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Backlinks, also known as backlinks, are links from a source website to a destination website. These links can come in many forms, from text, images to interactive buttons. In the world of SEO, backlinks serve as one of the most important signals for search engines, like Google, to evaluate the quality and authority of a website. Google's algorithms, including PageRank, use backlinks to analyze the quantity and quality of links pointing to a website, thereby determining the importance of that page in search rankings.
In essence, a backlink from an authoritative website is considered a "vote of confidence" for your website. Google bots, such as Googlebot, will use these links to discover and index new websites more quickly. Furthermore, a quality backlink from a high PageRank site can transfer power, helping your website grow in keyword rankings, improve trust, and attract traffic from the link source. This creates a positive cycle, where a highly rated website will continue to receive more quality backlinks, strengthening its position in the search engine.
In the linking ecosystem, two basic types of backlinks are distinguished based on their HTML attributes: Dofollow and Nofollow. This distinction determines how Googlebot interacts and passes value from the source page to the target page.
Dofollow Backlink: This is the default and most common type of link, allowing Googlebot to "follow" and pass ranking power from the source page to the destination page. Dofollow backlinks are considered a direct signal that a website is "endorsing" the content of the linked website, passing some "link power" (also known as "link juice") to the destination page. Technically, a Dofollow link has no rel attribute or has a rel="dofollow" attribute in the HTML code, although the latter is unnecessary and rarely used. For example, a link like Anchor Text will automatically be recognized by search engines as Dofollow.
Nofollow Backlink: In contrast, a Nofollow backlink is a link with the rel="nofollow" attribute in the source code, which tells Googlebot not to pass ranking power from one page to another. This attribute was originally created to combat spam behavior on forums and blog comments. Although Nofollow does not directly improve rankings, it still plays an important role in creating a natural and diverse backlink profile, bringing in indirect traffic, and increasing brand awareness.
To summarize, here is a detailed comparison table of these two types of links:
| Criteria | Dofollow Backlink | Backlink Nofollow |
| Power transmission mechanism | Yes, pass "link juice" | No, block ranking power transmission |
| Impact on SEO | Directly, helps increase keyword rankings and PageRank | Indirect, does not directly affect rankings, but is necessary for the naturalness of the backlink profile |
| HTML Structure | By default there is no rel attribute. | |
| Intended use | Vote of confidence, increase website reputation | Anti-spam, control unsafe links |
| Strategic value | Core Elements to Building Domain Authority | Contribute to creating diversity and naturalness for backlink profile, bringing indirect traffic |
A Dofollow Backlink is more than just a link; it is a powerful strategic tool that directly impacts a website's core SEO metrics.
Search engines like Google use Dofollow backlinks as a signal to evaluate the importance of a website. Google's PageRank algorithm, developed based on this mechanism, will analyze the quantity and quality of links pointing to a page to determine its importance. Therefore, a Dofollow backlink from an authoritative site will pass PageRank value, helping your website be rated higher by Google.
Besides PageRank, Dofollow backlinks are also closely related to other authority metrics such as Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA), or Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR). These metrics, developed by SEO companies, are predictive metrics for how well a domain or a particular page will rank. Getting Dofollow backlinks from high DA/DR sites is one of the most important factors in increasing your website’s authority score.
The mechanism by which Google values quality Dofollow backlinks can be understood through the concept of “votes of confidence.” When an authoritative website links to your site with a Dofollow link, it is considered a “vote,” confirming that your content is trustworthy and valuable. The more votes from relevant and authoritative sites, the more trustworthy your site is and the higher your chances of ranking. Additionally, quality backlinks bring direct traffic from the source site and expand your brand awareness to a new audience.
A deeper analysis shows that “link juice” is not simply ranking power, but a “flow” of trust and relevance. This concept goes beyond PageRank to include context and topical relevance. A Dofollow backlink from a site in the same niche as you and placed in a natural context will pass a much stronger signal than a backlink from an unrelated site, regardless of its DA/DR. This shows that Google is increasingly placing importance on semantic relationships between websites, making Dofollow backlinks a bridge not only of technical strength but also of trust and relevance in the eyes of the search engine.
Determining whether a link is Dofollow or Nofollow is the first step in assessing its value. There are two main methods for doing this.
The first way is to check manually using the HTML source code. SEO experts often use the Inspect Element feature (press F12 on Chrome browser) to view the source code of the website. Here, they find the tag containing the link to check. If this tag has the attribute rel="nofollow", it is a Nofollow link. Conversely, if there is no rel attribute, or has the attribute rel="dofollow", it is a Dofollow link. Although this method is accurate, it can be time-consuming when checking many links.
To increase efficiency, experts often use browser extensions. Extensions such as Nofollow, NoDoFollow (for Firefox and Chrome), or SEOquake are designed to automatically color Nofollow links on a website, making it easy for users to distinguish them quickly and accurately.
Evaluating the quality of a backlink is a complex process, requiring a combination of many different factors, not just based on whether it is Dofollow or Nofollow.
Some popular metrics used to evaluate backlinks include Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) developed by Moz, or Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) by Ahrefs. These metrics provide a score from 0 to 100 to predict the ranking ability of a domain or a specific page. Backlinks from pages with higher scores are more valuable. However, it is important to note that these are third-party metrics, not direct Google ranking factors.
A deeper analysis shows that backlink quality is a multivariate function, not just dependent on DA/PA metrics. Other important factors include:
Relevance of the source website: A backlink from a page that is related to your topic or industry is much more valuable than a backlink from an unrelated page.
Traffic of the source page: A backlink from a high-traffic page can bring direct traffic and leads.
Context of the link: The link should be placed naturally within the content of the article, rather than in non-valuable locations such as the sidebar, footer, or comment spam.
An SEO expert understands that focusing solely on high DA/PA metrics can lead to an ineffective strategy. A backlink from a low DA site with highly relevant content and placed in a natural context can bring better conversion value and signals to Google than a backlink from a major news site that is irrelevant and just PR. Evaluating backlinks requires a holistic view, not just relying on a single metric.
To perform a professional and comprehensive backlink analysis, experts often use the following evaluation table:
| Evaluation criteria | Detailed description | Importance |
| Domain Authority (DA)/Domain Rating (DR) | The authority score of the entire domain (0-100) | High, is a good overall index |
| Authority (PA)/URL Rating (UR) | The authority score of a specific page | High, reflects the strength of the target page | Relevance of the website
| Does | the source website have the same topic as the target website? | Very high, directly affects the semantic signal |
| Traffic of the source page | The amount of traffic the source page receives | Average, brings traffic value and brand recognition |
| Link context | Is the link placed naturally in the article content or just in spam positions? | Very high, affects the naturalness and quality of the link |
| Anchor text | Is the text containing the link relevant to the content of the landing page? | High, needs to be diverse and relevant to avoid penalties |
In any sustainable SEO strategy, high-quality content is the core foundation. Creating unique, useful, and valuable articles, infographics, or videos will naturally attract backlinks from other websites, without having to use expensive or risky methods. When your content is attractive enough, other websites will voluntarily link to you as a reliable reference, creating quality and sustainable Dofollow backlinks.
Guest Posting is one of the optimal solutions to build quality Dofollow backlinks. This strategy includes writing a quality article and posting it on another website or blog with the same topic. 10
The implementation process includes the following steps:
Researching potential websites: Search for blogs, forums or websites with high reputation (good DA/PA/DR) and similar target audience.
Proposing content ideas: Create a unique, valuable content idea that is relevant to the target website's readers.
Writing and Linking: Write a high-quality article and insert Dofollow backlinks naturally into the content of the article, not in ineffective positions.
This method not only brings quality Dofollow backlinks but also helps reach a large number of potential customers and build a reputable personal/author brand.
Digital PR is an advanced strategy, based on creating "newsworthy" content to attract the attention of the press, media, and reputable websites. This method can bring Dofollow backlinks from extremely authoritative sources.
Experts often create "newsworthy" content by:
Conducting exclusive research or surveys to create new, compelling data and insights.
Converting complex data into visual, shareable infographics or reports.
Providing quotes or analysis from industry experts.
The outreach process involves finding and submitting newsletters or content ideas to industry journalists, editors, and bloggers so they can cite and link to your website.
Broken Link Building is an advanced "white hat" link building technique that is considered a "win-win" tactic. The mechanism of operation includes the following steps:
Finding broken links: Using specialized tools to find broken links (404 errors) on reputable, relevant websites.
Creating replacement content: Creating high-quality content to replace the lost content of that broken link.
Approaching the website owner: Contacting the website owner and proposing to replace the broken link with a link to your new content.
This method improves the quality of the website for both parties: the website owner fixes the 404 error, and you get a quality and sustainable Dofollow backlink.
In addition to the above strategies, building Dofollow backlinks can also be done through many other methods:
Building backlinks from forums and communities: Participate in forums, specialized communities and contribute useful content. Backlinks from here can bring direct traffic and potential customers.
Leverage Social Media: Although most backlinks from social media platforms are Nofollow, they still play an important role in creating a natural backlink profile, increasing brand awareness, generating indirect traffic and can lead to natural Dofollow backlinks when your content is widely shared.
A deeper analysis shows that strategies such as Guest Posting and Digital PR are two sides of the same coin – strategic content marketing. Both are based on the core principle of creating quality content to attract the attention of third parties. Guest Posting usually focuses on smaller blogs and websites, while Digital PR targets larger media channels such as newspapers. Both provide quality Dofollow backlinks, but Digital PR can create a stronger viral effect and increase brand coverage. An overall strategy should combine both, using Guest Posting to build the foundation and Digital PR to create a big push, turning backlink building from a purely SEO technique into an integral part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. IV
While quality Dofollow backlinks are a "miracle drug" for SEO, "toxic" backlinks are a serious threat. Bad backlinks often come from spammy, irrelevant websites, or are created using "black-hat" techniques such as link buying, PBN (Private Blog Network), or comment spam. Signs include a sudden increase in backlinks, backlinks from sites with low authority (high spam score), or links that are irrelevant to your topic. Having too many low-quality backlinks can reduce a website's authority and PageRank, and even lead to penalties from Google.
The Google Penguin algorithm, launched in 2012, is a link spam prevention tool from Google. Its main goal is to prevent search ranking manipulation through unnatural link building and keyword stuffing.
Penguin does not work like a direct manual penalty. Instead, it ignores or devalues spammy links, causing a website's rankings to decline gradually rather than being demoted immediately. However, in severe cases, a website may still face a manual penalty from Google's team. 4.3
To protect your website from these risks, it is important to check and manage your backlink profile. This process is done as follows:
Analyze your backlink profile: Use tools like Google Search Console, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to periodically check the backlinks pointing to your website.
Identify bad backlinks: Filter out links from domains that are highly spammy, irrelevant, or come from unnatural sources.
Create a Disavow file: List the URLs or domains to disavow in a .txt file in Google's standard format. For example, to disavow a domain, you would write domain:example.com
Use the Disavow tool: Upload the file to the Disavow tool on Google Search Console to ask Google to ignore the value of those links. This will help your website not be negatively affected by low-quality links.
Understanding the duality of Dofollow backlinks is the mark of a true SEO expert. On the one hand, it is a core element to improve rankings; on the other hand, abusing them or building them unnaturally can lead to serious risks. The advent of the Penguin algorithm proves that Google not only wants to reward good links but also wants to punish bad links. This places a higher requirement on SEOers: not only need to know how to build backlinks but also know how to check, evaluate and "clean" their link profile periodically.
A backlink profile that Google considers natural is never 100% Dofollow. The combination of both types of links creates a trustworthy signal that your link profile is built organically, not through manipulative tactics.
Although Google does not publish the exact number, many experts based on practical experience have suggested a "golden ratio" for backlink profiles. This ratio is usually maintained at around 70% Dofollow and 30% Nofollow. This ratio helps the website to receive ranking power while maintaining naturalness, minimizing the risk of being considered spam.
This Nofollow/Dofollow ratio truly reflects human online behavior. In the real world, not everyone links to you with the purpose of "voting" for PageRank. There are links that are simply for reference, to cite sources, or to introduce without the intention of transmitting power. A website with only Dofollow backlinks may be considered by Google to have implemented manipulative tactics. This ratio shows a deep understanding of how Google simulates natural human linking behavior and helps SEOers build a sustainable link profile, overcoming quality control algorithms.
Maintaining a healthy backlink profile requires care and maintenance. Experts recommend performing regular backlink analysis, either monthly or quarterly, to detect bad or devalued links early. This helps prevent potential penalties from Google. At the same time, consistently creating unique and valuable content is still the most permanent and sustainable source of energy to attract natural backlinks, thereby strengthening the website's position on the search rankings.
Dofollow backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors in modern SEO. However, building backlinks has evolved from a mere technique to a comprehensive strategy, requiring a combination of technical knowledge, analytical thinking, and the ability to create valuable content. By understanding how it works, applying advanced “white hat” strategies, and proactively managing the risks from Google’s algorithms, you can build a solid Dofollow backlink profile that not only helps your website achieve high rankings but also maintains credibility and sustainability in the long term.
