If you have just started blogging, you may not know exactly what the difference is between no follow and do follow links. In this article we explain the difference and what it can mean for you.
No follow vs. Do follow links
When you write an article and post a link to another website, this is automatically a do follow link. Google will then look at your article, but also the page you link to. This will be indexed. For Google it is important that the linked page is relevant and reliable. You also give a piece of value from your website to the linked website.
It’s also possible to post a no follow link. So you are actually telling search engines not to follow the link. This is often done with sponsored posts. This prevents negative consequences compared to your findability in Google (ranking).
When do you use a no follow link?
When you write a sponsored post, but also when you use affiliate links. The goal is branding or conversion and not findability in Google. When you use the LinkPizza plugin, your affiliate links are automatically converted into no follow links. If you write a post where you do want to place follow links, you can indicate this in the plugin. No links will be converted on this specific page.
If you don’t use the plugin, you can easily adjust this in the HTML or use a special ‘no follow’ plugin. If you want to indicate it in the HTML then you use ‘no follow’ in the code:
A natural backlink profile
Now you are probably wondering when you should use a ‘do follow’ link. Simple: when you write an article and you place relevant links in it, for example for more information.
Google likes to see a natural backlink profile, where there is a balance between no follow and do follow links. In addition, it is not only important that you place links yourself, because here you give value to the linked website. It is also important that you receive (authoritarian) ‘do follow’ links yourself, you can do this through link building.
