What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow?

AndrewASmith · #1 (**permalink**) 02-08-2008, 02:15 PM

Is PR the only difference? Will Googlebot still follow and index pages with nofollow? Does google it count as a backlink?

MrCat · #2 (**permalink**) 02-08-2008, 07:48 PM

Here is a quick summary of the two:

Dofollow - allows the site to pass PR on an outgoing link, thus counting as a vote for the quality of the site in the eyes of google

Nofollow - sends signal to the bot that the link is not vouched for so no PR is passed on. Even with a link being "nofollow", the bot still recognizes the link as valid.

There are tons of resources for this on the net. I suggest you search for them if you want to know more.

EasyPPP · #3 (**permalink**) 02-08-2008, 09:13 PM

Do you suppose that the major SE's truly use 'nofollow'? I think maybe just as a guideline, but not completely. I would think a company like Google would trust their own algorithms to determine relevance, rather than trusting a webmaster that can put 'nofollow' with no consistency or discretion.

!!!jarek!!! · #4 (**permalink**) 02-08-2008, 11:31 PM

I have personally experienced that nofollow links really do help, if not with the PR, but with the rankings.

MrCat · #5 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EasyPPP

Do you suppose that the major SE's truly use 'nofollow'? I think maybe just as a guideline, but not completely. I would think a company like Google would trust their own algorithms to determine relevance, rather than trusting a webmaster that can put 'nofollow' with no consistency or discretion.

Search engines just send their bots to your site - bots that base their analysis on the content (onpage - title, description, keywords, outgoing and incoming links, etc.) you have on your pages. Such nofollow attribute is religiously weighed by these bots. SE's don't judge your site by the actual content

For a webmaster not to employ the nofollow and dofollow on their sites is just absurd! You own that site and has every right to dictate which sites to vouch for with regards to outgoing links you have on your site

Remember that each dofollow link you have on your page is considered a vote in the eyes of the SE's. Now if you own a blog, you wouldn't want someone spamming and leaving a link to a linkfarm, porn related, or banned sites would you?

So make use of them properly

webcreationuk · #6 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 10:26 AM

Hi,

Hyperlinks using the nofollow element are not crawled, indexed or passed on any PR or SEO value. Some tests have shown that GoogleBot will still sometimes follow the link, but no hard evidence from Google suggests this is true.

Pinkfly · #7 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008, 05:46 PM

No-follow - stop distribution of link juice
do-follow- opposite of it.

full house · #8 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 01:00 AM

how about external no follow?

~DaRk-EyE~ · #9 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by full house

how about external no follow?

Here is an explanation about external no follow:

“This attribute usually use for outer links from a websites. It refers that outer link is an external link, which means don’t consider it and don’t share PageRank with this link.” -Quote

temyong · #10 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 09:11 AM

While nofollow is no that important to Google it still useful to your blog to prevent spammer.

Search engine like Yahoo, MSN and other still crawl nofollow still have the possibility of driving traffic to your site.

corlock · #11 (**permalink**) 02-19-2008, 09:27 AM

dofollow sites are what spammers love...
nofollow sites are what they usually hate...

Rankenstein · #12 (**permalink**) 02-21-2008, 01:35 AM

dofollow is just for blogs - what you want is either follow or nofollow (you only use dofollow for Wordpress I think).

coolslko · #13 (**permalink**) 02-21-2008, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewASmith

Is PR the only difference? Will Googlebot still follow and index pages with nofollow? Does google it count as a backlink?

Well it is as simple as it named......"nofollow" links are the links which googlebot do not crawl as these links are supported with no forllow attributes that restrict googlebot to crawl it.

And dofollow are the links which google bot crawls frequently.......

SarahFreder · #14 (**permalink**) 02-21-2008, 09:51 PM

well said MrCat. good explanation.

Hafsoh · #15 (**permalink**) 02-21-2008, 11:54 PM

Dofollow allows the site to pass PR on an outgoing link,it count as a vote for the quality of the site in the eyes of SE, No follow is just like a command to say don't pass page rank but Google will count link on nofollow

arturobraganza · #16 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008, 10:24 PM

dofollow is used for PR building, nofollow blocks every bot that comes to the link