Dofollow vs nofollow: what a link's rel value tells Google

A dofollow link is a plain link. Nothing in HTML is called dofollow: the WHATWG HTML standard defines a nofollow keyword for the rel attribute and no dofollow keyword at all. SEO people use the word for a link without any value that holds back credit.

Google puts it the same way. Its documentation says that for regular links you expect Google to fetch and parse without any qualifications, you don't need to add a rel attribute. Writing rel="dofollow" changes nothing, because the values Google lists are sponsored, ugc and nofollow.

A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow". The HTML standard says the keyword means the page's author or publisher does not endorse the link, or that the link is there mainly because of a commercial relationship. Google announced it on January 18, 2005, to fight comment spam, and from then on links marked that way got no credit when it ranked sites.

When a directory sells a "dofollow listing", it promises a link without nofollow, sponsored or ugc. The checks further down show whether the live listing delivers.

Google added two values on September 10, 2019, in a Search Central blog post by Danny Sullivan and Gary Illyes. Until then nofollow covered everything: blog comments, ads and any link a site did not want to vouch for.

rel="sponsored" is for links that are part of ads, sponsorships or other compensation agreements. Google's current documentation asks sites to mark advertisements and paid placements with it, and says nofollow is still an acceptable way to flag paid links, though sponsored is preferred.

rel="ugc" is for links inside user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts. Google suggests a site may remove it for members who have made high-quality contributions over a long time.

rel="nofollow" stays the catch-all for links a site does not want to vouch for when the other two don't apply. Values can be combined, as in rel="ugc nofollow".

All three ask Google not to give the link the weight of a first-party endorsement. On a directory, sponsored usually means the placement was paid for.

As hints. Since September 10, 2019, Google has used sponsored, ugc and nofollow as hints about which links to consider or exclude for ranking, and since March 1, 2020, nofollow has also been a hint for crawling and indexing. Before 2019, Google did not count a nofollow link as a signal at all.

In practice the hint usually holds. Google's 2019 post says that in most cases the switch would not change how it treats such links, which it would generally not consider for ranking. Its documentation says they will generally not be followed, though Google can still find the linked page through a sitemap or another site.

Two rules are firm. Paid links need sponsored or nofollow: Google's spam policies say having them is not a violation as long as they are qualified that way. And nofollow also works for a whole page: a robots meta tag with nofollow tells Google not to follow any link on that page, whatever each link says.

Check the live listing, not the pricing page. Directories change their link policy, and the dofollow labels on directory lists go stale: in our study, 104 sites that were dead or broken still carried one on the lists they came from.

Most directories with a known link type give a followed link, but a large share have never been checked. Of the 1,666 directories in our dataset (sweep of October 6, 2026), 764 (45.9%) give a followed link and 297 (17.8%) a nofollow one. The other 605 (36.3%) have never had the link type confirmed, and we mark them unknown instead of guessing.

419 directories are free to join and give a followed link. Our free dofollow directories page lists them all, grouped by Domain Rating.

86 directories (5.2%) ask you to place their badge on your site. A badge request does not guarantee a followed link: some directories in our data that ask for one still mark your link nofollow, so check a live listing before you add their badge.

Link types change without notice, so the check above is worth more than any list, ours included.

For rankings, rarely. For everything else, often. Google says it generally does not count nofollow, sponsored or ugc links for ranking, so a nofollow directory is not worth a submission for the link alone. It is worth one when the listing does any of these:

Paid listings and badge swaps both touch Google's link spam policy. The policy, last updated August 28, 2026, defines link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings. Its examples include buying or selling links for ranking purposes, "excessive link exchanges" and requiring a link as part of a terms of service, contract or similar arrangement "without allowing a third-party content owner the choice of qualifying the outbound link".

Google also says paid links are fine when they carry rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". On a directory, that markup is the directory's decision, not yours, and Google's spam policies have no separate rule for paid directory listings.

A badge swap is a reciprocal link: you link to the directory, and in return its link to you is followed, or the listing is free. Google's policy does not say how many exchanges count as excessive.

Our view: pay or swap when the directory's audience and page are worth having on their own, and count a followed link as a bonus. One badge for a directory you would list on anyway is a small trade. A footer of twenty badges for directories you never visit is much closer to what the policy describes.