Nofollow VS. Dofollow 🔍

A measure of a webpage's link strength and credibility, roughly half of which determines Google rank position and is primarily built through a strong dofollow backlink profile.

A link type created by Google in 2005 specifically to allow webmasters to link to other sites without passing SEO authority, identified by the HTML attribute rel='nofollow'.

Standard hyperlinks that pass SEO authority from one page to another, with the most valuable type being editorial in-content links.

In-content hyperlinks embedded within the body text of a page, considered the most valuable type of dofollow link for passing SEO authority.

The rule that SEO authority is divided equally among all outbound links on a page based on the total number of links, regardless of how many are nofollow — nofollow links receive zero authority but still reduce what dofollow links receive.

Google only passes SEO authority to the first instance of a link to a given URL that it crawls on a page, crawling from top to bottom, meaning nav bar links take precedence over later editorial links to the same URL.

The principle that linking out to authoritative external websites does not diminish a site's SEO authority and is actually positively correlated with improved rank position.

A formerly used SEO manipulation technique where webmasters would nofollow most links on a page to concentrate all authority into one specific dofollow link, which Google patched to prevent abuse.

The complete set of external links pointing to a website, whose strength — particularly the dofollow portion — accounts for roughly half of a site's Google ranking position.

The key pages on a website that a site owner most wants to rank in search engines, which should be kept out of the nav bar to allow internal editorial links to effectively pass authority to them.

Sitewide navigation links appearing at the top (nav bar) or bottom (footer) of a website that Google recognizes as navigational rather than editorial, passing minimal SEO authority.

The primary guest and SEO expert featured in the video, founder of an AI SEO agency that developed the Core 30 local SEO methodology and scaled to 97 plumber clients using AI-driven content and local link-building strategies.

Nofollow links do not pass any SEO authority, while dofollow links do pass authority. Nofollow was a link type created by Google in 2005 specifically for the purpose of not passing SEO authority. It allows webmasters to link to other sites that benefit users without providing a vote of authority. You can identify a nofollow link by looking for 'rel="nofollow"' in the page's source code, or by using free Chrome plugins that highlight nofollow links.

Google created the nofollow link attribute in 2005 to give webmasters a way to link to other sites that would benefit their users without necessarily providing a vote of authority or passing SEO authority. It was designed to separate user-helpful links from endorsement-based authority signals.

There are two easy ways to identify nofollow links: (1) Use a free Chrome plugin that highlights all nofollow links on a page, or (2) Open the page's source code and search (Ctrl+F) for 'rel="nofollow"' — any link containing this attribute is a nofollow link.

The three types of dofollow links are: (1) Nav bar and footer links — located at the top and bottom of a website; (2) Sidebar links — usually on the right or left side of a page; and (3) Editorial links — links embedded within the actual content of a page (also called in-content links with anchor text). Editorial links are by far the most important for SEO. Google recognizes that nav bar, footer, and sidebar links exist for navigation purposes and are present on nearly all pages, so they don't pass significant SEO authority. Editorial in-content links are where most SEO authority is passed.

No, outbound links do not reduce or diminish your website's SEO authority. Your site retains its full authority regardless of how many outbound links it has. In fact, there is evidence that linking out to authoritative, high-quality websites can actually improve your rank position. Google wants websites to link to other sites, and doing so is generally positively correlated with better rankings.

SEO authority is distributed equally among all outbound links based on the total number of links on the page. For example, if a page has 100 authority points and 5 outbound dofollow editorial links, each link receives 20 points (100 ÷ 5). Importantly, the page itself still retains its 100 authority points — the authority is passed to linked pages without being lost from the source page.

No. This is a common misconception. The authority each dofollow link receives is calculated based on the TOTAL number of links on the page, not just the number of dofollow links. For example, if a page has 5 outbound links (4 dofollow, 1 nofollow), each dofollow link still only receives 20 points (1/5 of total authority), not 25 points (1/4). The nofollow link receives nothing, meaning 20 points of authority are essentially wasted. Google updated its algorithm specifically to prevent this type of 'authority sculpting.'

Authority sculpting was a technique where webmasters would nofollow most outbound links on a page so that all the authority would flow to the one or few dofollow links they wanted to boost. Google rolled out an update years ago specifically to prevent this practice because it was too easy to abuse. Now, the authority a dofollow link receives is calculated based on the total number of links (both dofollow and nofollow), so nofollowing other links does not increase the authority passed to the remaining dofollow links.

No. Google only passes authority to the first link it crawls on a page. Since Google crawls pages from top to bottom, it almost always sees nav bar links first. This means if a URL appears in both the nav bar and as an editorial in-content link, Google will credit only the nav bar link — and since nav bar links pass little authority, the editorial link's authority benefit is lost.

No, you should generally avoid putting your most important 'money URLs' (the pages you most want to rank) in the nav bar. Because Google only passes authority to the first link it crawls, and it crawls top to bottom, it will see the nav bar link first. This makes it very difficult to pass internal link authority to that URL via editorial in-content links elsewhere on the site. Money URLs should only be in the nav bar if absolutely necessary for user navigation; otherwise, keep them off the nav bar so you can effectively pass internal link authority through editorial links.

No. Google does not count blog comment links or author bio box links nearly as much as editorial in-content links. Google specifically values editorial links — those embedded within the main body content of a page — as the primary source of passed SEO authority. Bio box links and comment links are recognized as lower-value link placements.

The webmaster for the Better Business Bureau website decided to switch all their outbound links to member websites from dofollow to nofollow, believing this would help bbb.org rank higher by retaining more authority. This was a mistake. Outbound links do not diminish a website's authority, and linking to high-quality sites is actually positively correlated with improved rankings. By switching to nofollow, the BBB stopped passing authority to its members without gaining any SEO benefit for itself.

According to the video, roughly half of Google's rank position is determined by the strength of your backlink profile — more specifically, the strength of your dofollow backlink profile. The quality and authority of your dofollow links are a major ranking factor.

The nofollow link receives zero authority — nothing is passed through it. However, the key point is that the dofollow links also don't benefit from the nofollow link's 'share.' Each dofollow link still only receives 1/5 (20%) of the page's total authority, since the calculation is based on the total number of links. The 20% that would have gone to the nofollow link is simply not passed to anyone, meaning 20% of the page's outbound authority is wasted.

You should focus on building editorial links — dofollow, in-content links embedded within the body of a webpage, with relevant anchor text. These pass the most SEO authority. This applies to both internal links (within your own site) and external backlinks (from other sites). Avoid relying on nav bar links, footer links, sidebar links, blog comment links, or author bio box links as primary link-building strategies, as these pass significantly less authority.

Nofollow link, by definition, does not pass any SEO authority. This is actually a link type that Google created in 2005 for the express purpose of not passing SEO authority.

Google wanted a way for webmasters to be able to link to other sites that would benefit their users without necessarily providing a vote of authority.

Roughly half of Google rank position is the strength of your backlink profile — to be more specific, what I really mean is the strength of your dofollow backlink profile.

The nav bar links, footer links, sidebar links — they don't pass significant amounts of SEO authority. Google knows how to recognize this type of link.

SEO authority is not lost or diminished by outbound links. I've seen personally a lot of evidence that outbound links to authoritative websites actually improve rank position.

The webmaster for the Better Business Bureau told me they decided to switch all their outbound links to members to nofollow so their bbb.org website would rank higher. This is flat out wrong. Do not make this mistake.

If you nofollow a bunch of links on your website, it doesn't help you send more authority to the dofollow links. The dofollow links get the same amount of authority based on the total number of links.

Google rolled out an update years ago to prevent people from authority sculpting — it prevents you from being able to give all the authority to one link by making all the other links nofollow. That was very easy to abuse, so Google doesn't play that game anymore.

Google will only pass authority to the first link it crawls, and it crawls websites from top to bottom — that means it will almost always see the nav bar links first.

Your so-called money URLs — don't put those in the nav bar, because it's going to make it exceptionally difficult to pass internal link authority to that URL.

To quickly distinguish between nofollow and dofollow links without manually inspecting source code

An alternative to Chrome plugins for identifying nofollow links on any website

Editorial links embedded in content pass the most SEO authority; Google discounts nav, footer, sidebar, and bio box links

Google recognizes nav/footer links as navigational and passes little SEO authority through them

This is a common mistake (as illustrated by the BBB example); linking to high-quality sites actually improves rank position and authority is not lost through outbound links

Outbound links to authoritative sites are positively correlated with improved rank position; you do not lose SEO authority by doing so

Google updated its algorithm specifically to prevent this tactic; dofollow links receive authority based on the total number of links regardless of how many are nofollow

Google crawls top to bottom and only passes authority to the first instance of a link it crawls; if a URL appears in the nav bar, any editorial link to the same URL will not pass additional SEO authority

Nav bar placement prevents internal link authority from being passed to that URL via editorial links elsewhere on the site

Roughly half of Google rank position is attributed to the strength of your dofollow backlink profile specifically

Referenced multiple times as the creator of nofollow links in 2005 and the authority on how link authority is passed and crawled

"this is actually a link type that Google created in 2005 for the express purpose of not passing SEO authority"

Used as a cautionary example of a website that incorrectly switched outbound links to nofollow thinking it would improve their rankings

"Once I had a conversation with the webmaster for the Better Business Bureau website. He told me that they decided to switch all their outbound links to members to nofollow so their bbb.org website would rank higher. This is flat out wrong."