Few topics in SEO generate as much confusion as the rel attribute. Beginners obsess over whether a link is dofollow, sellers advertise "dofollow only" as if it were a guarantee of value, and entire strategies are built around a tag that Google has repeatedly said it treats as a hint rather than a rule. This guide cuts through it.
The short version: the rel attribute matters, but far less than the quality of the linking page. A dofollow link from a spam site is worthless; a nofollow link from a trusted publication still sends traffic and brand signals. Judge the link, not the tag. If you have read our guide to buying backlinks safely, you already know that relevance and editorial quality come first; this guide explains where the rel attribute fits.
We will cover what the attributes mean, how they evolved, the values you will meet in practice, whether nofollow links have value, how to use all of this in your strategy, and how to audit your own link attributes.
What nofollow and dofollow actually mean
A dofollow link is simply a normal link with no rel attribute. By default, links pass authority, and a dofollow link is one that has not been marked otherwise. There is no "dofollow" attribute; it is the absence of a nofollow attribute, which is why the term is a bit of a misnomer.
A nofollow link carries the rel="nofollow" attribute, which tells search engines not to follow the link or pass authority through it. It was introduced to combat comment spam, and it is now used for a range of purposes, from paid links to user-generated content.
The practical difference is that a dofollow link can pass authority and help rankings, while a nofollow link generally does not. But "generally" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because Google has said it treats nofollow as a hint and may choose to follow links it considers valuable regardless of the tag.
So the binary framing of dofollow versus nofollow is misleading. What matters is the link's context: where it sits, who placed it, and whether it serves a reader. The tag is one signal among many, and not the most important one.
A short history of the rel attribute
The nofollow attribute was introduced in 2005 to fight comment spam. The idea was simple: if bloggers could mark links in comments as nofollow, spammers would stop flooding them, because the links would not pass authority. It worked, partly, and nofollow became the default for user-generated content across the web.
Over the years, Google expanded the vocabulary. In 2019, it introduced rel="sponsored" for paid links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content, splitting the single nofollow tag into three more specific signals. The idea was to give publishers a way to be precise about why a link was marked.
Then, in 2019 and 2020, Google confirmed that nofollow had become a hint rather than a directive. This was a significant change: it meant Google could choose to follow a nofollow link if it judged the link valuable, and it could ignore a dofollow link if it judged it spammy. The tag stopped being a switch and became a suggestion.
The practical upshot is that the rel attribute is less powerful than it once was, and the quality of the link matters more. A nofollow link from a trusted site may still pass some value; a dofollow link from a spam site will not. Context beats tag.
The rel values you will meet
In practice you will encounter four rel values, and it helps to know what each means. The first is nofollow, the general signal that you do not endorse the link. The second is sponsored, used for paid or sponsored placements. The third is ugc, used for user-generated content like comments and forum posts. The fourth is the absence of any rel value, which is a normal dofollow link.
You may also see rel="noopener" and rel="noreferrer", which are security and privacy attributes, not SEO ones. They do not affect link value, and they are often added automatically by content management systems. Do not confuse them with nofollow.
When you buy a link, the seller will usually tell you whether it is dofollow. Most editorial placements are dofollow by default, because the publisher is not being paid for the link specifically. Sponsored placements are often marked sponsored, which is the correct and honest thing to do, and it does not make the link worthless.
If a seller promises "dofollow" as if it were a premium feature, be a little sceptical. Dofollow is the default; it is not a bonus. What matters is the site, the placement and the relevance, not the tag.
Do nofollow links have any value?
Yes, though not as a direct ranking lever. A nofollow link still sends referral traffic, which can be valuable in its own right. It still exposes your brand to a new audience. It still signals that a real site found you worth mentioning, which can lead to dofollow links from others who see the mention.
Nofollow links are also common on the highest-authority sites. Social platforms, major publications and many community sites use nofollow by default. If you refused all nofollow links, you would cut yourself off from some of the most valuable exposure on the web.
There is also the hint factor. Google has said it may follow nofollow links it considers valuable, which means a nofollow link from a trusted, relevant page may still pass some signal. You cannot rely on this, but it means nofollow links are not the dead ends they are sometimes described as.
The right attitude is to treat nofollow links as a bonus rather than a target. Do not chase them, but do not refuse them either. If a nofollow link comes with real traffic and brand exposure, take it. If it comes from a spam site, decline it regardless of the tag.
How to use this in your link strategy
In your link strategy, prioritise dofollow editorial links from relevant, trusted sites, because those are the links that pass authority and move rankings. That is where your budget should go, and it is what our packages are built around.
But do not ignore nofollow links entirely. A healthy profile includes a natural mix, because real sites link in different ways. A profile that is 100 percent dofollow looks manipulated; a profile with a natural spread of dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and ugc links looks organic.
Use nofollow links for brand building and traffic. A mention on a major publication, even nofollow, puts your name in front of an audience you could not otherwise reach. That exposure has value independent of SEO, and it often leads to dofollow links later.
When you audit a competitor's profile, look at the dofollow links to understand their ranking strategy, and look at the nofollow links to understand their brand strategy. The two together tell you how they are competing, and that is more useful than either alone.
Auditing your own link attributes
Audit your own link attributes periodically, both inbound and outbound. For inbound links, check the dofollow-to-nofollow ratio and make sure you have enough dofollow editorial links to support your rankings. If almost all your links are nofollow, you may be building brand but not authority.
For outbound links, check that you are marking the right ones. Sponsored and paid links should be marked sponsored. User-generated content should be marked ugc. Editorial links to sources you trust should generally be left dofollow, because nofollowing everything looks unnatural and deprives the web of useful signals.
Watch for accidental nofollows. Content management systems sometimes add nofollow to internal links or to links in certain templates, which can quietly suppress your internal linking. Check your internal links and remove nofollow where it does not belong.
Keep the audit simple. You do not need to check every link; sample a few pages and look for patterns. If the patterns are healthy, you are fine. If you find problems, fix them and re-check in a quarter. Our anchor text guide covers the related question of how to vary your anchors, which pairs naturally with attribute auditing.
How to check a link's rel attribute
Checking a link's rel attribute is simple, and you should do it before you buy any placement. On any web page, right-click the link and choose "Inspect", or view the page source and search for the link. Look for the rel attribute in the anchor tag: rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" means the link is marked; no rel attribute means it is dofollow.
For bulk checking, browser extensions and SEO tools can highlight nofollow links on a page, which is faster than inspecting each one. If you are auditing a competitor's profile, a backlink tool will show the rel attribute for each link, along with the anchor and the target page.
When you buy a link, check it yourself after delivery rather than trusting the seller's word. Sellers sometimes claim dofollow when the link is actually nofollow, or the publisher changes it after the fact. A quick check takes seconds and protects your budget.
Check periodically, too, because attributes can change. A publisher may add nofollow to old posts, or a site may change its policy. A link that was dofollow when you bought it may not be a year later, and knowing that helps you judge the value of the placement.
Common myths about nofollow
Several myths about nofollow refuse to die, and they lead people to make bad decisions. The first is that nofollow links are worthless. They are not; they send traffic, build brand, and may still pass some signal as a hint. Treating them as worthless cuts you off from valuable exposure.
The second is that you should nofollow all outbound links. This is unnecessary and can look manipulative. Nofollow sponsored and user-generated links, and leave editorial links to sources you trust as dofollow. Nofollowing everything deprives the web of useful signals and looks unnatural.
The third is that a dofollow link guarantees a ranking boost. It does not. A dofollow link from a spam site does nothing, and a dofollow link from an irrelevant site does little. The tag is not a guarantee; the site and the placement are what matter.
The fourth is that nofollow links should be disavowed. They should not, in almost all cases. Nofollow links do not pass authority, so they rarely need disavowing, and adding them to a disavow file is usually a waste of effort.
The fifth is that Google ignores nofollow entirely. It does not; it treats it as a hint and may follow links it considers valuable. The nuance matters, because it means nofollow is not the hard stop it is often described as.
Understanding these myths helps you spend your effort where it counts: on relevant, editorial links from real sites, whatever their rel attribute. The tag is a detail; the link is the asset.
If you take one thing from this guide, take this: stop optimising for the tag and start optimising for the link. A relevant, editorial mention on a site with a real audience is worth more than a hundred dofollow links from sites nobody reads, and it will keep its value long after the algorithm changes again. The rel attribute is a footnote; the relationship between the linking page and your content is the story.
Frequently asked questions
Is a dofollow link always better than a nofollow link?
No. A dofollow link from a spam site is worse than a nofollow link from a trusted publication. Judge the site and the placement first, and the tag second.
Do I need to disavow nofollow links?
Usually not. Nofollow links do not pass authority, so they rarely need disavowing. Focus your disavow efforts on dofollow links from genuinely harmful sources, and only when you have evidence of a problem.
Has Google removed nofollow?
No. Nofollow still exists, alongside sponsored and ugc. What changed is that Google now treats these as hints rather than directives, so it may choose to follow or ignore them.