Dofollow Backlinks Explained and How to Earn Them

Type "dofollow" into Google's own developer documentation and you'll find nothing. There's no such HTML attribute. Dofollow backlinks are just links with none of Google's three qualifying rel values, nofollow, sponsored, or ugc, attached to them (Ahrefs). That gap, between the term everyone in SEO uses and the term Google documents, is where most existing advice on this topic still gets stuck, especially the guides still describing rules Google retired in 2020.

Dofollow backlinks are links with no nofollow, sponsored, or ugc attribute attached, so by default Google can crawl them and pass ranking credit to the page they point to (Ahrefs). "Dofollow" isn't Google's term. It's shorthand for the plain, unqualified link that's been the web's default since before anyone needed a name for it.

How dofollow backlinks work

Google can only crawl a link at all if it's an <a> element with an href attribute in the rendered HTML (Google, last updated 10 December 2025). Once that basic condition is met, the rel attribute on the tag decides how Google treats it.

A plain link with no rel value at all is what SEOs mean by "dofollow." Google's own documentation defines three values you can add instead: rel="sponsored" for paid or sponsored placements, rel="ugc" for content users submit themselves, like comments and forum posts, and rel="nofollow" for any other case where a site doesn't want to associate itself with the linked page or have Google crawl it from there (Google, last updated 10 December 2025). All four look like this in code, straight from Google's own documentation:

<a href="https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese">Appenzeller</a>

<a rel="sponsored" href="https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese">Appenzeller</a>

<a rel="ugc" href="https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese">Appenzeller</a>

<a rel="nofollow" href="https://cheese.example.com/Appenzeller_cheese">Appenzeller</a>

Only the first line is "dofollow." The other three are qualified in some way, and Google's documentation says links marked like that will "generally not be followed."

One more wrinkle: a page-level nofollow meta tag overrides all of this. If a page carries that directive, every link on it becomes nofollow automatically, even links written with no rel attribute in their code (Ahrefs).

What changed in 2019 and 2020

Two rule changes moved the goalposts, and a lot of the advice still circulating on this topic reads as if neither one happened.

Nofollow launched in 2005 as a fix for blog comment spam, an idea Google's Matt Cutts and Blogger's Jason Shellen proposed together (Wikipedia). For years afterward, the rule was a clean binary: dofollow links passed ranking credit, nofollow links passed none of it. Some current guides still teach exactly that. Ahrefs' glossary entry says nofollow links "only pass on referral traffic" (Ahrefs), and Elementor's guide, published 3 March 2025, describes nofollow links as "crawled but not factored into ranking calculations" (Elementor). Both statements are true as far as they go. Neither mentions what happened next.

On 10 September 2019, Google added two more values to sit next to nofollow: rel="sponsored" for paid or sponsored links, and rel="ugc" for user-generated content such as comments and forum posts (Wikipedia). Then, starting 1 March 2020, Google began treating all three (sponsored, ugc, and nofollow) as hints rather than directives, for ranking and for crawling and indexing alike (Search Engine Land). A hint is not a rule Google is bound to follow. Google's current documentation says outbound links carrying any of these three attributes "will generally not be followed," but the linked pages "may still be crawled" if Google finds them another way, through a sitemap or a link from a different site (Google, last updated 10 December 2025). A nofollow link was never worth exactly zero. Since 2020, it's a link Google reserves the right to crawl anyway.

Does the dofollow and nofollow split still decide rankings?

Not as a strict binary, and Google doesn't want the attribute used as a general-purpose SEO lever either. Google's link best-practices documentation frames nofollow as a tool for sources you don't trust, not a default setting for every external link on a site (Google, last updated 10 December 2025). Its own example: you write an article responding to a site that badmouthed something you cover, and you don't want to pass along any of your reputation through that link. That's a nofollow case. Citing a source you trust and agree with isn't.

Paid links are the one place the attribute is close to mandatory. Google's spam policies count buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam, but carve out ordinary advertising: paid links are fine as long as they carry a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute (Google, spam policies, last updated 28 August 2026). Leave a paid link unqualified and there's no gray area left. That is exactly what the policy calls link spam.

How to check whether a link is dofollow

Right-click the link and open your browser's Inspect panel. If the rendered <a> tag carries no rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", or rel="ugc" attribute, it's a plain link, and Google can pass it credit by default (Ahrefs).

That works one link at a time. For a whole page, a browser extension is faster. Ahrefs' free SEO Toolbar for Chrome and Firefox highlights every dofollow and nofollow link on a page automatically.

Google Search Console won't help here. It reports your backlinks, but it has no filter for dofollow versus nofollow status (Ahrefs). For that breakdown, you need a crawler with its own link index, since Google's reporting doesn't split links that way.

Where dofollow backlinks legitimately come from

What separates a legitimate backlink from spam is review: whether a person looked at the submission before the link went live, not whether the attribute says dofollow or nofollow. Google's spam policies name several ways link builders skip that review and buy the appearance of it instead, including "low-quality directory or bookmark site links," unqualified advertorial links, and links exchanged for goods or services (Google, spam policies, last updated 28 August 2026). That's the model behind mass-submission "dofollow directory" roundups built around exactly this idea. Submit to enough low-quality directories built mainly to sell links, and you're doing the exact thing the policy names, not finding a loophole in it.

A reviewed submission to a directory that evaluates what it lists is a different transaction. Disclosure: bunny.directory, which is publishing this post, is one of those directories. A founder submits a product, a person reviews it, and an accepted launch gets a permanent product page with a dofollow link back to the product's site. Free listings keep that link for as long as the bunny badge stays on the product's site; paid tiers keep it without the badge. The mechanism is the same rel-attribute logic covered above, and the review is what earns the trust: a person reads the submission and builds a real page around it, instead of the site just appending another row to a list.

The same test applies everywhere else a link might come from: guest posts, community threads, anywhere else founders show up. A person evaluating the submission is what counts, not a payment or a bulk-submission tool. Startup SEO for Founders With No Budget and No Traffic covers other no-cost distribution channels that clear the same bar. Before submitting to any directory you haven't vetted, run its domain through a free Domain Rating check. A directory with no authority of its own has very little ranking credit to pass on, dofollow link or not.

What's new (as of 2026-09-08)

Google refreshed its spam policies documentation on 28 August 2026. The examples of link spam didn't change (the directory and advertorial cases covered above are still there), but the page restates the advertising carve-out plainly: paid links stay fine as long as they carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" (Google).

Google also changed its site reputation policy for the European Economic Area in August 2026. Third-party content hosted on a site mainly because of that host's own established ranking signals is now in scope of the policy for EEA users (Google Search Central Blog). It isn't a dofollow-specific rule, but it targets a related tactic: renting someone else's authority instead of earning your own.

Google updated the two documents this post cites most on the same day, 10 December 2025: "Qualify your outbound links" and "Link best practices for Google".

And on the search results side: Elementor's "Dofollow vs Nofollow Links" guide, published 3 March 2025, is still one of the more visible explainers of this topic, and it still teaches the pre-2020 model without mentioning sponsored or ugc links at all (Elementor). That gap is most of the reason this post exists.

Key takeaways

• "Dofollow" isn't an HTML attribute. It's shorthand for a link with none of the nofollow, sponsored, or ugc values attached.
• Since 1 March 2020, Google treats nofollow, sponsored, and ugc as hints rather than absolute rules, so a nofollow link can still be crawled and its target still indexed through other paths.
• Google's own guidance treats nofollow as a tool for untrusted sources, not a default for every external link on a site.
• Google Search Console has no dofollow-versus-nofollow filter. Check a link's status with your browser's Inspect tool or a toolbar extension instead.
• Google's spam policies still name low-quality directory and bookmark links as link spam, so a listing's review process matters more than the word "directory."

FAQ

Is dofollow a real HTML attribute?

No. There's no dofollow value in the HTML spec or anywhere in Google's documentation. It's SEO shorthand for a link with none of the three qualifying rel values, nofollow, sponsored, or ugc, attached to it, which by default Google can crawl and credit (Ahrefs).

What's the difference between rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored", and rel="ugc"?

They flag different reasons for not vouching for a link. rel="sponsored" marks paid or sponsored placements, rel="ugc" marks content users submit themselves, like comments and forum posts, and rel="nofollow" covers any other case where a site doesn't want to associate itself with the linked page (Google). Google also allows combining them, such as rel="ugc sponsored" for a paid link inside a comment (Wikipedia).

Does a nofollow link still pass any SEO value?

It can still get its target found. Since 2020, Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than an absolute rule for ranking, crawling, and indexing alike, which means Google decides case by case instead of automatically discarding the link (Search Engine Land). The page it points to can also get crawled and indexed anyway, through a sitemap or a different inbound link, so a nofollow link doesn't hide its target the way it once effectively did (Google).

Can I check which of my backlinks are dofollow in Google Search Console?

No. Google Search Console shows your backlinks but has no filter for dofollow versus nofollow status (Ahrefs). To see that breakdown, right-click any individual link and use your browser's Inspect tool, or run a page through a browser extension built for it, like the free Ahrefs SEO Toolbar.

Are directory backlinks against Google's spam policies?

Only the low-quality kind. Google's spam policies name "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" bought or sold for ranking purposes as a form of link spam (Google). A directory that reviews what it lists and builds a real page around each entry, instead of selling placement on a bare list, isn't the practice the policy describes.

Check any link's rel attribute yourself before you count it, and when you're ready to launch something, try bunny.directory's free startup launch checklist.