Links are an important part of SEO. But not all links are the same, and there’s a good reason for it.
High-quality backlinks are great for SEO and help to build relationships and rank. The goal with these links is for Google bots to find them and follow them back to their source.
Low-quality, bad, (or even neutral) backlinks don’t really do anything for SEO and can even end up diluting the efficacy of your link-building. You don’t want bots or crawlers to use them as a ranking factor.
So, how do you tell Google and other search engines which links to follow and which to ignore? By designating whether a link is a follow link or nofollow link.
Follow and nofollow link basics:
- What are follow links?
- How do I set a follow link?
- What are no follow links?
- How do I set a link to no follow?
- Can I ask for follow links?
What are follow links?
A follow (or dofollow) link is a link that you want Google to recognize. A follow link helps the page and website you’re linking to have an organic link attributed to them, which boosts their rank and position.
Most organic partnerships with blog post exchanges or mentions are done using follow links.
If someone links to your content, it’s almost always best to have them use a follow link so that you reap the rewards of building link equity.
How do I set a follow link?
Almost all links that don’t have a nofollow tag attached to them are considered to be follow links unless the entire page is set to noindex.
In that case, none of the content on the page will be considered by Google for SEO purposes.
What are no follow links?
No follow links are links that you don’t want Google to crawl through.
For example, if you have a page of high-quality organic SEO content with lots of great links in it, but one of them happens to be a pay-per-click URL, you might want to set that particular one to no follow since it offers no SEO value to you.
The same goes for things like affiliate links, sponsored content, or other links that exist solely for profit.
These links won’t do anything for SEO and can end up taking away from the high-quality organic links that you do have.
In short, no follow links are used more frequently for paid search content.
How do I set a link to no follow?
To signify that a link is no follow, you use the rel attribute <rel=”nofollow”>.
So, in your code, the URL would look like this:
<a href=”https://www.examplelink.com/” rel=”nofollow”>
Some content management platforms and widgets will let you designate whether a link is follow or no follow when you add the URL to your anchor text.
It should be noted that this will not guarantee that your link won’t be followed. Google and other search engines, like Bing, consider it to be more of a suggestion than a directive. Still, it’s better to indicate how you would like a link to be handled than to leave it to chance.
READ MORE: 8 creative ways to get backlinks
Can I ask for follow links?
Yes, if you’re writing for another website, you can ask for a dofollow link to your content. However, it doesn’t mean they’ll give you one.
Some online publishers refuse to give out follow links unless they’re to influential websites and writers. If you’re writing for someone else because you want to develop your link-building strategy, find out whether they offer follow links beforehand.
If they don’t, it doesn’t mean you can’t write for them. It just means you need to reconsider the benefits of providing them with content.
Expert Advice: Don’t send out mass emails asking for follow links. It’s spammy. It’s gross. And high-quality websites will ignore you.
If you want to know if a website offers follow links in guest content without asking them, simply go to one of their guest pieces, right click on the page, and select “View page source”. Find an external link and look for this code in the HTML: rel=”nofollow”. If it’s there, the link is no follow. If it’s not, it’s a follow link.
This article was originally published in February 2021. It was last updated in October 2024.