How to Tell if a Backlink is Dofollow or Nofollow
When I first started getting into internet marketing, SEO and building backlinks, I had no idea if a link was dofollow or nofollow. I really didn’t know the difference between either one and just assumed every back-link was helping my site out.
I later learned that a Dofollow link means it allows the search engine spiders to follow the link and pass on some of it’s page rank (PR) to the following site. While a Nofollow link tells the search engine spider to not follow it and passes no pagerank to the following site.
If you are trying to build backlinks for your sites and blogs, then you want to be looking for dofollow links. But if you don’t want to pass on any page rank, link love or have the spiders follow a link to other sites, then make your outgoing links nofollow.
So how can you tell the difference?
I installed a handy Firefox Add-on about a year ago and I use it everyday. It allows me to instantly see the page rank, Alexa and Compete stats and much more. Plus it will highlight Nofollow links for you, very handy. You will be able to instantly see the stats and information on any website you are viewing.
Another toolbar I use and have it placed right next to the Firefox add-on is the Alexa toolbar. That way I can see a websites Alexa rating instantly and find out more information about a site with just a few clicks. Not only that, installing the Alexa toolbar yourself on your own computer will also help lower your Alexa rating for your own sites and blogs.
Both the Firefox Add-on and Alexa toolbar are FREE to download and install. Plus you can pretty much position them wherever you want them to be on your screen. I have mine right next to each other on the bottom right of my screen.
If you aren’t using these very helpful add-ons or toolbars already, you might want to give them a try. They save me a lot of time and let me see the stats and information on any site almost instantly.
Wanna get your Competitor’s Backlinks?
Did you know one of the best methods of getting back-links to your site is by spying on your competitors backlinks? To get on the front page of the serp’s, let’s say for Google, you will need relevant, quality backlinks, from trusted sites. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to enter your keywords into Google, and look to see what sites are on the front page for the keywords in your niche. Now you need to use a SEO tool so you can see exactly where they got their back-links from.
This method of spying on your competitor’s links is used by many of the Pro SEO’s and saves you time from having to search the internet for quality back-links from relevant sites. There are several SEO tools that will do this for you such as SEO Elite, but will cost you an arm and a leg. That’s why I did some research and found some of the best FREE SEO tools that will get the job done. No diss to SEO Elite, Brad’s software works and has a few other features that the FREE SEO tools may not have.
Backlink Checker – 5 FREE SEO Tools to find your Competitors backlinks and More
1. SEO for Firefox – this is a total package of $300 worth of valuable SEO tools for FREE. It includes everything to Firefox extensions, to the latest SEO tools and a SEO mini course with the latest tactics. You do have to sign-up for the FREE tools, but it’s definitely worth a minute of your time.
2. Backlink Watch – this is a decent tool but a little slow on loading, hey it’s FREE. It shows links, some anchor text, some page rank and dofollow or nofollow attributes.
3. iwebtool – is one of the fastest FREE seo tools I’ve used. It’s pretty basic, but I like the speed and it shows pagerank for some of your backlinks.
4. Url dogg – nice little site. Shows you backlinks and other information for any domain.
5. Yahoo site explorer search – it’s a FREE tool that Yahoo offers, you can just enter the url’s into the “explore url” search bar. It doesn’t show all of the backlinks but shows results in pretty good detail and speed.
Just a reminder, you want to get dofollow backlinks. Many of the back links you see when using some of the SEO tools above will be nofollow links, meaning you won’t get any PR juice for them.
Being able to see where your competitors are getting their backlinks helps incredibly and if you put in the work, you should be able to start seeing the results within a month or more. You may not be able to see every source they are using, or obtain a backlink from every site, but adding this method with your regular SEO routine will help you get on the front page of the serp’s for even very competitive keywords.
