Differentiating Do Follow Backlinks from No Follow Backlinks
There are two major types of backlinks according to their capacity to pass on the link juice. They are the do-follow backlinks and the no-follow backlinks. Novice online marketers and new webmasters are still quite confused on the differences between the two. So to clear out the confusion once and for all, it is best to define each of these types of backlinks.
What is a No Follow Backlink?
A no-follow backlink is basically a link that does not pass on the SEO benefits of the source site to the blog where the link points to. In short, no-follow links do not have any SEO value at all, and they will not add up to the link profile that search engines use to evaluate when ranking websites. Search engine bots will crawl on this link, but they will not literally follow where it is pointed to.
What is a Do Follow Backlink?
A do-follow link, on the other hand, is a link that will pass on the SEO benefits of the website where it is built from to the hyperlinked site. This is the type of backlink that link builders will create for SEO purposes. Backlinks created at high PR sources will pass on the link juices towards the hyperlinked blog, thereby significantly improving its ranking position among the search engines.
So, when doing search engine optimization it is important to concentrate your link building activities on sources that allow you to build do-follow links. These links will remarkably enhance your link profile and improve your page rank.
Where to Build Do-Follow Backlinks
There are plenty of online places to go if you want to build do-follow backlinks for offsite optimization purposes. It is important to diversify your link sources for better results. You can build links in article directories, in web 2.0 properties, in forums, and in high PR blogs, among many others.
The point is, don’t concentrate only in article directories even if you create several backlinks in different article sites. You must also expand to other communities like forums and blogs.
One of the easiest ways to build do-follow links is the article directory. There are many of them to choose from. However, not all of them are do-follow links since some directories have set the outbound links to no-follow. So you must avoid these directories in order to conserve your efforts and time. Here is a list of do-follow sites to start with.
High PR do-follow article directories and Web 2.0 properties
- amazines.com
- articlebiz.com
- articlecirculation.com
- articlecity.com
- articleclick.com
- articlecompilation.com
- articleInsider.com
- articlepros.com
- articlerich.com
- articlesfactory.com
- articleslash.com
- articlesnatch.com
- articlesphere.com
- articlesworldonline.com
- articlesxpert.com
- articlet.com
- articletrader.com
- articlevoid.com
- articleworld.net
- basearticles.com
- brighthub.com
- buzzle.com
- easyarticles.com
- ezinearticles.com
- ezinemark.com
- gather.com
- hubpages.com
- ideamarketers.com
- isnare.com
- site-reference.com
- snipsly.com
- sooperarticles.com
- squidoo.com
- suite101.com
Aside from article directories, forums are also great places for building backlinks. Likewise, not all forums are do-follow links. Some of them are no-follow links. So to maximize your efforts, concentrate your link building in do-follow forums such as the following:
Do-Follow Forums
- bloggerforum.com
- capitaltheory.com
- dreamteammoney.com
- filesharingforum.com
- forum.cnet.com
- forum.daviontart.com
- forums.digital.com
- forums.joomla.org
- geekvillage.com
- htmlforums.com
- moneyfanclub.com
- moneymakediscussion.com
- retireat21.com
- seoforum.com
- sitepoint.com
- v7n.com/forums
- warriorforum.com
- webhostingtalk.com
Bookmarking sites are excellent sources for backlinks. This is also easier to build if you already have a post to share. Some of the social bookmarks with do-follow links are as follows:
Top Do-Follow Social Bookmarks
- blinklist.com
- blogmarks.net
- blogospherenews.com
- bookmarkplace.com
- cloudytags.com
- delicious.com
- designbump.com
- digg.com
- dzone.com
- healthbubble.com
- mysitevote.com
- newsmeback.com
- social-bookmarking.net
- stumbleupon.com
- submitevent.com
- taggersite.info
- topsocial.info
- urlslisting.info
- votesocial.info
- yomash.com
One of the best backlinks that you can build comes from your guest posts. Guest blogging is becoming popular today; it also an excellent way of expanding your blog’s visibility in the blogging world.
Some guest blogging opportunities will not give you payment for your published post. Instead, they will give you a chance to insert a link back to your personal blog. Consequently, your blog will also enjoy the link juice coming from that blog, as well as some of the monthly traffic it is enjoying. Listed below are PR 5 ‘do-follow’ blogs that offer guest blogging opportunities.
High PR Do-Follow Guest Blogs
- blog.dmbcllc.com
- communityspark.com
- elleeseymour.com
- focusorganic.com
- knrn.org
- layercake.net
- lifeinthefastlane.ca
- links.org.au
- newcritics.com/blog
- profitsfinancesite.com
- seobythesea.com
- therenegadewriter.com
- uncommonphotographers.net
Impact of no follow backlink to SEO
While no-follow links have no direct SEO value, they are helpful to some extent. They can make your link profile look natural. If all links are do-follow, then Google will suspect that your links were intentionally made for SEO purposes. Search engines want backlinks to be built naturally, and absence of no-follow links will make your link profile look unnatural, thereby creating doubts.
Aside from that, you can get direct traffic from no-follow links and improve the page views of your webpage. Higher page view is one of the signals of popularity, and this may count based on page popularity aspect. An excellent mix of do-follow and no-follow backlinks is highly recommended. This will make your site better in the eyes of the search engine bots.
In fact, this was clarified by Matt Cutts, head of the web spam team of Google, in his blog. He stated that no-follow links may not be able to pass the link juice but it is a part of the whole search engine ranking equation.
Summary
Building backlinks can be relatively tedious because you have to properly target the right places to build those links. You must also ensure that majority of the links are do-follow backlinks for SEO reasons. Building an excellent backlink profile with a mixture of do-follow and no-follow links is going to be truly rewarding once your site improved its rank and lands in the front page. By then you will enjoy overflowing traffic to your website.
