Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a complex tool in digital marketing, and with so many factors to consider, standing out in the crowd can feel overwhelming. The ultimate goal, of course, is to secure its position on the first page of Google’s search results. However, achieving that requires carefully balancing on-page elements, keyword strategies, and high-quality copy.
Enter dofollow links. These links are one of the most powerful yet often overlooked components in SEO marketing. In a competitive digital environment, mastering dofollow links can be the differentiator between ranking high or getting lost in the search results.
So, with all that said and done, let’s discuss what dofollow links are and how they can help you rank better on the SEO ladder.
What Are Dofollow Links?
A dofollow link is a standard hyperlink that passes “link equity” or “link juice” from one website to another. In simple terms, dofollow links work similarly to votes of confidence from other websites.
When one site links to another with a dofollow link, it tells search engines like Google, “This page is valuable, I recommend it.” These links are important because they help search engines evaluate how relevant and authoritative a page is, influencing the site’s ranking in search results.
By default, dofollow links are used by search engines to determine a page’s position in search rankings. The more quality dofollow links a page has, the higher it ranks well on Google. What makes dofollow links even more incredible is how they help search engines discover new pages.
When a reputable website links to yours with a dofollow link, it increases the chances of your page being noticed and indexed faster by search engines. This gives your website a competitive edge in search rankings. Over time, the accumulated traffic increases your website’s trustworthiness and credibility.
Dofollow Links Role in SEO
The name of the game in SEO is reaching first place in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Strategic use of dofollow links helps your site’s authority and relevance, contributing to higher rankings in SERPs.
Search engines like Google always show their users the most relevant and highly-rated search results, so having dofollow links your site to authoritative or trusted sources increases the likelihood for your content to rank higher.
Naturally, higher ranks attract organic traffic, increasing your online visibility. However, ranking alone isn’t the only thing dofollow links offer, there are additional benefits too.
10 Advantages Of Using Dofollow Links
1. Improves Search Engine Rankings
The most apparent advantage but also one that shouldn’t be understated. The more dofollow links you have directed to your site, the more authority your site gains in the eyes of search engines. Informative articles or blog posts are often linked for references or citations to validate data or information, so creating informative and easy-to-understand content helps tremendously.
Imagine a well-known real estate website linking to a blog post you wrote about housing trends and market prices. Not only does that link drive traffic directly from the real estate site, but it also tells Google that your article is a credible and authoritative resource, helping to improve your rankings.
2. Builds Domain Authority
Domain authority is a score search engines use to determine the rank of your site for specific keywords. The lowest score is 0, and the highest is 100. A high domain authority indicates that a website is trustworthy and provides value for users.
Google’s algorithm prioritises websites with strong domain authority and high-quality dofollow links. By acquiring these valuable backlinks, websites can improve search engine rankings and attract organic traffic.
3. Enhances Website Credibility
Similar to how you will trust a friend’s word over a stranger’s, having authoritative or well-known industry leaders link to your site shows that your content is highly rated and endorsed by them. When authoritative sites validate your content, they tell search engines and users that your page is credible and provides value to them.
For example, if HubSpot links to your blog post about inbound marketing best practices, it significantly boosts your website’s credibility and authority. HubSpot’s endorsement signals to both Google and potential customers that your content is high-quality, informative, and aligns with industry standards. This can increase organic traffic, higher search engine rankings, and potential business opportunities.
4. Drives Organic Traffic
When a popular and well-respected site links to your content, it introduces your website to a broader audience, particularly their followers or audience. This influx of new visitors can significantly increase your website’s traffic, potentially generating more leads and conversions.
A local bakery known for its artisanal bread gets featured in a popular food blog. The blog post includes links to the bakery’s website and its Google My Business (GMB). This dofollow link from the food blog can attract food lovers from the local area and beyond, increasing foot traffic to the bakery and online orders.
5. Helps Search Engines Discover Your Content
Dofollow links are key in how search engines crawl and index the web. When search engines follow a dofollow link, they discover new content and index it more quickly. Having multiple backlinks pointing to your pages, you create a network of connections that helps search engines understand the context between the different pages and topics.
This can significantly improve your website’s crawl rate and indexation, leading to better search engine rankings and increased organic traffic.
6. Contributes to Long-Term SEO Success
Unlike Pay-per-click marketing, which stops delivering results once the campaign or budget ends, dofollow links provide long-term benefits with minimum upkeep or investment. These links continue to provide value and improve rankings as long as the site is up, making them an excellent long-term investment for your SEO strategy.
7. Improve Click-Through Rates (CTR)
Data shows that, on average, the top search results on Google get clicked about 27.6% of the time. Other than ranking at the top of the SERPs, the ultimate goal for businesses is to have interested prospects click on their site and interact with them.
Dofollow links help establish your content as relevant towards targeted interest groups who are more likely to click on your result. This increased authority and relevance often lead to a better CTR because users are more inclined to click on links that are reputable.
As your content gains authority, it may trigger enhanced search features like rich snippets, making your listing more visually appealing. Rich snippets, such as star ratings, product details or images, make your result stand out in the SERPs, drawing more user clicks.
8. Boosts Authority in Your Niche
SEO in general doesn’t favour broad, unspecific content. Search engines prefer content that is focused and highly relevant to specific topics.
Dofollow links help establish your niche by informing search engines and users that your content is trusted and valuable within that particular industry. These links represent that you are a reputable source in your field, and your site should be trusted for the information or service you provide.
If a well-known health website links to your “Work Out, Not Out: Fitness Tips for Remote Workers” blog, it tells search engines that your content is relevant to the fitness space. This can improve your rankings and visibility in fitness SERPs, helping your site stand out and improve CTR.
9. Improves Content Marketing Efforts
Search engines favour high-quality content that is useful and informative to users. For content marketing, this means your content is more likely to be discovered and indexed when reputable websites link to it.
It boosts your chances of ranking higher and shares that content with people outside your reach without paying a single dime. This organic traffic makes users more likely to trust your site, click throughs, and engage with your content.
10. Supports Link Building Campaigns
With thousands of websites and millions of links out there, it can be challenging to cut through the noise. Building high-quality backlinks is a cornerstone of successful SEO.
Dofollow links are particularly valuable as they allow search engine crawlers to follow them and attribute authority to the linked website. By strategically acquiring dofollow links from relevant and authoritative websites, you can significantly improve your website’s search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic.
Let’s say you’re a small business owner who sells handmade jewellery. If you can get a dofollow link from a popular fashion blog, it can significantly boost your brand’s visibility practically overnight. The blog’s readers, who are potential customers, may click on the link and discover your online store.
The Do’s And Don’ts Of Dofollow Links
The benefits of using dofollow links sound incredible, so much so that disreputable marketers have used them in all the wrong ways since their inception. These dishonest practices include buying bulk links to spamming comment sections with dofollow backlinks.
The result? Many shady tactics ultimately led to penalties from search engines and a sharp drop in rankings. This proves that while dofollow links are powerful, they must be used correctly. So, here are the dos and don’ts of dofollow links to consider.
1. Do choose Quality Over Quantity
Prioritise the quality of the source over the quantity of links. A few high-quality backlinks from trusted websites are more beneficial than a large number of low-quality links. Focus on earning these links by providing valuable, this ensures that your link-building efforts are sustainable in the long run without compromising on quality.
Don’t Buy Dofollow Links
Avoid buying dofollow links from link farms or low-quality websites. It may seem tempting for businesses to get their name out there by purchasing a large number of links quickly, but this strategy is risky and can result in Google penalties.
Link-buying is seen as manipulative, and search engines can devalue or completely disregard these links, which can ultimately harm your site’s rankings. Stick to organic, hard-earned links for the best long-term results.
2. Do Build Links Naturally
Build your dofollow link profile naturally by creating content that people want to associate with. This natural approach ensures that your backlink profile is built authentically, making it more likely to improve your search rankings in a meaningful and lasting way.
Don’t Use Dofollow Links in Spammy Content
Never use dofollow links in spammy, irrelevant, or low-quality content. Links should always be placed in high-quality, helpful content that adds value to the users. If a link is out of context or doesn’t relate to the content, it can be flagged by search engines as manipulative.
3. Do Target Niche-Relevant Websites
Always target websites that are relevant to your niche or industry. Links from industry leaders within your field provide a higher level of trust and relevance, which search engines use to evaluate your site’s authority. Additionally, niche-relevant links help you connect with a more targeted audience, driving quality traffic to your website.
Don’t Overuse Dofollow Links On The Same Page
Avoid overusing dofollow links on a single page. Adding too many links to one piece of content can appear out of place to both users and confuses the search engine.
This can dilute the value of each link, making them less effective at improving your rankings. A clean, well-structured page with a few carefully placed dofollow links is far more effective than a cluttered page full of them.
4. Do Monitor Dofollow Links Regularly
Regularly audit and track your backlinks. Over time, links can be removed, and websites can change their content. By monitoring your links, you can catch any potential issues before they negatively impact your SEO. Tools like Google Search Console or third-party backlink checkers will help you maintain a healthy link profile.
Don’t Use Dofollow Links in Paid Content Without Disclosure
Don’t use dofollow links in paid or sponsored content without proper disclosure. If you publish paid articles or sponsored posts that include dofollow links, always label them clearly as “sponsored” or “advertisement.”
Failing to disclose this can be seen as an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings, and Google may penalise your site or disregard the link entirely.
5. Do Diversify Your Link-Building Strategy
Diversify your link-building approach by incorporating both dofollow and nofollow links. Rely on other methods too like social media marketing, influencer partnerships, and building relationships with industry blogs. A varied strategy looks more natural to search engines and helps you make a broader, more reliable online presence.
Don’t Use Dofollow Links in Low-Quality Guest Posts
Never place dofollow links in low-quality, spammy guest posts. Google’s algorithms are becoming more skilled at detecting poor-quality content created solely for link-building purposes.
If your guest post doesn’t offer valuable, original information, or if it’s placed on a website with low domain authority, the dofollow link you acquire from it may not help your SEO.
6. Do Place Dofollow Links in Contextual Content
Dofollow links are most valuable when they are embedded in high-quality, contextual content. For example, if you’re writing an article or blog post that naturally references another resource, including a dofollow link to that resource makes sense.
Don’t Use Dofollow Links on Untrusted Websites
Avoid getting dofollow links from websites that are untrusted or shady. If the site you’re getting a dofollow link from has a bad reputation or violates Google’s guidelines, it can harm your SEO efforts.
7. Do Leverage Dofollow Links for Long-Term SEO Success
SEO is a long-term game, so by accumulating a solid portfolio of dofollow links from relevant and trustworthy sources, you can see sustained improvements in search rankings, organic traffic, and overall site visibility.
Don’t Don’t Ignore Link Context and Anchor Text
Don’t ignore the context and anchor text of your dofollow links. It’s not enough to have a dofollow link pointing to your site; the anchor text and the surrounding content matter too.
Bland and generic anchor text like “learn about” or “read more” isn’t helpful for SEO. Instead, use descriptive and keyword-rich anchor text that states what the linked page is about.
Conclusion On The Use Of Dofollow Links
By optimising SEO content and avoiding unethical practices, you can leverage dofollow links to achieve long-term SEO success and generate leads and conversions. Yet, it is undeniable that SEO is a complex and complicated field.
This is where Best SEO steps in. Our team is dedicated to providing the best SEO services to our clients. Our result-oriented approach means we use proven and tested high-quality SEO tactics to take you to the first page of Google. Don’t believe us?
Get your free 30-minute strategy session with us today.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dofollow Links
What Are the Key Differences Between Dofollow And Nofollow Links?
Dofollow links pass value and help improve a website’s search engine rankings by vouching for the linked content. Nofollow links, on the other hand, don’t pass this value and are used when you don’t want to endorse the linked page for SEO purposes, like in ads or user-generated content.
Is It Okay To Use Dofollow Links In Paid Content Or Advertisements?
It’s not recommended unless the links are correctly labelled as “sponsored” or “advertisement” to comply with search engine guidelines and avoid penalties.
Should I Remove Low-Quality Dofollow Links From My Website?
Yes. Removing or disavowing low-quality dofollow links can protect your site from potential SEO penalties.
Are Dofollow Links More Valuable Than Nofollow Links?
Yes. Dofollow links are more valuable because they pass link equity, which helps improve your site’s authority and search engine rankings, but it is advisable to use both to maintain a balance.
How Can I Identify If A Dofollow Link Is Coming From A High-Quality Website?
Check the website’s domain authority (DA) using tools like Moz or Ahrefs; a high DA and relevance to your niche indicate a high-quality source.
When Should I Use Dofollow Links In My Content?
Use dofollow links to pass link equity to relevant, trustworthy sources that enhance your content’s value and improve SEO.
