Dofollow Backlinks: What They Are and How to Get Them

A dofollow backlink is an ordinary link from another website to yours that carries no rel value such as nofollow, sponsored or ugc, so Google can count it as a signal when ranking your pages. "Dofollow" is not a real HTML attribute: it is simply what SEOs call a link that has not been qualified, and Google's own documentation says regular links need no rel attribute at all.

This guide is for e-commerce and Shopify teams who want links that actually move rankings, without risking a spam problem. You'll learn how dofollow links differ from nofollow, sponsored and ugc links, what Google currently says about each, how to check a link's status in under a minute, which link tactics Google treats as spam, and a step-by-step plan for earning dofollow backlinks to a store.

What is a dofollow backlink?

A backlink is a link on another site that points to a page on yours. If you are new to the concept, start with our guide to what link building is, which covers why links matter and how a link program fits into SEO. This post zooms in on one property of a backlink: whether it is followed.

Here is what a dofollow link looks like in the page's HTML:

<a href="https://yourstore.com/collections/running-shoes">running shoes</a>

And here is the same link qualified as nofollow:

<a href="https://yourstore.com/collections/running-shoes" rel="nofollow">running shoes</a>

Notice there is no rel="dofollow" in the first example. Writing rel="dofollow" does nothing, because Google does not recognize it. Google's documentation on qualifying outbound links says that for regular links you expect Google to fetch and parse without qualification, you don't need to add a rel attribute. A link is "dofollow" by default, until someone adds a value that tells Google otherwise.

Why followed links matter

Google's ranking systems guide says it has various systems that look at how pages link to each other to understand what pages are about, and that PageRank, one of its core ranking systems when Google launched, has evolved a lot and continues to be part of its core ranking systems. A followed link from a relevant, trusted page is one of the clearest ways another site can tell Google your page is worth showing. The words inside the link, the anchor text, also help Google understand what the linked page is about, which is why our guide to anchor text for SEO is worth reading alongside this one.

Dofollow vs nofollow, sponsored and ugc links

Google supports three rel values that qualify a link. Each one tells Google something different about why the link exists.

You can combine values in one attribute, such as rel="nofollow ugc". Google's outbound links documentation says multiple values can be written as a space or comma separated list.

Nofollow became a hint in 2019

When nofollow launched in 2005 to fight comment spam, Google did not count nofollowed links as a ranking signal at all. That changed on September 10, 2019, when Google announced the sponsored and ugc values and said all three attributes would be treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude. For crawling and indexing, nofollow became a hint on March 1, 2020.

In practice, little changed for most sites. In the same announcement Google said that in most cases the move to a hint model won't change how it treats such links, and that it will generally treat them as it did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes. So a nofollow link is not worthless (it can send visitors, build brand awareness and lead to followed links later), but you should not plan on it moving rankings.

Do dofollow backlinks still matter in 2026?

Yes. Google still describes link analysis and PageRank as part of its core ranking systems, and followed links from relevant sites remain one of the few ranking inputs you can't fake with on-page work. What has changed is what "a good link" means and how links fit next to AI search.

Quality and relevance beat volume

A hundred followed links from unrelated, low-quality pages can do less for you than one followed link from a respected publication in your category, and the low-quality ones can drag you toward Google's spam systems. Google says it uses spam detection systems, including SpamBrain, to deal with behavior that violates its spam policies. The goal is not "as many dofollow links as possible". It is links that a real editor would give your store because the page deserves it.

Links and AI answers

AI features like Google AI Overviews draw on the same index, so pages that rank and earn trust signals have a head start. But the data suggests brand mentions matter more than raw link counts for AI visibility. Ahrefs studied 75,000 brands and measured how strongly different factors correlated with how often a brand appeared in AI Overviews.

Branded web mentions (0.664) and branded anchors (0.527) correlated far more strongly than referring domains (0.295) or total backlinks (0.218). Two practical lessons follow. First, links whose anchor text is your brand name pull double duty: they are followed links for Google and brand mentions for AI systems. Second, an unlinked mention is still worth something, and turning it into a link is one of the easiest wins available. Our guide to unlinked brand mentions walks through that process.

How to check if a backlink is dofollow

You don't need a paid tool to check a single link. Here is the manual method, which works in any desktop browser.

1. Open the page that links to you. Find the link to your site in the content.
2. Right-click the link and choose Inspect. Your browser's developer tools open with the <a> element highlighted.
3. Read the rel attribute. If there is no rel attribute, or it contains only values like noopener or noreferrer, the link is followed. If it contains nofollow, sponsored or ugc, it is qualified.
4. Check the page-level robots rules. Search the page source for <meta name="robots". Google's robots meta tag documentation says a nofollow rule there means "do not follow the links on this page", which covers every link on the page, even links without a rel value. The same rule can also be sent in an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, which you can see in the Network tab.
5. Confirm the page can be indexed. A followed link on a page that is set to noindex, blocked by robots.txt or never indexed is unlikely to help much. Search Google for the exact URL, or check whether it appears in results at all.
6. Check that the link is crawlable. Google's link best practices say it can generally only crawl links that are <a> elements with an href attribute. Links that only work through JavaScript click events may not be followed at all.

To check many links at once, export your links from a backlink tool, or use the Links report in Google Search Console to see which sites link to you most and which pages they point to. Then spot-check the ones that matter. Our free anchor text analyzer helps you see the anchor text pattern across your links, which is the next thing to review once you know which links are followed.

Common reasons a link you expected to be followed isn't

Which dofollow links Google treats as spam

This is where most "how to get dofollow backlinks" advice goes wrong. Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site mainly to manipulate search rankings. A followed link that exists because you paid for it, traded for it or manufactured it is exactly what the policy targets. Google's listed examples include:

• Buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including exchanging money, goods or services for links, or sending someone a product in exchange for a write-up that includes a link.
• Excessive link exchanges ("link to me and I'll link to you") and partner pages built only for cross-linking.
• Using automated programs or services to create links to your site.
• Advertorials or native ads where payment is received for articles with links that pass ranking credit, and links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites.
• Low-quality directory or bookmark links, keyword-rich links in widgets, and links spread across the footers or templates of many sites.
• Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature.

Google is explicit that buying and selling links for advertising and sponsorship is a normal part of the web, and that such links are fine as long as they carry rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". In other words, you can pay for exposure. You just can't pay for a followed link.

The old version of this article mentioned paid link services and even hacking sites to inject links. Hacking is illegal, full stop, and paid followed links violate Google's policy. Neither belongs in a plan for a brand you want to keep.

How to earn dofollow backlinks for an online store

The links worth having are editorial: someone decided your page was worth citing. For e-commerce brands, these are the tactics that most reliably produce followed links, because each one gives an editor a reason to link that has nothing to do with your rankings.

Publish data people want to cite

Original numbers are the easiest thing in the world to link to. A survey of your customers, a price index for your category, a "state of" report built from anonymized sales data or a study you run with a partner all give journalists and bloggers something they can't get elsewhere. When they cite the number, the link usually comes with it.

Earn press coverage, not press release links

A reporter who writes about your launch in their own words, on their own site, usually links because it serves their readers. That is very different from a link inside a press release you distributed, which Google's policy covers. Our guide to PR and SEO explains how to run campaigns built for coverage, and our post on press releases for SEO covers where releases still fit.

Claim the links you already deserve

• Manufacturers, brands you stock and suppliers. Many keep "where to buy" or stockist pages. If you sell their products, ask to be listed.
• Unlinked mentions. Find articles that name your brand or products without linking, and politely ask the author to add a link.
• Broken links. Find pages in your niche that link to a product, guide or resource that no longer exists, and offer your equivalent page.
• Collaborations. Co-branded collections, charity partnerships, sponsorships of events and community groups. Remember that if you paid, the link should be sponsored.

Build linkable pages on your own site

Product pages rarely earn links on their own. Buying guides, size and fit tools, care guides, comparison pages and glossaries do, and they can pass value to your collections and products through internal links. Our internal link checker shows how well your linkable pages connect to the pages that make money.

A step-by-step dofollow link plan

Use this as a 90-day plan. It assumes you are starting from a typical store with some existing links and no active program.

1. Audit what you have. Export your backlinks, note which are followed, and flag anything that looks paid, automated or irrelevant. Note the anchor text pattern too.
2. Pick the pages that need links. Usually your top collection pages and one or two linkable assets. Links to the home page help, but collections are where most stores make their non-branded revenue.
3. Look at who links to your competitors. Sites that link to two or three competitors but not to you are your warmest prospects, because they already cover your category.
4. Create or improve one linkable asset. A guide, tool or data piece that answers a question your category's writers keep covering.
5. Harvest the easy wins. Stockist pages, supplier pages and unlinked mentions, in that order.
6. Pitch with relevance. Send short, personal emails to writers who cover your topic. Offer the asset, a data point or an expert, never a payment for a link.
7. Keep anchors natural. Don't ask for exact-match keyword anchors. Brand name, product name and plain URLs are what editors write naturally.
8. Measure monthly. Track new referring domains, followed versus qualified links, rankings for your target collection pages and the organic revenue those pages produce.

How many dofollow links do you need?

There is no magic number and no "ideal" ratio of dofollow to nofollow links. Google has never published one, and any figure you see quoted is a third-party guess. What matters is the comparison with the pages you are trying to outrank: look at how many relevant sites link to the top three results for your target query, and how relevant and trusted those sites are.

A healthy link profile for a real brand will include plenty of nofollow, sponsored and ugc links, because that is what happens naturally when you get mentioned on social platforms, forums, news sites with strict policies and partner pages. A profile that is almost entirely followed links with keyword-rich anchors is the pattern that looks manufactured. Chase relevance and earned coverage, and the followed links will take care of themselves.

How long until a new link helps?

Google has to crawl the linking page before it can see the link, and there is no published timeline for when a link starts to affect rankings. Links on frequently updated, well-linked pages tend to be found faster. Track rankings and organic revenue for the target page over months, not days, and don't judge a link program on a single link.

Where to start this week

Check your five most important backlinks with the inspect method above, so you know what you really have. Then list three sites that link to your competitors but not to you, and one asset on your site that would deserve a link from them. That is a real link plan, and it beats buying a package of "dofollow links" every time.

If you want a second pair of eyes, our e-commerce SEO team can benchmark your link profile against your top competitors on Google and in AI answers. Get in touch and we'll show you where you stand.