Difference between do follow vs. no follow backlinks

Backlinks are important technical aspect perceived by the search engine. Backlinks are considered backbone of the internet. But there are multiple types of backlinks which have their own benefits. So backlink building is the important prospect behind the proper functioning of your website and do follow and no follow backlinks are the two most important backlinks, you should need to understand to get a better grip on your SEO strategy.

What is do follow backlinks?

 Technically there is no such thing as do follow backlink because by default all the backlinks are do follow unless you alter them. A do follow backlinks is look like this:

<a href=”backlink.com”>anchor text here</a>

Here,

<a> is a backlink tag that contain backlink itself.

href is URL specified backlink attribute.

Search engines are bound to check every link on your website unless you put rel=”nofollow” tag that specify a no follow backlink. For instance, if your website content is linked to the some other website that have a default do follow backlink. Then search engine considered that website because of your accountability to that website or some other website link to your website by default. Thus, it increases your accountability in front of search engines.

Do follow backlinks help in rankings

Search engines have more than 200 factors for ranking a website and high-quality backlinks is among the top 2 main ranking factors. These following factors are considered by search engines for evaluating the backlinks:

• A website must have organic backlinks rather than paid backlinks. Link buying/scheming can cause severe penalties.
• Authoritative backlinks have more positive impact on your SERP ranking rather than backlinks from some shady source.
• Link building with multiple domains increases your ranking.
• Relevancy, freshness and your backlinks placement guarantee high ranking in the SERP.

Strategies for strengthen you do follow backlinks

Building strong do follow backlinks is important strategy and you can do it by following these steps:

• By publishing valuable content that help your users,
• By creating a free useful tool that can be recommended by other publications by linking your site.
• Do guest posting with those sites that offer you do follow backlinks.

What is no follow backlinks?

 No follow backlinks are the links used when you want to link a web page to your website without endorsing it to the search engine by using the rel=”nofollow” attribute.

No follow backlinks are used for linking a resource without building a relationship with that. This may lead to not allowing the search engine to follow that link when they crawl your website and they would not assign any value to that link. A no follow backlinks is look like this:

<a href=”https://backlink.com” rel=”nofollow”>anchor text here</a>

Here,

<a> is a backlink tag that contain backlink itself.

href is URL specified backlink attribute.

rel is a link attribute that shows the relationship between link and source page.

nofollow is value of rel attribute that instruct the search engine for not following that link.

History behind no follow backlinks

Combating spam links is the main reason behind introducing the no follow backlink by Google. This is generally caused by user-generated content (UGC) and multiple marketers trying to manipulate the system. That is why Google introduced no follow backlinks to protect the website owners and admins from such malpractices.

No follow backlinks are also implemented for combating paid backlinks because they violates the webmaster guidelines. All such sponsored must be assigned as the no follow backlinks. This, all fiasco leads to the generations of two other link attributes:

• rel=”ugc”: for the user-generated content such as forum posts and comments.
• rel=”sponsored”: for paid sponsored backlinks including advertisements and other compensation agreements.

How to check a no follow backlink?

If your rel attribute is on the page code and invisible to your users, don’t worry you can still check your no follow backlinks by several ways such as:

• You can view your code in your in the chrome browser.
• Ad extensions in your browser, highlight your do follow and no follow backlinks citied to your web page.
• You can check your no follow backlinks by using any SEO tool.

SEO benefits of no follow backlinks

The main objective of websites is to get multiple backlinks as possible because these no follow backlinks increases your web traffic, linking, brand awareness and many other link building opportunities. These following are the SEO benefits of no follow backlinks:

• It helps in driving the relevant web traffic towards your website.
• Because of the residual do follow backlinks from the other publication, resulting in discovering that link and urge to follow that link as do follow backlink.
• Bolster your brand awareness.
• Help in building an organic backlink portfolio.

Is no follow backlinks are harmful for the website?

This is the common misconception about the no follow backlinks. They can be proved harmful in the case, when you website indulge with some spammy and shady link exchanges. You should focus on getting backlinks from high-end sources and daily monitor your website for any spammy links.

How to use no follow backlinks?

You can use no follow backlinks for the external links, use them when:

• When you don’t want to endorse a site.
• While placing a sponsored backlink to your site.
• While adding affiliate links to your website.
• Users can insert links into your website through UGC.
• When you want to save yourself from Google penalties guidelines.

How to use do follow backlinks?

Now, you are familiar with the working of no follow backlinks with external links. Then check the use of do follow backlinks:

• Used while linking an authoritative website.
• Used for endorsing a valuable resource for your users.

While using do follow attributes, keep in mind, do follow tag signals the search engines that you endorse the site and take you accountable for that website. If the website is dodgy and sketchy then search engine associate your website with that sketchy website. So carefully link your content to other website. Use do follow attributes when the website is reputable and genuine.

Do follow vs no follow backlinks

	Do follow backlinks	No follow backlinks
Definition	Instruct the search engine to crawl the link page and follow that link also.	Restrict the search engine to crawl the link page and follow that link also.
Example	<a href=”backlink.com”>anchor text here</a>	<a href=”https://backlink.com” rel=”nofollow”>anchor text here</a>
Application	High quality websiteOriginal source referred content	Spam related contentUnrelated content sitesAffiliate/paid links
Pros	More comments on websiteIncrease visitorsEnhance the brand awareness	Protect from spammingLess time on the moderations of commentsAllows only genuine visitors
Cons	Prone to spam related contentThe lot of time is consumed by the moderate comments	Few visitors because of comments defined as no follow links.

Conclusion

Any link is followed by a search engine by default, so that it can be crawled, indexed and incorporated into the SERP ranking metrics as the authority’s source linked signal. A combinations or perfect mix of these both, do follow and no follow backlinks can strengthen your SEO and increase your ranking as well. I hope, this blog give a meaningful insight about the do follow and no follow backlinks and clear your myths about them.

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