Dofollow links – why the word is misleading and what they mean for SEO today

Definition

Dofollow is jargon for a link that does not have the attribute rel=nofollow, ugc or sponsored. There is no HTML attribute called dofollow – links are dofollow by default.

Dofollow is the term for an ordinary link that does not have a rel="nofollow", rel="ugc" or rel="sponsored" attribute. Search engines such as Google and Bing count a dofollow link as an editorial recommendation – it passes ranking signals from the source page to the target URL, which SEO jargon calls link juice or PageRank.

The first thing to know about dofollow is that it does not exist as an HTML attribute. There is no rel="dofollow" to add. A link is dofollow by definition unless you explicitly make it nofollow. The term is pragmatic SEO jargon – useful in conversation, but technical fiction in markup.

Dofollow in HTML

A dofollow link looks exactly like any ordinary link:

<a href="https://example.com">Anchor text</a>

That is all. A link needs nothing extra to be dofollow – the absence of nofollow is enough. If you come across tutorials telling you to add rel="dofollow" to "strengthen" a link, ignore them. The attribute does not exist in the HTML spec and has no effect on search engines.

Why dofollow is valuable

Dofollow links are the cornerstone of link building in classic SEO because, in theory, they pass on authority – link juice, in industry jargon:

• PageRank flow. A dofollow link from a strong page on a strong domain contributes to the recipient's link equity.
• Anchor text signals. Search engines use the anchor text in a dofollow link as a relevance signal – if many dofollow links point to a page with similar anchor text, the search engine takes that as a sign the page is about that topic. So where it makes sense, aim for descriptive anchor text in your links – "read more about how X works" rather than just "read more".
• Crawl path. Crawlers follow links to discover new pages. Dofollow links are crawl paths into new content.

Dofollow vs nofollow

In older SEO literature the split was presented as binary: dofollow = value, nofollow = no value. That model is oversimplified and, in practice, wrong.

Since Google changed its approach in 2019, rel="nofollow" has been a hint to Google rather than a directive – as Google Search Central confirmed. In other words, Google itself decides whether a nofollow link counts as a signal. In practice:

• A dofollow link normally counts as an editorial recommendation.
• A nofollow link can count as a weak signal, but there is no guarantee.
• Both can drive referral traffic, brand mention value and brand presence.
• In an AEO context, brand presence and brand mentions play a bigger role than the link itself.

A good way to think about it: dofollow is the standard link that drives the classic SEO effect. Nofollow is an exception that signals "do not count this as an editorial recommendation".

Worth knowing: internal links are almost always dofollow. Nofollowing them to "steer" PageRank internally is an outdated practice that Google advises against.

When a link without nofollow still does not count as dofollow

There are a few subtle cases where a link looks dofollow in the HTML but still does not count in the same way:

• Links behind JavaScript that are not rendered during crawling. If Google cannot render the link, it cannot follow it either.
• Links in resources blocked by robots.txt. If the page containing the link is blocked from crawling, the link cannot pass value.
• Links with rel="ugc" or rel="sponsored". In practice these work like nofollow when it comes to passing link equity.
• Links in an iframe or via redirect chains. Not technically nofollow, but they can lose signal in practice.

How to identify dofollow links in practice

Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz and similar tools have filters that show only dofollow links in the backlinks report. Two ways to use them:

• Inbound links. Filter by dofollow to see which domains pass the most authority to you.
• Competitors' links. When you analyse a competitor's links, sort their dofollow links by Domain Rating or Domain Authority and prioritise the domains that link to them but not to you.

Dofollow is not a synonym for "good link"

A common trap, especially for small businesses that buy link services, is equating "dofollow" with "valuable". That is a mistake, and it can be an expensive one.

A dofollow link from an irrelevant, low-quality or suspected link-network domain can do harm – at worst, it can trigger a manual action. A disavow may then be needed, but usually is not (see Google penalty or lost rankings?). A dofollow link from a website that exists only to sell links is one Google will probably discount or flag.

Conversely, a nofollow link from a leading newspaper, a well-known trade publication or an official government page can contribute to brand recognition, referral traffic and E-E-A-T signals.

Our rule of thumb at SEOS Design: start with relevance and credibility. Then traffic. Then attributes.

Dofollow in AEO and AI-driven search

In traditional SEO, dofollow is what drives PageRank. In AEO – where answers are selected by AI systems rather than ranked in a SERP – the picture is more complex. AI systems such as ChatGPT Search, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews use classic search engine indexes as one of several retrieval sources, but they also weigh up:

• How often an entity is mentioned in reliable sources (regardless of dofollow/nofollow).
• How consistent the information about the entity is across different sources.
• The structure and clarity of the content on the website being mentioned.

In that world, dofollow is still a signal – but not the only one. A well-established brand presence built on a mix of dofollow, nofollow, brand mentions, citations and consistent mentions beats a link profile that is technically perfect but thin on brand.

We look more closely at how AI shifts value away from pure link equity towards mentions and brand presence in How is SEO affected by AI?

Summary

Dofollow is jargon for a perfectly ordinary link without a nofollow attribute. There is no HTML attribute called dofollow – links are dofollow by default. For classic SEO, dofollow is what drives PageRank, anchor text signals and crawl paths. But in a modern assessment – where AEO, brand mentions and E-E-A-T also come into play – dofollow is not the only dimension that matters. Judge relevance and credibility first, attributes last.