Ask any buyer what they want and the answer is usually “dofollow links”. Ask them why and the answer is usually silence. Here’s the plain truth: a no-follow link on the right page beats a do-follow link on junk, every single time.
The attribute matters. It’s just not the whole story.
The four attributes in plain words
Every link carries an instruction for Google, set with the rel attribute:
Do-follow (the default). A normal link with no rel attribute. It passes ranking credit to the linked page. When people say “dofollow”, they mean this — an ordinary link, doing its ordinary job.
No-follow (rel=”nofollow”). This tells Google not to pass ranking credit. It was created for untrusted content like blog comments, but today it’s used far more widely — many big publications nofollow all their outbound links by policy.
Sponsored (rel=”sponsored”). For paid links and advertisements. If money changed hands for a link, this is the attribute Google wants on it. Paid articles carrying dofollow links that pass ranking credit count as link spam under Google’s rules.
UGC (rel=”ugc”). For user-generated content — forum posts, comments, community pages. It marks links the site owner didn’t editorially place.
That’s the whole system. No mystery, no secret fifth attribute.
Why no-follow links still matter
Three reasons, and the first two have nothing to do with Google.
Traffic. A nofollow link on a page real people read sends real visitors. Those visitors convert, sign up, and buy — whether or not ranking credit passed. A link that sends ten customers a month is worth more than a dofollow link on a page nobody visits.
Brand visibility. Being linked from publications your buyers trust builds the brand itself. People remember names they see in credible places, and branded searches are a trust signal Google does notice.
A natural profile. Here’s the one most buyers miss: a site with 100% dofollow links looks bought. Real sites earn a mix — editorial dofollow links, nofollow links from big publications, mentions, social links. A profile that’s all dofollow is a footprint, not a flex.
The junk-page test
Before you pay for a “dofollow” link, run this test on the page itself:
- Does the page rank for anything, or get any traffic?
- Would a human actually read it?
- Would you want the link if Google didn’t exist?
If the answer to all three is no, the attribute doesn’t save it. A dofollow link from a dead blog with no readers is worth less than a nofollow link from a publication your customers actually open. We reject placements on exactly this basis all the time — the attribute was right, the page was wrong. If you want the full checklist we run before accepting any placement, our backlink quality checklist covers it step by step.
What a healthy profile looks like
Forget chasing a magic ratio. Healthy looks like this: mostly editorial links from relevant pages, a natural mix of dofollow and nofollow, brand and natural anchors doing most of the work, exact-match anchors kept rare, and every linking page passing the junk-page test above.
That profile survives algorithm updates because it looks like what it is — a site real people link to for real reasons.
So the next time someone sells you “50 dofollow links”, ask the only question that matters: from which pages? The attribute is the least interesting thing about a link. The page is everything.
What’s your take — have you ever paid for a dofollow link that turned out to be worthless? Or earned a nofollow that sent real business? We read every comment.
About the author: Junaid Ashraf is the Founder & CEO of JD SEO Agency. He has published 50+ guest articles for a US agency’s orders and runs manual outreach campaigns every week for SaaS, iGaming, and eCommerce brands.