.
First, nofollow links help prevent spammy or low-quality backlinks from harming your website’s SEO. As we mentioned earlier, if you have a lot of low-quality or spammy links, it can result in a Google penalty. So by using the nofollow attribute on your links, you can help avoid this potential issue.
Second, nofollow links also help keep your website’s link profile clean. This is important because too many low-quality links can hurt your site’s reputation and cause it to rank lower in SERPs. As such, it is especially important if you are not getting your backlinks from a provider that guarantees high-quality links.
Third, nofollow links can also increase referral traffic. When another website links to you with a nofollow link, it is essentially telling their readers that they should check out your website. This can result in more traffic coming to your site from the website linking to you.
Fourth, nofollow links can also help build relationships with other websites. Just like dofollow links, when you link to another site with a nofollow, you are vouching for that site and recommending it to your readers. However, because nofollow links don’t pass any PageRank juice, this type of link is less valuable than a dofollow link in terms of SEO.
Nofollow Vs Dofollow Links: What Should My Website Have?
There is no easy answer to this question. Ultimately, it depends on your website’s goals and what type of links you are comfortable with. If you want your website to rank higher in SERPs, then you will need to have more dofollow links than nofollow links. However, if you are worried about spammy backlinks harming your website’s SEO, then you may want to consider using the nofollow attribute more often.
Ideally, you should aim to have a mix of both dofollow and nofollow links. This will give your website the best chance to rank high in SERPs, while also protecting you from spammy backlinks.
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