Let me tell you about the most annoying SEO surprise I have ever encountered. I landed a beautiful backlink from a DR 65 site in my niche. The page was relevant, the anchor text was perfect, and the link was dofollow. I checked it twice on publication day. Everything looked golden.
Six weeks later, I ran a routine audit. The link was still there. Same anchor text. Same page. But somewhere along the way, the site owner had added rel=“nofollow” to every external link on the site. My dofollow link had turned into a wallflower. Still visible, still clickable, but completely ignored by search engines.
I had no idea when it happened. I had no alert. I just got lucky that I checked manually. Most people do not check. Most people never know.
What Dofollow and Nofollow Actually Mean (And What Changed in 2019)
Here is the simple version. Dofollow links pass ranking authority from the linking page to your page. Nofollow links tell search engines not to pass that authority. By default, every link is dofollow unless someone adds the nofollow attribute.
In 2019, Google complicated things slightly. They announced that nofollow would be treated as a “hint” rather than a strict directive. This means Google might follow a nofollow link and might count it in some cases. But for practical purposes, nofollow links still do not carry the SEO weight of dofollow links.
If you are building links for rankings, you want dofollow. Full stop.
Why Nofollow Links Are Not Worthless
Before we get too negative about nofollow, let us be fair. They are not garbage.
Traffic and brand visibility. A nofollow link on a high-traffic site can still send real visitors. If the context is relevant, those visitors might convert. SEO value is not the only value.
Google’s “hint” treatment. Because Google now treats nofollow as a hint, there is a small chance some authority passes through anyway. It is not reliable, but it is not zero either.
Natural link profile diversity. A backlink profile with only dofollow links looks suspicious. Search engines expect a mix. Some nofollow links actually make your profile look more natural and less manipulative.
So nofollow links are fine. The problem is when a dofollow link becomes nofollow without your knowledge.
The Real Danger: Dofollow Links Turning Nofollow
This is the scenario that keeps me up at night.
How and why sites change link attributes. Some sites have blanket policies that shift over time. A blog might start with dofollow guest post links, then switch to nofollow after accumulating enough content. A directory might change its entire linking structure during a redesign. Sometimes it is a CMS update that applies nofollow globally by accident.
The SEO impact of losing dofollow status. If you built your link building strategy around acquiring dofollow links, and half of them turn nofollow, your authority growth stalls. You might still see referral traffic, but the ranking boost you expected never materializes.
The worst part? You will not notice unless you actively check. The link looks identical on the page.
How to Check If a Backlink Is Dofollow or Nofollow
There are three ways to verify link attributes.
Manual inspection. Right-click the link, select “Inspect,” and look at the HTML. If you see rel=“nofollow”, it is nofollow. If there is no rel attribute, it is dofollow by default. This is accurate but tedious.
Browser extensions. Extensions like NoFollow highlight nofollow links in red as you browse. They are great for quick checks but require you to visit every page manually.
Bulk backlink analysis tools. These crawl your backlinks and report which ones are dofollow vs nofollow. Much faster than manual checks, but most paid tools charge for this feature.
How to Monitor Dofollow/Nofollow Changes Over Time
One-time checks are useless for ongoing monitoring. You need to track attributes over time.
Why one-time checks fail. A link might be dofollow today and nofollow tomorrow. Checking once gives you a false sense of security. It is like taking a single photograph of a river and assuming the water never moves.
Setting up automated attribute tracking. The only reliable way to catch attribute changes is daily automated monitoring. You need a tool that records the current state of each link and alerts you when the HTML changes.
BacklinkGuard does this as part of its standard monitoring. It checks not just whether your link is present, but whether it is dofollow or nofollow, and alerts you if that status changes. You can configure it at https://backlinkguard.craften.io/ without paying anything.
What to Do When a Dofollow Link Turns Nofollow
First, do not panic. It might be reversible.
Contact the site owner and ask if the change was intentional. Sometimes it is a mistake. Sometimes they will restore dofollow status if you ask nicely, especially if you have a good relationship.
If the change was intentional and permanent, evaluate whether the link still has value. Does the page drive traffic? Is the brand visibility worth keeping? If not, you might remove it from your tracking and focus on acquiring new dofollow links elsewhere.
Update your internal records so you are not counting nofollow links in your dofollow tally. Accuracy matters when you are reporting to clients or measuring campaign ROI.
FAQ
Can nofollow links hurt my SEO? No. They simply do not pass authority. They are neutral, not negative.
How common is it for dofollow links to turn nofollow? More common than most people think. Anywhere from 5-15% of dofollow links change attributes within a year, depending on the niche.
Does Google ever ignore nofollow? Sometimes, as a “hint.” But you should not count on it. Treat nofollow as nofollow.
Should I disavow nofollow links? No. Disavowing is for toxic links. Nofollow links are harmless.