How to Find Dofollow Backlinks

A dofollow backlink is simply a link that does not carry a rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" attribute. Search engines treat it as a standard endorsement, passing link equity to the linked page. Finding dofollow backlinks means identifying which links in your own profile or a competitor's profile carry no restrictive attribute. The most reliable way is to use a [Backlink Checker](/backlink-checker/) such as Ahrefs or SE Ranking. These tools let you filter reports to show only dofollow links. For example, when I ran a competitor audit for a client in the pet insurance niche, I found 73 dofollow referring domains out of 120 total. That told me the competitor had a healthy ratio, and I could focus outreach on those same sources. Manual inspection via browser DevTools is also useful for spot-checking. Right-click a link, choose Inspect, and look at the anchor tag's rel attribute. If it is absent or set to something like "noopener noreferrer" (which are not SEO rel values), the link is effectively dofollow. I use both methods: automation for scale, manual check for the top ten targets. The key point: dofollow status alone is not a quality signal. A dofollow link from a spammy directory is worthless. Focus on finding dofollow links from relevant, authoritative sites. That means filtering not just by attribute but by [Domain Authority](/domain-authority/) and topical match.

Prioritising dofollow links makes sense in three scenarios. First, when you are building a new site from scratch. Without an existing [Backlink Profile](/backlink-profile/), every passing equity signal helps establish initial authority. I once launched a niche review site and deliberately sought dofollow links from ten relevant blogs. That site reached page one for a medium-competition term in four months. Second, when you are competing in a crowded niche where competitors already have strong profiles. In that case, a nofollow link does little to close the gap. You need dofollow links from sites that also link to competitors. Third, when you are doing an SEO audit for a site that lost rankings. A sudden drop in dofollow links often correlates with ranking declines. I check the backlink profile over the last six months and flag any dofollow links that disappeared. That gives a clear list for reclamation outreach. However, there is a counter-argument: obsessing over dofollow can make you miss valuable nofollow links. A nofollow link from a major industry publication can drive referral traffic, brand searches, and even indirect ranking benefits. I have changed my view on this. Now I do not filter out nofollow links entirely during prospecting. I judge each opportunity on relevance and audience fit, then decide if a dofollow link is worth the extra effort to negotiate. Decision rule: if the site has real editorial traffic and the link is contextual, take the nofollow version if dofollow is not available. The value from the association often outweighs the missing equity.

For my first two years in SEO, I thought any dofollow link was a good link. I scraped low-quality directory sites, forum profiles, and blog comment sections. I used automated tools to blast links and believed the sheer number would move rankings. It did not. In fact, I saw a penalty on one client site after we used a private blog network that passed dofollow equity. That forced me to reconsider. Second, I ignored relevance entirely. I earned a dofollow link from a tech blog for a gardening website. The link was dofollow but the topic mismatch meant Google likely ignored it. The referral traffic was zero. I now check the referring page's content and category before pursuing any link. Third, I assumed that all [Guest Posting](/guest-posting/) placements are dofollow. Many publishers now set guest contributions to nofollow or sponsored by default. I lost a lot of time pitching sites only to discover they do not pass equity on guest articles. I now ask upfront or check a published guest post on the same site before writing. Finally, I used to think that nofollow links were a waste of time. That was wrong too. I have seen cases where a series of high-quality nofollow links from news sites correlated with ranking improvements, likely because they triggered brand searches and secondary dofollow links. My current approach: I start every [SEO Outreach](/seo-outreach/) campaign by targeting editorial links — whether dofollow or nofollow — from relevant, high-authority sites. I only filter for dofollow when I need a specific equity boost for a competitive page. That shift came from running split tests on my own site. One page got ten dofollow links from niche blogs; another got five dofollow plus five nofollow from larger media sites. The second page outperformed. The lesson: dofollow is a lever, not the goal.