What are Dofollow Backlinks?[How to Use Them in SEO?]

Editor / September 24, 2024

• Blog

Dofollow backlinks are hyperlinks on a webpage that connect it to your webpages and endorse your site’s authority and credibility for search engine ranking. 

There are three major links used in SEO–internal link, external link and backlink. Among them, backlinks occupy the top hierarchical position. 

There are different types of backlinks. Some of them are favourable to SEO and some are detrimental to it. A dofollow backlink is a special kind of backlink that impacts SEO performance most favourably.

In this article on Fastlinky, we’ll find out the importance of dofollow backlinks and their use in SEO.

What are Dofollow Backlinks?

A dofollow backlink is a link to your site from another domain that has a “dofollow” attribute in its HTML code. 

This dofollow attribute gives search engines two major pieces of information to work on. They are–

1. The content on your site is of high quality and carries valuable information on your niche topic, and
2. Your site metis a high rank on the SERPs due to its authority and credibility in its niche area.

Importance of Dofollow Backlinks

But how do these two pieces of information favourably impact your site’s SEO performance? Let’s find out.

From Search Engines Standpoint

Search engines like Google consider providing the search intent with the most relevant and credible results in the SERPs in the shortest possible time. Period.

They care a damn if you are a Jesus Christ or a Jack the Ripper so long they find that relevant and credible content on your pages.

If a reputable and authoritative site tells them that the content on your pages is of high quality and answers the search intent in the best possible way, they will take you seriously and chances of your ranking high in the SERPs will increase significantly.

Now you understand why webmasters spend sleepless nights over those dofollow backlinks, Don’t you?

From the Linker’s standpoint

You might ask why the hell should a webmaster direct his readers to a competitor’s webpages or tell Google to rank his competitor high in the SERPs?

This is a very pertinent question that needs some explaining. 

There are two reasons for such apparently suicidal activity of that webmaster. 

A Dofollow Backlink Helps Both Parties

The first reason is, by giving you a dofollow link, he is also helping himself. 

See, like you, he is also trying to rank high in the SERP and also out to get some good dofollow backlinks. 

Like you, he also tries to improve his readers’ experience. He knows perfectly well that giving his visitors valuable, additional information will not only improve their experience but also increase their session time with his site.

Both these two factors are important for his SEO strategy. So, if your pages can give that relevant additional information and add value to his visitors’ experience, he will give your site dofollow backlinks. 

By giving you a dofollow backlink, he will earn two points to his favour: first, he will give his readers access to a wider range of reference, which will improve his standing with search engines and two, he will earn your gratefulness which, again, will get him some  good backlinks from you. 

Dofollow Backlinks are a Standard SEO Practice

There is another reason why a webmaster will give you a dofollow backlink. The Web is a give-and-take ecosystem. No one can live an isolated life here. Helping others by endorsing their good work is a standard and important practice here. 

If you do not give anyone any credence, search engines will think you are a guy who doesn’t matter, a guy who doesn’t fit in the fabric of the Internet. 

As a result, you’ll be whistling for your SERP rank and no one will pay any attention.

The guy who gives Google the dofollow signal through the backlink he gives you knows this too. So he will have to endorse your good work to thrive in this complex network of searching minds.

Types of Dofollow Backlinks

There are many types of dofollow links. Here we’ll discuss some important ones of them.

Editorial Backlinks

These backlinks come from authoritative publications like news media or educational sites that mostly operate to inform and educate. 

Backlinks from such sites to your pages are a natural extension of the objectives of those sites. They are probably the most important dofollow backlinks as search engines treat them highly in their ranking process.

Press Release Backlinks

If you go public with your new product or service and send press releases to media houses for that purpose, those releases, if posted on those sites, will have backlinks to your site as a natural dofollow link for more information for the readers.

Tutorial and Webinar Links

If your site contains tutorial or educational webinars that other webmasters find useful, they may link your site with theirs for their readers’ benefit. This type of dofollow backlinks are also important in your link building strategy.

Dofollow Links from Guest Posting

If you guest post on reputable sites, they will give you a good dofollow link in the writer’s bio section. 

Dofollow Backlinks Best Practices

Dofollow Backlinks are good for your site no doubt. But you must observe some standard practices while getting, receiving and using them. The following rules should help you in safely and optimally utilising this important SEO technique.

Look for Quality

Always use and give such links to high-value reputable sites. Links to and from worthless low-grade sites will harm your SEO performance.

Use Relevant Anchor Text

While giving a dofollow link to others, make sure the anchor text in your code is precise, relevant and to-the-point so search engines can easily evaluate them for ranking purposes.

Diversify Your Link Profile

you are always better off getting backlinks from five different sites than getting all five from one site. Diversify the sources of your dofollow backlinks for optimum SEO performance.

Conduct Link Audit

Periodically audit your backlinks to make sure they are in working condition. If a reader clicks on a link to your page and is directed to a 404 message page, may God help you!

Do Competitor Scanning

Find out which sites are giving backlinks to your competitors and reach out to them for some links to your pages too. If your assets are good, they may agree to your plea. 

Conclusion 

Building a strong link profile is vital for any SEO strategy as it enhances a site’s chances of scoring high on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Dofollow backlinks are a vital part in your link profile as search engines treat them as an endorsement of your value by industry experts.

Among the different link-building methods, having backlinks from authority sites occupies the highest position as search engines consider them as a key ranking metric.

That is why, you should always aim at getting some dofollow links to your site from other credible reputed sites of your genre.

You can get some good dofollow links by guest posting, reaching out to reputed sites and above all, packing your site with outstanding valuable and relevant content.

Frequently Asked Questions And Answers