If you’ve ever been told your business needs “backlinks” to rank higher on Google, you’ve probably encountered the terms dofollow and nofollow. The distinction matters - it’s the difference between a link that actively boosts your search rankings and one that doesn’t.
How Search Engines Treat Links
When one website links to another, Google treats that link as a vote of confidence. The linking site is essentially saying “this page is worth visiting.” Google’s algorithm uses these votes - along with hundreds of other signals - to determine where pages rank in search results.
But not all votes count equally.
Dofollow links are the default. When a website links to yours without any special attributes, Google follows that link and passes “link equity” (sometimes called “link juice”) to your site. This directly contributes to your domain authority and can improve your rankings.
Nofollow links include a rel="nofollow" attribute that tells Google “don’t count this as a vote.” The link still works for users - they can click it and visit your site - but Google doesn’t pass ranking value through it. Sites add nofollow tags to links they don’t want to vouch for, such as paid advertisements, user-generated comments, and untrusted content.
There’s also rel="ugc" (user-generated content) and rel="sponsored" (paid links), which function similarly to nofollow. Google introduced these in 2019 to give webmasters more specific ways to categorize their outbound links.
Why This Matters for Business Owners
If you’re a business owner trying to improve your Google rankings, the type of backlinks pointing to your site directly affects results.
A single dofollow link from a reputable, high-authority website can be worth more than dozens of nofollow links from low-quality sites. That’s why SEO professionals carefully evaluate where they build links for their clients - and why the dofollow vs. nofollow distinction is central to any link building strategy.
Common sources of dofollow backlinks include industry publications, partner websites, guest posts on reputable blogs, and select business directories that offer dofollow links to verified listings.
Common sources of nofollow links include social media profiles, Wikipedia references, most blog comments, forum posts, and the majority of large business directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, and similar platforms all use nofollow on outbound business links).
Business Directories and Link Types
Most major business directories use nofollow on the links they provide to listed businesses. This protects the directory’s domain from being penalized if a listed business turns out to be spammy or low-quality.
However, some directories offer dofollow links as a verified or paid feature. The logic is that if a business has been verified - through identity checks, payment, or both - the directory can vouch for that business with a dofollow link.
This model creates a natural quality gate: businesses that invest in their listing (even a small amount) are statistically more likely to be legitimate than anonymous free submissions. That’s why Google’s spam guidelines distinguish between moderated directories with quality controls and unmoderated directories that hand out links indiscriminately.
What to Look For in a Directory Backlink
When evaluating whether a directory listing is worth pursuing for SEO value, consider these factors:
Is the link dofollow or nofollow? Check using your browser’s developer tools (right-click the link, inspect element, look for rel="nofollow" or rel="ugc"). If there’s no rel attribute, it’s dofollow by default.
What’s the directory’s domain authority? Use a tool like Ahrefs (Domain Rating) or Moz (Domain Authority) to check. A dofollow link from a DR 50 directory is valuable. A dofollow link from a DR 5 directory that nobody visits is not.
Is your link on a dedicated page? A backlink from your own dedicated business profile page is worth more than a link buried in a list of 500 businesses on a single page. Look for directories that give each business its own URL with structured data.
Does the directory have real traffic? A directory with actual visitors sends both link equity and potential referral traffic. Check SimilarWeb or Semrush for traffic estimates.
Building a Balanced Backlink Profile
A healthy backlink profile includes a mix of dofollow and nofollow links from diverse sources. Google expects to see both - a site with 100% dofollow links from directories looks unnatural.
For most businesses, a practical approach is to maintain your free listings on major platforms (Google Business Profile, Yelp, Bing Places - mostly nofollow but essential for NAP consistency and local SEO), then selectively invest in a handful of quality dofollow directory listings to build domain authority.
The key is quality over quantity. Five dofollow links from legitimate, well-trafficked directories with your own profile page are worth more than fifty links from obscure, low-traffic sites.
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