Backlinks are also known as either inbound links or external links are a medium for driving good SEO. However, a structure where there is no regulation as to how things are being used is of great disadvantage.

The web is a space where different people of different manners are found and their influence could be negative. This is what brings us to what we know as No-follow Backlinks and Do-Follow (also known as follow) Backlinks.

No-Follow backlinks are simply forms of regulating tricks people use for the web.

Let us consider an instance without backlinks. 

If a popular site like BBC (which ranks higher on the web and is known for its level of integrity) has in its comment section link blog comments on one of its pages, Search engines will index such links as part of the page. The fact that these links in the comment section are indexed by Search engines is not necessarily a big deal but the integrity of these links is what the problem is. This was a form of the spamming technique used to trick search engines into crawling into their sites and in turn, might not be a legit site.

Another instance is where people pay sites for backlinks for their sites to get crawled by search engines. All these are what were considered before adopting a way to regulate these occurrences.

This is why in 2005, Google introduced the ‘rel=no follow’ tag.

What then is a Do-Follow and No-Follow link?

A Do-Follow link is a link that simply links to another website to have search engines crawl the website basically because the website is trusted and in return serves as a point to increase the domain authority and page rank of that website.

A no-follow link however is the direct opposite of a do-follow link. It is an external link that does not guarantee the integrity of the webpage to the search engine.

No follow links were initially created to avoid search engines from crawling a page, nevertheless, the rules have evolved.

3 Differences between No Follow links and Do-follow links

1.       The HTML of both links are different

They both have the same backbone structure but there is a difference in both links. A do-follow link is a normal code to a particular page but a no-follow link includes the ‘rel=no follow’ to its code.

For instance, a do-follow link will look like this:

                  <a href=https://iloveyou.com"> Ten ways to stop loving someone</a>

While no follow link looks like this:

        <a href="https://iloveyou.com" rel=”nofollow”> Ten ways to stop loving someone</a>

The introduction of the ‘rel=no follow’ tag says a lot about the difference.

2.       No follow links are less helpful than Do-follow links

Usually, the reward for external linking is that it builds page ranking and domain authority of the linked site. When the ‘rel=no follow’ was first introduced by Google, its main role was to avoid crawling the site. The bottom line is that the no-follow link was practically useless at that point.

As time went on, Google was aware that some of these linked sites are actually legit and they changed the perception of the No-follow links. Even if a ‘rel=no follow’ tag is used, search engines will still crawl the site. Although, this appears like ‘what exactly is the difference then? Despite the increase in flexibility on rules that guide these no-follow links, Do-follow links carry more value than no follow tags still.

No-follow links can be seen as links that are just there but might help and might not help. Above all, a do-follow link will do a lot to give link juice thereby increasing the chances of ranking compared to a no-follow link.

3.       No-follow links do not guarantee that a page or site can be trusted

The main reason why there are no-follow links is that we don’t trust those links. Therefore, we are simply telling Google, ‘you can choose to crawl it and you can choose not to’. Doing this basically saves you from spam backlinks which could be a threat to your site.

While no-follow links are not entirely beneficial to sites, they also in turn protect one from making mistakes that the search engines can penalise for.


As mentioned earlier, no-follow links are still helpful in several ways even when it does not add to link juice, they can still increase the traffic to the linked site. This means that there is still importance attached to no-follow links. A healthy link profile should have both do-follow links and no-follow links, that is, a balance is very necessary for a good SEO.

The Search engine algorithm, however, keeps changing, which means in the next few years the approach toward no-follow links is likely to change just like it has advanced in a few years. Hence, it will be of great help if we adapt to the changes and make use of them to achieve a sustainable SEO.

 

SEO is amazing, it helps drive refined traffic to your content while ensuring that the audience sees only the very best for them among thousands of other similar web pages on the internet.


It can be a lot to take in at once, that is why Search Engine Optimization is better broken down. Simplify it in smaller terms and explanations.




A Backlink is a major SEO term that is almost impossible to explain without at least defining hordes of SEO jargon, but let us attempt to simplify it.


Basically, a Backlink is a link which references another webpage while on the current one.

It leads away from your current page to another on the internet. When a backlink points to a webpage, it directs traffic from another webpage.


Also, Backlinks are often used to give references, quote, or credit another webpage. This referencing is often referred to as “Link Juice”.


The search engine crawler uses Backlinks in deciding the relevancy and authenticity of your content. However, it does not always follow this rule. That leads us to the major point.

Read: How to Solve Problems Using Story-telling and Content Writing



What is a Do-follow Backlink?

Generating valuable traffic is a great way to build a stable revenue or income structure for your website. SEO strategies help to ensure that valuable traffic is steady enough. The higher you rank on the search engine results ranking page, the more your authority.

Do-follow links are links attached to your content which lead to other webpages, maybe on the same website or on another. Most people think all backlinks are do-follow links. Do-follow means that the search engine crawler is allowed to spill some link juice to the referenced webpage. Technically, the more link juice you have, the more your do-follow links get.

Additionally, do-follow links are not just for the web crawler to analyze. Always keep in mind that any SEO strategy you use should benefit its users and create a more enjoyable experience. Do-follow links show visitors where to visit for more information on the referenced topic or clarify a certain expression. In the case of academic or technical content, the visitor can easily see the original originator of quotes, phrases, theories, research, or any referenced information.



What Is A No-follow Backlink?

No-follow backlinks are the opposite of do-follow backlinks even though they both show the search engine crawler the link webpage that is being referenced. No-follow backlinks do not share link authority to the referenced website or webpage. They are often just for the reader, instead of giving some link juice to the referenced webpage. You only need to add rel=”no-follow” to effect this when linking your website code.

Effects Of No-follow Links in SEO

You might be worried about the effects of no-follow backlinks to your webpage. After all, the webpage pointing to yours only referenced yours without credibly backing it up. It is more like saying, “this webpage said this too but I am not sure about the veracity of their information”. However, this does not mean lower SEO results for you. Even though no-follow links do not give link juice like do-follow links, they still help with some other benefits.

Firstly, you will get more traffic to your webpage. Especially if the backlinking was from a relevant page in your niche and receives a good amount of traffic. Expertly done backlinking will increase your visibility.

Also, it will improve your backlink portfolio. Your backlink portfolio is simply a list of all the websites linking to yours. Note that an external backlink (backlinks from other websites) often tends to drive more authority than internal ones. Generally, while you do not enjoy some link juice, you get some other cool benefits which ultimately ramp up your website ranking on the search engine results page.




Differences Between No-follow And Do-follow Backlinks

At this point, it is obviously way easier to understand the major differences between do-follow and no-follow backlinks. The differences majorly lie in the use cases and definition. But for clarity's sake, here are 3 differences between no-follow And do-follow backlinks:




    Link Juice Sharing: Do-follow links are the generous types of backlinks that give a generous share of the link authority or link juice to the destination webpage. While no-follow links are quite stingy and do not give any share of the link juice.



5. Credibility

With a do-follow link, you are basically telling the web crawler that the destination webpage is trusted and the credibility of referenced content is assured. Meanwhile, a no-follow link does not even attempt to reveal the destination page to the web crawler, Only the user sees it and decides whether to redirect or not.

6. Security and Trust

A do-follow link shares a big risk between the destination and the source web page because the source webpage is associating itself with the destination page. In other words, a security breach due to users following the do-follow link will impact the credibility of the source page. On the other hand, a no-follow link does not have these issues.  No-follow links are therefore often attached to user-generated content such as comments.



SEO strategies are good. But like every other good thing, they can be detrimental when used without proper understanding. Backlinks are the king of collaboration and collective growth in SEO. When SEO is done properly, your website increases in ranking and authority while your users get access to more related and valuable content. As long as it's done within the context of the source page, everyone wins.

Conclusion

It is however important to understand that not all links should be followed through. While providing a better experience to your visitors, take care to not make user-generated content such as comments, drag down your ranking. In conclusion, no type of Backlink is bad. Both are good but intended for different purposes. Even though they aid the SEO of both the source and destination pages.